A new study suggests that the earliest known North Americans used wooden “vehicles” to transport goods and possibly people over 20,000 years ago. Researchers discovered sled-like drag marks alongside ancient footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, potentially the oldest human footprint site in North America. Indigenous groups suggested that the marks were left by travois, wooden frames used to transport possessions. Children and older women were also known to ride in them. Researchers experimented with their own travois to recreate the drag marks found at the site. The findings challenge previous assumptions about when humans arrived in North America, with the footprints dated to around 21,000 to 23,000 years ago.
The study, published in the journal Quaternary Science Advances, sheds light on ancient Indigenous practices and how prehistoric people moved heavy loads before the invention of wheels. Every discovery made at White Sands adds to our understanding of the lives of the first people to settle in the Americas, according to the researchers.
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