trying to imagine life 130,000 years ago.

Water levels in the Mediterranean were much lower during the last Ice Age. I'm not at all knowledgeable on the subject, but I wonder whether there may have been much less open water for humans to traverse to get to Crete, or whether Create may have even been conjoined with the mainland at that time.

I'm guessing they had reason to write this?

It seemed to conflict with other information that turned up in a quick internet search, so I don't know which to believe.

Please post it.

My initial search was just for maps of the Mediterranean during low-water periods. I won't link to them here because I see that they don't correspond to the time period of the discovered settlements.

Instead, I see that, at the time the settlements were occupied, sea levels were actually higher than they are today:

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

Now, this is only Wikipedia, which is not a definitive source. Nonetheless, it seems to bear out the caption in the ancient-origins article stating that, although the discovered settlements are high on a bluff today, they were at the shoreline when they were occupied.

This means that ancient mariners would have needed to traverse an even greater expanse of water 130,000 years ago than they would need to cross today. Or, if they'd only had the patience to wait another 110,000 years until the Glacial Maximum, they might have been able to hike there.

It's generally known that sea levels were about 120m lower than at present during the last ice age. With these lower levels, parts of the modern Mediterranean seafloor were dry land, including the Adriatic and Aegean areas:


https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/File:Mediterranean_Bathymetric_map.png

Some maps and videos I glanced across seemed to show Crete connected to the mainland at that time, or else closer to it. (Mediterranean view is at about 1:10 in this video)

However, as Post #12 says, reliable information on the topic is hard to find. And, as I learned before making post #13, the whole question has no bearing on the OP because this extreme low-water period occurred more than 100,000 years after the settlement described in the OP was occupied.

"Walking to Crete in the Year 120,000 B.C."

AAA rates cave lodging along the way.

Best place to get a mammoth burger.

The water around Crete is mostly pretty deep.

There's a lot to anticipate now, with improved technology to use in research.