Researchers Pit Stone Age Seafaring Skills Against One of Earth’s Fiercest Currents

Archaeologists believe that humans have arrived for the first time on the Ryukyu Islands off the coast of the southwest coast of Japan, between 35,000 and 27,500 years ago. However, how they did it remains a mystery, especially since they should have crossed one of the strongest ocean currents on the planet. To answer this lasting question, scientists decided to try the Paleolithic journey themselves.

Using replicas of tools that existed in the Japanese archipelago during the Upper Paleolithic (about 50,000 to 10,000 years ago), Japan researchers built a canoeing canoe and used it to cross the island 68.4 miles wide (110 kilometers) between 45 hours of Taiwan and Yonaguni, including the powerful current of Kuroshio, in around 45 hours. The successful trip represents a possible way for the current Taiwan people, Taiwan may have traveled in the islands tens of thousands of years ago.

“Our pirogue 7.5 meters long, made with axes in on -board stone, was fast and durable enough to cross this strait,” wrote researchers in the study, published today in Scientific advances. “This supports the early development of functional boats, such as canoes, while our experience also stressed that this type of sea travel was only possible for experienced padders with advanced navigation skills.”

One of the greatest challenges of the study of the prehistoric sea is the fact that these ancient aquatic vessels in organic matter, like wood, have long disintegrated. Without direct archaeological proofs, the best way to shed light on how ancient people have done things through experimental archeology – identifying the possible approaches of the revolted efforts by physically reproducing them in a simulated historical context.

The anthropologist of the University of Tokyo Yousuke Kaifu and his co -authors tried to reach the Ryukyu Islands at La Paleolithic – without modern navigation technologies such as GPS or compasses – in 2013. Before their successful trip in 2019, they had not managed to cross the downwards and in the current Bamboo. The winning design was a canoe made from a Japanese cedar tree dug and polished with an interior, which transported five crew members.

“Given the absence of archaeological remains of Motomarine du Pleistocene, we have narrowed the possible craftsmanship of the Paleolithic Sea by referring to the archaeological and ethnographic recordings of the Holocene and taking into account the material availability, the technological limitations of the time and the travel capacities of each profession,” explained the researchers. THE HoloceneWho started about 11,700 years ago, is the current period. “We also sought to investigate the journey time, the quantity of efforts required and other realities of crossing the Paleolithic Ocean for the first islanders in the south of Ryukyu.”

In this spirit, the team has developed computer models to simulate what such a crossing could look like the oceanic conditions of the late Pleistocene. According to simulations – which also integrated the data collected during the experimental trip – the success of the prehistoric trip was determined by the starting point (ideally, calm bays), the directional strategy (First Paddle East -Southast, then the North East) and the navigation skills (using the stars and the sun).

In addition, “our distinct digital simulation study suggests that this type of boat could also go to the island of Yonaguni from another starting point in the North in Taiwan (Taroko) in the modern and late oceans of the Pleistocene,” they added. “Paleolithics are often considered” lower “among the general public, mainly because of their culture and their” primitive “technology. In contrast, our [work] pointed out that they have accomplished something extraordinary with rudimentary technology at their disposal at the time. »»

While such experimental projects Impossible to replace direct archaeological evidence, the study joins a crowd of practical approaches Offering creative theories in the absence of direct material evidence.