Neanderthals were able to travel the seas - scientists

Neanderthals are already 100,000 years knew how to travel long distances between the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. This conclusion came from the University of Georg Ferentinos Patras (Greece).

It is known that Neanderthals inhabited the Mediterranean about 300 thousand. years ago. And stone tools belonging to the Mousterian culture, found not only on the mainland, but also to the Greek islands of Lefkas, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. This can be explained in two ways: either at the time the islands were not islands, or our cousins ​​found a way to cross the sea, according to. compulenta. ru.
Ferentinos believes that the first option can be safely deleted. The islands were cut off from the mainland before they appeared Tools. The researcher found that 100 thousand. years ago, sea level was 120 m lower than today, because the water was stored in huge glaciers. However, the depth of the sea between the mainland and the islands today is 300 m, ie at the time of the Neanderthals, it remained fairly solid.
The conclusion is that Neanderthals learned to travel long distances by sea much earlier than a reasonable man, who made ​​it to Australia, only 50 thousand. years ago.
By modern standards, a trip to the Greek islands was very short - from five to twelve miles. However, Thomas Strasser of Providence College (USA) in 2008 discovered a Neanderthal tools in Crete, which at least 130 thousand. years. By the time the island of Crete was already 5 million. years old and was from the nearest neighbor, 40 km.
Details of those events are likely lost forever. Boats, apparently made ​​of wood and long- decayed. Ancient Mediterranean canoes found by archaeologists in Lake Bracciano (Italy ) - a total of seven thousand years.
Another explanation offered Paul Pettit of the University of Sheffield (UK): implements sailed to the islands themselves, were thrown back by sea. Especially since the age of the instruments was assessed solely on their appearance, but not chemically.
But even if Ferentinos rights, Neanderthals probably were not the first sailors of hominid. Stone tools found age millions of years on the Indonesian island of Flores. Homo erectus managed to cross the sea long before the evolution of the Neanderthals on the horizon.