Primitive Humans Conquered Sea, Surprising Finds Suggest
If ancient humans were crossing the Mediterranean, Runnels said, then they certainly could have crossed other water barriers, such as the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. "And that means that the assumptions that we have had—that the peopling of Eurasia was done by early hominins moving overland through the Near East, into India and down—will have to be revisited." Hominins, or hominids, are members of humankind's ancestral lineage.
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But the new discoveries hint that these human ancestors were capable of much more sophisticated planning, cooperation, and construction—in this case, boatbuilding—than their simple stone tools would suggest.
"I was flabbergasted," Runnels said. "The idea of finding tools from this very early time period on Crete was about as believable as finding an iPod in King Tut's tomb."
