World’s Oldest Known Handcarts Found in New Mexico, New Study Claims

A new study claims to have found the oldest handcarts ever. A research team claims to have found drag marks made by wooden poles while excavating for fossil footprints in White Sands, New Mexico, which would be evidence of a handcart being used. The study says the marks can appear as one single trace or as two parallel equidistant traces.

A pole or poles used in this way are called a travois. The study indicates that the drag marks extend for several meters before disappearing beneath overlying sediment. The marks also have barefoot human tracks along their length, which, according to the researchers, suggest that the user dragged the travois as they went along.

The research team conducted their own tests on mudflats in Dorset, UK, and on the coast of Maine, United States to interpret the findings. In their experiments, the pole ends of the handcart were dragged along the mud to truncate footprints in the same manner as observed in the fossils found in New Mexico.

The Indigenous people of White Sands, New Mexico also think the fossil prints belong to handcarts

The research team behind the study worked closely with the indigenous peoples of White Sands to widen their understanding of the prints. The local tribes also interpreted the fossil prints as evidence of ancient handcarts.

One hypothesisthe team currently proposes is that the footprints and drag marks “Tell a story of the movement of resources at the edge of this former wetland.”

Adults reportedly pulled the simple handcart while groups of children tagged along to the side and behind the main trail. These types of handcarts are most commonly associated with dogs or horses; however, humans pulled them in the tests the research team conductted.

Dating methods for fossils found in the area have been controversial

The research team behind the study has stated that the dating of fossils in the area has stirred controversy within the archaeological community, as it is rewriting early American history. This is because the dating of footprints found in the area at 23,000 years old would push back the arrival of the first ancient peoples to New Mexico by 8,000 years.

Despite this controversy, the handcart marks found in New Mexico would be the oldest example of a known travois in the world without a wheel.

The earliest records of wheeled handcarts date back to Mesopotamia, in 2,500 B.C. The researchers have also speculated that the travois were improvised from used tent poles, wood, and spears when there was a need to move.

Another possibility is that they were used to transport meat from hunting sites.