The Discovery that Revealed Ancient Humans Navigated the Seas 130,000 Years Ago [2013]

Ancient Origins ^ | 25 October 2013 | John Black

[Fractal Trader]

It was a few years ago that a Greek-American archaeological team made a startling discovery – they found the oldest indications of seafaring and navigation in the world, in an area called Plakia on Crete Island in Greece. It is an incredibly important discovery that is given little attention, despite the fact that it reached the top ten discoveries of 2010. Their research is forcing scholars to rethink the maritime capabilities of early human and pre-human cultures.

The team of archaeologists were carrying out excavations in a gorge on the island of Crete when they discovered a Palaeolithic site in the canyon of Preveli, where more than 30 hand axes and hundreds of other stone tools, such as cleavers and scrapers, made from quartz were found scattered across more than 20 different locations. Until this discovery, it was believed that ancient humans reached Crete, Cyprus, a few other Greek islands, and possibly Sardinia, no earlier than 12,000 years ago. However, remarkably, the stone tools found at Parkia were dated to at least 130,000 years old.

The tools were dated through stratigraphic analysis, a branch of geology which studies rock layers. The cliffs and caves above the shore were uplifted in the ancient past by tectonic forces. The exposed uplifted layers represent the sequence of geologic periods that have been well studied and dated. The team analyzed the layer bearing the tools and determined that the soil had been on the surface 130,000 to 190,000 years ago.

Rocky bluffs around the village of Plakia were actually the shoreline zone in prehistoric times. This is where the team began excavations. Image source . Considering Crete has been an island for five million years, the tools could have only arrived in that location if ancient humans or pre-human species travelled there by boat.

[bgill]

Archaeologist think nothing ever happened before they themselves were born.

[wildbill]

Maybe they didn’t cruise there. Maybe they just crawled onto the land from the sea and evolved there independently.

I have a problem with bearskin sails from Africa.

[Fractal Trader]

Still waiting for your take on this.....

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 07/15/2016. Thanks Fractal Trader.

• Neandertals, Stone Age people may have voyaged the Mediterranean [2018]
• Controversial footprint discovery suggests human-like creatures may have roamed Crete [2017]

  The sediments that contain the footprints suggest they probably date to the period immediately before this, at about 5.7m years.

• Ancient Mariners: Did Neanderthals Sail to Mediterranean? [2012]
• Neanderthals were ancient mariners [2012]
• Cretan tools point to 130,000-year-old sea travel [2011]
• On Crete, New Evidence of Very Ancient Mariners [2010]
• Ancient hominids may have been seafarers [2010]\

[Pelham]

“The Morons today think Ancient Humans were Morons”

There’s more flat earthers running amok now than there were then. ‘Idiocracy’ turned out to be a documentary.

[Pelham]

“The Morons today think Ancient Humans were Morons”

There’s more flat earthers running amok now than there were then. ‘Idiocracy’ turned out to be a documentary.

[ASOC]

Fun post. Thanks

There is this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_maritime_history

https://books.google.com/books?id=O82MDW6jR44C&pg=PA293&lpg=PA293&dq=seafaring+130,000+years+ago&source=bl&ots=lHjXmJkjau&sig=ACfU3U0khSiojYVrc4aOSiRYZAWlBPFdXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixiNKQruLoAhXoIDQIHZCeCsU4ChDoATAIegQICxAt#v=onepage&q=seafaring%20130%2C000%20years%20ago&f=false

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-early-humans-reached-island-200-000-years-ago-changing-theory-of-spread-from-africa-1.7994456

lots of fun articles from boffins about ‘new’ ancient history.

[Openurmind]

I would really like this to be true, because I am a firm believer than man was indeed seafaring long before we think they were. But being objective and knowing some geology about Quartz, the artifacts do not appear to be manmade. Quartz tends to naturally fracture off of dikes and veins with those shapes as very common because of it’s crystalline structure.

And the weathering appears to be much much more than a very young 130k in geology standards. I could go out and collect a hundred from a local vein that look just like that. So unfortunately this whole find revolves around whether those are geofacts or not and I lean heavily towards geofacts.

[Bob Ireland]

***Considering Crete has been an island for five million years, the tools could have only arrived in that location if ancient humans or pre-human species travelled there by boat***

[Bob Ireland]

Thanks for the ping on this!

[Bob Ireland]

***
Rocky bluffs around the village of Plakia were actually the shoreline zone in prehistoric times***

A 'prehistoric shoreline' found high upon a bluff would seem to me to indicate that it must have been so prior to the last ice age since later the sea levels were supposedly much lower than today. {Confirms earlier chronology}

[Bob Ireland]

http://plakiasstoneageproject.com/project-overview/

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. This was originally posted during my FR quarantine, and I'd not seen it 'til now. Be sure to visit the similar and related topics from the FRchives.

[SunkenCiv]

Some related keywords, borrowed from another topic and edited:

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KEYWORDS: acrossatlanticice; ancientnavigation; brucebradley; cactushill; clovis; cloviscomet; dennisstanford; dillehay; kennethtankersley; meadowcroft; navigation; preclovis; qalunaat; tomdillehay; topper

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[Sawdring]

You were nearly 4 years late on this one.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, I wasn't available on FR for an entire year, I guess you didn't miss me... [breaks quarantine rules by wiping eyes]

[Bob Ireland]

Ping

[ApplegateRanch]

Population crossed at much earlier date, when Med was lower than today, perhaps short haul, line of sight, island hopping.

The future population had enough sense to move their community to higher ground as water rose to points higher than today, rather than drown.

The higher water reduced total area of island, reducing carrying capacity; climate would also be affected, maybe adversely affecting traditional food sources, so population became to low to sustain itself, and died out?Fresh water sources became scarcer?

Rising water & sedimentation joined in wiping out any trace of earlier, (and probably still submerged) lower sites?

Maybe “artifacts” are misinterpreted?

[SunkenCiv]

Humans have navigated open water for at least 800K years. No one walked to Crete, ever.