Posted on 01/14/2010 4:18:11 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Human ancestors that left Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago to see the rest of the world were no landlubbers. Stone hand axes unearthed on the Mediterranean island of Crete indicate that an ancient Homo species -- perhaps Homo erectus -- had used rafts or other seagoing vessels to cross from northern Africa to Europe via at least some of the larger islands in between, says archaeologist Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island.
Several hundred double-edged cutting implements discovered at nine sites in southwestern Crete date to at least 130,000 years ago and probably much earlier, Strasser reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Archaeology. Many of these finds closely resemble hand axes fashioned in Africa about 800,000 years ago by H. erectus, he says. H. erectus had spread from Africa to parts of Asia and Europe by at least that time...
Strasser's team cannot yet say precisely when or for what reason hominids traveled to Crete. Large sets of hand axes found on the island suggest a fairly substantial population size, downplaying the possibility of a Gilligan Island's scenario, in Strasser's view.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Homo Erectus Crosses The Open Ocean
Environmental Graffiti | 06 May 2009 | Environmental Graffiti
Posted on 05/15/2009 7:53:17 AM PDT by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2251596/posts
You should listen to Joe Rogan’s podcast with Randall Carslon and Graham Hancock. I think it’s podcast 725
Fascinating!
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