Our human ancestors learned to sail half a million years ago, study suggests

New evidence suggests our hominid ancestors crossed the Mediterranean long before modern humans evolved

By TROY FARAH
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 28, 2022 2:16PM (EST)



A boat approaching a small island in the Aegean Sea. (Getty Images/George Pachantouris)


Imagine ancient hominids sailing the Mediterranean hundreds of thousands of years before humans (Homo sapiens) appeared. The idea might sound bizarre: we think of boats as a human transportation technology, something that, like the wheel, our primitive ancestors developed at the dawn of civilization. So the revelation that a precursor to humans — meaning, a species of closely-related hominids that predate us — may have invented the boat and even sailed the Mediterranean long before us is a shocking proposition.

Yet that is exactly what new research suggests: hominids crossed the Mediterranean Sea much earlier than previously thought — before even Homo sapiens first appeared — which means these ancient humans must have learned how to sail nearly half a million years ago. The study prompts a shocking re-evaluation of an activity and a technology that seemed distinctly human.

The first humans and our many hominid cousins like Neanderthals originated in Africa, but it wasn't long before we wandered off to other continents. And this happened not just once, but multiple times, with some genetic evidence suggesting some subsets of humans even later returned to Africa.

Getting the timeline right on some of these details is a major field of study because it helps shape our understanding of human evolution. New research in the journal Quaternary International may shift the historical record significantly for when hominids, a group that includes primates including humans and our close relatives, first started sailing the sea north of Africa.

More:
https://www.salon.com/2022/12/28/our-human-ancestors-learned-to-sail-half-a-million-years-ago-study-suggests/