That means Asians reached Alaska and North America 5,000 years before Europeans and North Africans figured out how to get to Sicily!
I would have guessed that Humans arrived in Sicily 35,000-40,000 years ago.
Is there any evidence that Neanderthals or other pre-Humans found their way to Sicily, or to other Mediterranean islands like Crete, or Cyprus, or Corsica, before 16,500 years ago?
The separation is barely a mile at the closest point. They could swim over and back easily in a day.
Exactly. Europe and the Middle East had thriving populations of Neanderthals and sapiens, there is no reason to think it took them way longer to get to the islands. Although they’re saying ‘proof’ it’s still unlikely people weren’t there for the duration...many tens of thousands of years earlier.
There is ample evidence that once an arrival theory is accepted, digging deeper is no longer necessary, and anyone that does dig deeper and finds something will have their careers ruined.
16,500 years ago the ancestors of most modern day Europeans were either in what is now north west Iran or in the Kuban region of Russia Georgia.
Modern Europeans, specifically Sardiniabs and Sicilians are 50% or more Iranian neolithis farmers, then earlier hunter gatherers and finally Indo Europeans.
The same mix in different variations is found from Ireland to Bangladesh.