澳大利亚一名官员12月22日宣布说，考古学家在澳大利亚一个偏远的地区发现了数百个人类脚印，而这些脚印的历史可以追溯到冰河时期。

    据美联社12月22日报道，总共 457个人类脚印是在澳大利亚新南威尔士州西部的芒戈国家公园被发现的。该脚印群是世界范围内所有类似遗迹中规模最大的一个，同时也是在澳大利亚发现的最为久远的人类脚印群。

    报道说，这些脚印是大约1.9万年至2.3万前的远古人类在威兰德拉湖区（Willandra Lakes）附近的湿粘土上留下来的。对此，新南威尔士州的环境部长鲍勃·迪巴斯表示，这一人类足迹遗址向人们展示出当时在那里生活着相互走动且互相作用的一大群人。他说：“我们看到孩子们在他们父母之间穿行跑动；孩子们的足迹显示出当时他们在绕着圈地追逐嬉戏，而其父母则是朝一个方向径直行走。”他还补充说，这是反映2万年前居住在这一地区的土著居民某些生活片段的最为特别的真实快照。

    报道说，该地区的首个古人类脚印是由当地一名土著妇女在2年前发现的。后来，由澳大利亚邦德大学的考古学家史蒂夫·韦博领导的一个研究小组先后又发现了450余个人类脚印。

    有关此次发现的详细报告将发表在最新一期的《人类进化杂志》上。

    Hundreds of human footprints dating back to the last Ice Age have been found in the remote Australian Outback, an official and media reported Thursday.

    The 457 footprints found in Mungo National Park in western New South Wales state is the largest collection of its kind in the world and the oldest in Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.

    The prints were made in moist clay near the Willandra Lakes 19,000 to 23,000 years ago, the newspaper reported ahead of archeologists' report on the find to be published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

    State Environment Minister Bob Debus said the site showed a large group of people walking and interacting.

    "We see children running between the tracks of their parents; the children running in meandering circles as their parents travel in direct lines," Debus told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

    "It's a most extraordinary snapshot of a moment or several moments in the life of Aboriginal people living on the edge of the lake in western New South Wales 20,000 years ago," he added.

    The first print was reported by a local Aboriginal woman two years ago and a team of archaeologists led by Bond University archaeologist Steve Webb uncovered more than 450, the newspaper said.

    Webb was not immediately available for comment.