Ancient Greece just got tens of thousands of years more ancient
Ancient Greece just got tens of thousands of years more ancient
Neanderthals have been cruising the Med for 200,000 years.
Rae Hodge
October 17, 2019 12:43 PM PDT
Whether by crudely fashioned seafaring boats or foot-trekked Aegean coastal routes, Neanderthals and early humans somehow managed to get to the Greek island of Naxos tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. That means humans have been enjoying the exquisite beauty of the Mediterranean for about 200,000 years, according to findings released Thursday by an international research team.
The research, published in the journal Science Advances after years of excavation by scientists from McMaster University, challenges current theories on Stone Age migration across Europe.
"Until recently, this part of the world was seen as irrelevant to early human studies, but the results force us to completely rethink the history of the Mediterranean islands," said lead author and associate anthropology professor Tristan Carter in a university release.
Until now, scholars largely thought the Aegean Sea impassable to Neanderthals and early hominids, and believed Mediterranean islands to have been settled for only about 9,000 years. Stone Age hunters, meanwhile, are known to have been on mainland Europe for more than 1 million years. But the research team discovered evidence of human activity spanning almost 200,000 years in a prehistoric quarry.
More:
https://www.cnet.com/news/ancient-greece-just-got-tens-of-thousands-of-years-more-ancient/
