Myths of Archaeology



The fossil record

Human bones, foot and handprints have been found in rock and coal deposits which geologists have dated as millions of years old. Viewed in isolation, these anomalies in the fossil record can be dismissed as artefacts that merely look human. So many have now been discovered, however, that they seriously call into question such an approach.

A fossilized handprint in rock was found near Glen Rose Texas.


The photograph below was taken in northern Washington State and was reportedly found with another partial imprint. It appears to be the shoeprint of a large individual. It has been argued by palaeontologists that the fossil merely looks like a footprint, but the list of similar fossils is extensive.


In 1833 the American Journal of Science reported human foot impressions running for about 3 miles along an outcrop of limestone on the west bank of the Mississippi, just south of St. Louis. An eminent geologist of the time stated they were convincing evidence that man existed at the epoch of the deposition of that limestone.

Fossilized human tracks were discovered in 1884 in a rock quarry near Managua, Nicaragua, geologically dated as being over 200,000 old.

In 1885 the American Antiquarian reported a find east of the town of Berea, Kentucky. Imprinted in rock were the fossilized impressions of several creatures, including two well-preserved human foot prints. They were described as "good-sized, toes well spread, and very distinctly marked."


A publication called the American Anthropologist reported in 1896 that the Ohio State Academy of Science had exhibited a large stone containing a human foot print. In 1897, the Los Angeles Herald revealed that a fossil shoe impression had been discovered in solid rock. The imprint was that of a shoe with a high narrow heel and a broad flat sole. Sandal or moccasin prints have also been observed in the gypsum of the White Sands in New Mexico.

In Fisher Canyon, Nevada, in 1927, a shoe print was found. It was in a layer of Triassic limestone dated at 225 million years old. The rock was later examined at the Rockefeller Foundation, and confirmed to indeed be a shoe heel. High resolution photographs revealed that the leather had a double row of stitches with the twists of the threads discernable.

In 1930, geologists discovered a total of twelve 9.5 inch human tracks and portions of others. They had been imprinted into sandstone.

A fossilized shoe impression was discovered in 1948 near Lake Windermere, in northern England. The find was recorded in the natural history journal 'The Field'. Around the edge of the heel and on the sole were faint decorations of linear and flower-like designs.

In 1959 in the Gobi Desert a fossilized print of a shoe with a ribbed sole was found, in sandstone dated at 15 million years of age.

Fossil tracks of now extinct creatures and many human tracks were found in 1969 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The sandstone strata in which they were discovered were dated at between 3 and 5 million years old.

Very clear human-like tracks were discovered in 1973. The impressions were in the same layer of rock as tracks of the Anatosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur. If the tracks are accepted as human, they would place man back in the time of the Cretaceous period.

In 1975 Dr Stanley Rhine of the University of New Mexico announced the discovery of footprints that appeared human in strata estimated to be 40 million years old. Similar discoveries were made in Kenton, Oklahoma and in Wisconsin.

Human bones

A fossilized human skull was found in coal that was sold in Germany in the mid 1800s.

In 1867 at the Rocky Point Mine, in Gilman, Colorado, at a depth of 400 feet, miners found human bones embedded in a silver vein and a well-tempered copper arrowhead. The vein was dated at 135 million years old.

Prospectors digging near Eureka, Nevada in 1877 found a human leg bone and kneecap sticking out of solid rock. Doctors examined the remains and determined they were from a very modern-looking human being. The rock in which the bones were found was dated geologically to the Jurassic Period.

In 1958 in Tuscany, Italy a human jawbone was found at a depth of 600 feet in a coal mine, encased in a Miocene stratum, geologically dated as being 20 million years old.

Two human skeletons were found in 1973, southwest of Moab, Utah, in strata over 100 million years in age.