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Some footprints in the mud, discovered by archaeologists in Tucson, Arizona, are believed to have been left by Native American farmers, children and their dog about 2,500 years ago, says the Daily Mail.

A thick blanket of mud covers the footprints. A flash flood had covered the area in sediment and led to the creation of a hard crust.

The prints give some interesting insights into their lives. They are situated on a site being developed into a new highway. It helps us to look into their everyday routine. Hence, the tracks show the adult farmers walking across the fields even as their children were milling nearby. Their dog seems to be following them. In another site, the footprints show one of the parents bending over and picking up a child before putting it down again after a while.

The prints date back to between 500 and 800 B.C., and mark the oldest known evidence of people from that time in the difficult and inhospitable environment of the American Southwest, according to ABC15 Arizona  reported.

"I've been working in archaeology for 30 years, and I have to admit I'm pretty jaded, but this exposure brought me to tears," said Doug Gann, a preservation archaeologist who employs advanced 3D scanning to record the prints before they can be cleared to make the highway. "I've never seen or experienced a more direct connection to the lives of ancient peoples. What is really important here is that this is not just footprints, it is the totality of the context that the footprints are sunk into."

"Some 400 square meters (4,300 square feet) have been exposed so far, showing the footprints of men, women, children and dogs going about their daily lives," he added.

Before the construction of the highway, there will be archaeological, environmental and historical analyses, according to KTAR News.