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. 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 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, or 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 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. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-anthropologist-mediterranean-islands-inhabited-earlier.html#jCp
Simmons is probably correct. I think that a lot of the beliefs about the sea faring abilities of early homo sapiens were developed before knowledge of how long ago the aborigines voyaged to Australia. As for the Neanderthals & homo erectus, he might be on shakier ground. BTW: My SpellChecker insists on Neanderthal. I thought that Neandertal is now the accepted spelling.
I hate to mention because it sound racist but I definitively believe Neanderthal is close related to Caucasian stock
This is also strongly suggested by this article: http://phys.org/news/2012-03-evidence-neanderthals-boats-modern-humans.html Neandertals would properly be considered a sub-species of Homo sapiens, in that they were capable of inter-breeding even if it was not extensive. Also, I don't know that boat technology was an essential for Neandertals to be on those islands. During the ice-age the shore-line extended many miles outwards, and the islands also were much larger in area (before being extensively submerged with the melting of the glaciers circa 12,000 BC. I haven't seen a map of the Mediterranean region as it looked at the height of the ice age, but those islands were all that difficult to access compared to nowadays. I'll try to find such a map and post it here.
Interesting references to Mediterranean during the ice age. http://www.giwersworld.org/s http://www.tsakanikas.net/Maternalclans.htmcience/MIGRATION/hss-migration.phtml http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/earth/
Interesting references to maps of the Mediterranean during the ice ages. http://www.giwersworld.org/s http://www.tsakanikas.net/Maternalclans.htmcience/MIGRATION/hss-migration.phtml http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/earth/
Apparently, two of the links were bad. Here they are, corrected: http://www.giwersworld.org/science/MIGRATION/hss-migration.phtml http://www.tsakanikas.net/Maternalclans.htm Fraggle Rocker might particularly enjoy the tsakanikas site.
That is a very interesting input. As for me it tells me out of Africa the migration in the 70000 were people of different characteristics then the migration in the 40000 years ago.
