Greek Islands Were Inhabited 170,000 Years Ago

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The problem that I have with sea borne speculations before 12,000 yearsor so ago is that they inevitably fail to make adjustment for the hugely lowersea level that fluxuated up to three hundred feet lower than today.

 

This readily reduces the separation between South East Asia and the Australasian plate to a few short miles easilyseen from each other.  A dug out canoe,or better yet, a skin boat would be easily able to venture the transit.  The rest is a matter of walking and similarlyresolved river crossings.

 

The Greek islands, including Crete areall on the continental shelf and all would have been accessed as easily.  All this is no proof of seamanshipwhatsoever.  Cyprus evidence is all post 11,000years ago and that is the one that needs to roll the times back to make a statement.

 

The interesting feat was the Arctic crossing 20,000 years ago into the Americason both coasts.

 

Also do not underestimate the actual utility of the humble canoe reliedon universally.  Large trees allowedlarge canoes if they were called for.  Wehad them on the Northwest Coast up to one hundredyears ago as part of a true Stone Age culture. Otherwise, it was no trick for someone well experienced to head out on agood day and run with the wind in a small canoe and be a hundred miles away bynight fall.  If a land fall is visible,then one has a place to lie up until the wind reverses.

 

It is reasonable to expect that the first true canoes coexisted with theuse of the needle to make clothing and the invention of a chopping axe ofsorts.  This all happened a very longtime ago regardless of whatever evidence we have found to date.

 

Greekislands were inhabited 170,000 years ago

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2012/11/greek-islands-were-inhabited-170000.html
Neanderthalsand other extinct human lineages might have been ancient mariners, venturing tothe Mediterranean islands thousands of yearsearlier than previously thought.


### Neanderthals orother extinct human lineages may have sailed to the Mediterranean Islandslong before previously thought. Here, an excavation at Akrotiri Aetokremnos, asite in Cyprusdating back to about 10,000 B.C., where pygmy hippo fossils were found [Credit:Alan Simmons]

Thisprehistoric seafaring could shed light on the mental capabilities of these lostrelatives of modern humans, researchers say.

Scientists had thought the Mediterranean islandswere first settled about 9,000 years ago by Neolithic or New Stone Age farmersand shepherds.

"On a lot of Mediterranean islands, you havethese amazing remains from classical antiquity to study, so for many yearspeople didn't even look for older sites," said archaeologist Alan Simmonsat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

However, in the last 20 years or so, someevidence has surfaced for a human presence on these islands dating backimmediately before the Neolithic.

"There's still a lot to find in archaeology— you have to keep pushing the envelope in terms of conventional wisdom,"Simmons said.

Neanderthalsailors?

For instance, obsidian from the Aegean island of Meloswas uncovered at the mainland Greek coastal site of Franchthi cave in layersthat were about 11,000 years old, while excavations on the southern coast of Cyprus revealedstone artifacts about 12,000 years old.

"We found evidence that human hunters mayhave helped drive pygmy hippos to extinction on Cyprus about 12,000 yearsago," Simmons said. "This suggests that seafarers didn't need to havealready domesticated plants and animals to go to these islands, which is apretty complex set of tricks — they could have been hunter-gatherers."

Recently, research has hinted that seafarers mayhave made their way out to the Mediterranean islands even earlier, long beforethe Neolithic, and not only to isles close to the mainland, but to more distantones as well, such as Crete.


###A pygmy hipposkull found at Akrotiri Aetokremnos, a site in Cyprus dating back to about10,000 B.C. Evidence suggests human hunters may have driven the animals toextinction on Cyprus [Credit: Alan Simmons]
Forinstance, stone artifacts on the southern Ionian Islandshint at human sites there as early as 110,000 years ago.

Investigators have also recovered quartzhand-axes, three-sided picks and stone cleavers from Cretethat may date back about 170,000 years ago. The distance of Creteabout 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the mainland would have made such a seavoyage no small feat.

The exceedingly old age of these artifactssuggests the seafarers who made them might not even been modern humans, whooriginated between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Instead, they might have beenNeanderthals or perhaps even Homo erectus.

"The whole idea of seafaring makes theseextinct groups seem more human — they were going out to sea to explore placesthat were uninhabited," Simmons told LiveScience.

Datingartifacts

The problem with these ancient finds isdetermining their exact age. "They're well beyond the range of radiocarbondating," Simmons said. Although researchers can also deduce the ages ofartifacts based on the ages of surrounding materials, these artifacts weren'tfound in reliable contexts that could indisputably attest to their age, headded. 

Although the idea that extinct human lineagespossessed such advanced mental capabilities might be controversial, ancientseafaring has been seen elsewhere in the world. For instance, Australia was colonized at least 50,000 yearsago, while fossils in Indonesiasuggest that an extinct lineage of humans was seafaring as long ago as 1.1million years.

"If the ancient finds in the Mediterranean can be verified, they will show that Homoerectus or Neanderthals or both had the skills and cognitive ability to buildboats and navigate them," Simmons said.