Acahualinca, Nicaragua, a scientifically significant site of ancient human footprints in the New World

Abstract

Abstract Ancient human footprints have been known from Managua, Nicaragua, since the 1880s. The main footprint site, long preserved in the Acahualinca Tracks Museum ( Huellas de Acahualinca ), reveals hundreds of human footprints that represent a minimum of 12 clearly defined trackways and a trampled trail or path. Deer, opossum and bird tracks are also present at Acahualinca, and bison and tapir tracks have been documented from the nearby and stratigraphically equivalent El Recreo site. The age of the Acahualinca footprints is controversial, but the best current estimate is about 2–2.2 ka BP. The Acahualinca site is one of the most scientifically important human footprint sites known from the Holocene. It exhibits footprints that are very abundant, well-preserved, accessible for study and part of a large sample that demonstrates variation within a single population. The Acahualinca site has historical, cultural and archaeological importance in preserving at least two intervals of human occupation, that of the footprints and of the ceramics in much younger layers. Its significance to anthropology and palaeontology as a sub-fossil footprint locality is clear and the volcanological history of the area is intimately related to determining the age and the circumstances of footprint registration at Acahualinca. The Acahualinca footprints merit geoheritage status.