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Ancient Mariners: Did Neanderthals Sail the Mediterranean?


Neanderthals or other extinct human lineages may have sailed to the Mediterranean Islands long before previously thought. Here, an excavation at Akrotiri Aetokremnos, a site in Cyprus dating back to about 10,000 B.C. where pygmy hippo fossils were found.
CREDIT: Alan Simmons.

Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 15 November 2012 Time: 02:13 PM ET

Neanderthals and other extinct human lineages might have been ancient mariners, venturing to the Mediterranean islands thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

This prehistoric seafaring could shed light on the mental capabilities of these lost relatives of modern humans [ http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2529-humans-prevail-neanderthals.html ], researchers say.

Scientists had thought the Mediterranean islands were first settled about 9,000 years ago by Neolithic or New Stone Age farmers and shepherds.

"On a lot of Mediterranean islands [ http://www.livescience.com/20178-dwarf-mammoth-fossils-smallest.html ], you have these amazing remains from classical antiquity to study, so for many years people didn't even look for older sites," said archaeologist Alan Simmons at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

However, in the last 20 years or so, some evidence has surfaced for a human presence on these islands dating back immediately before the Neolithic. [Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor [ http://www.livescience.com/15953-image-gallery-closest-human-ancestor.html ]]

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

Neanderthal sailors?

For instance, obsidian from the Aegean island of Melos was uncovered at the mainland Greek coastal site of Franchthi cave in layers that were about 11,000 years old, while excavations on the southern coast of Cyprus revealed stone artifacts about 12,000 years old.

"We found evidence that human hunters may have helped drive pygmy hippos [ http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/2627-edinburgh-zoo-pygmy-hippo-images.html ] to extinction on Cyprus about 12,000 years ago," Simmons said. "This suggests that seafarers didn't need to have already domesticated plants and animals to go to these islands, which is a pretty complex set of tricks — they could have been hunter-gatherers."


A pygmy hippo skull found at Akrotiri Aetokremnos, a site in Cyprus dating back to about 10,000 B.C. Evidence suggests human hunters may have driven the animals to extinction on Cyprus.
CREDIT: Alan Simmons.

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

For instance, stone artifacts on the southern Ionian Islands hint at human sites there as early as 110,000 years ago. Investigators have also recovered quartz hand-axs, three-sided picks and stone cleavers from Crete that may date back about 170,000 years ago. The distance of Crete about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the mainland would have made such a sea voyage no small feat.

The exceedingly old age of these artifacts suggests the seafarers who made them might not even been modern humans, who originated between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Instead, they might have been Neanderthals [ http://www.livescience.com/7944-mysteries-neanderthals.html ] or perhaps even Homo erectus [ http://www.livescience.com/15688-man-cooking-homo-erectus.html ].

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

Dating artifacts

The problem with these ancient finds is determining their exact age. "They're well beyond the range of radiocarbon dating," Simmons said. Although researchers can also deduce the ages of artifacts based on the ages of surrounding materials, these artifacts weren't found in reliable contexts that could indisputably attest to their age, he added.

Although the idea that extinct human lineages [ http://www.livescience.com/15911-humans-interbred-extinct-relatives.html ] possessed such advanced mental capabilities might be controversial, ancient seafaring has been seen elsewhere in the world. For instance, Australia was colonized at least 50,000 years ago, while fossils in Indonesia suggest that an extinct lineage of humans was seafaring as long ago as 1.1 million years.

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

Simmons detailed this research in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Science.

Copyright © 2012 TechMediaNetwork.com

http://www.livescience.com/24810-neanderthals-sailed-mediterranean.html [with comments]


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Anthropologist suggests Mediterranean islands inhabited much earlier than thought


NASA photograph of Crete.
Credit: NASA

November 16, 2012 by Bob Yirka

(Phys.org)—Anthropologist Alan Simmons of the University of Nevada has published a perspective piece in the journal Science suggesting that the Mediterranean islands were inhabited far earlier than has been thought. Rather than the first inhabitation of such islands as Cyprus and Crete occurring roughly 9,000 years ago, he suggests it might have been as many as 170,000.

Modern science has held that islands such as Cyprus and Crete were first inhabited by seafaring humans approximately 9,000 years ago by agriculturists from the late Neolithic period [ http://phys.org/tags/neolithic+period/ ]. Simmons writes that research over the past 20 years has cast doubt on that assumption however and suggests that it might be time to rewrite the history books. He cites evidence such as pieces of obsidian found in a cave in mainland Greece that were found to have come from Melos, an island in the Aegean Sea and were dated at 11,000 years ago as well as artifacts from recent digs on Cyprus that are believed to be from approximately 12,000 years ago. He adds that some researchers have also found evidence that something, or someone caused the extinction of pygmy hippos [ http://phys.org/tags/hippos/ ] on Cyprus around the same time.

Simmons also suggests that the first inhabitants of many of the Mediterranean islands may not have been modern humans at all. Instead, he says evidence has been found that shows that they might have been Neanderthals [ http://phys.org/tags/neanderthals/ ], or Homo erectus [ http://phys.org/tags/homo+erectus/ ]. Recent excavations on Crete have turned up artifacts that are thought to be 110,000 years old, for example, and a stone axe [ http://phys.org/tags/stone+axe/ ] was found that is believed to have been made on the same island as far back as 170,000 years ago. Since modern humans are believed to have come into being roughly 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, the possibility exists that such artifacts were left behind by an early ancestor or cousin.

Simmons also notes that evidence is mounting that indicates sea travel was occurring many thousands of years before modern humans arrived on the scene. He notes that it is commonly accepted that Australia was colonized approximately 50,000 years ago, and fossils (of an ancient lineage that went extinct) found in Indonesia have been dated to 1.1 million years ago.

All of the evidence put together, Simmons says, points to the very real possibility that it was Neanderthals or Homo erectus that first settled the Mediterranean islands and that they did so by building boats and navigating them indicating they had cognitive abilities far beyond what has traditionally been assumed by modern scientists.

More information: Mediterranean Island Voyages, Science, 16 November 2012: Vol. 338 no. 6109 pp. 895-897. DOI: 10.1126/science.1228880 [ ]

Abstract
Some of the classical world's most innovative cultures developed on Mediterranean islands, but their earlier human use is poorly known. The islands, particularly those further from the mainland such as Crete and Cyprus, were thought to have been first colonized about 9000 years ago by late Neolithic agriculturalists with domesticated resources. Until about 20 years ago, claims of earlier, pre-Neolithic occupations on any of the islands did not stand up to critical scrutiny (1), but current investigations are challenging these perceptions. Discoveries on Cyprus, Crete, and some Ionian islands suggest seafaring abilities by pre-Neolithic peoples, perhaps extending back to Neanderthals or even earlier hominins. In Cyprus, Neolithic sites have been documented that are nearly as early as those on the mainland.

Journal reference: Science [ ]

© 2012 Phys.org

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-anthropologist-mediterranean-islands-inhabited-earlier.html


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