Since Homo sapiens left Africa, it has not stopped expanding until reaching the most remote places on the planet. The connection between Africa and Eurasia could have allowed our ancestors to begin the colonization of the world simply by walking. But the human remains found on islands and other remote areas that have water as an obstacle raise interesting questions. Beyond the climatic changes that made the coastlines of the continents vary and allowed walking through areas that are now under water, it is worth asking when it was possible for human beings to take to the sea. Since when are we able to build vehicles that float to navigate to new places unknown to humans?
a daring challenge
It must be said that the human being took a long time to dare to navigate. For millions of years, from the first Homo to the Neanderthals, we have lived without daring to enter those great masses of water that were lost on the horizon . Primitive species frequently approached the beneficial riverbanks, but the seas and oceans were not explored until the appearance of more modern species.
We know this from the remains left by our ancestors. Specifically for the garbage, the food waste. Studying the diet of our ancestors, evidence of the consumption of marine animals does not occur with a clear generalization to Homo sapiens . The Neanderthals had contact with this fauna, as we can see from the remains found in Gibraltar, where they had a good account of molluscs and seals about 40,000 years ago. However, this may have been simply because they had access to these resources from the coast. But, as far as we know, Neanderthals never left Eurasia, so it doesn’t seem that they ventured across the Strait of Gibraltar or any other body of water .
Instead, 50,000 years ago Homo sapiens arrived in Australia. That not only required the ability to build a boat, but it was quite an expedition and needed food for the journey.
the first navigators
We hardly have archaeological records of prehistoric ships. They would be built with wood, a material that is not very resistant to the passage of time, and we have not been lucky enough to find any (at least for now) as old as the beginning of navigation is thought to be. But we do have other evidence that suggests that we were able to navigate so long ago. Some 42,000-year-old fish remains and 20,000-year-old hooks were found on the present-day island of East Timor, some 400 nautical miles north of Australia. Among the remains of fish are tuna . This evokes a rare image of our ancestors: sailors and fishermen capable of going so far and practicing deep-sea fishing.
The reconstruction of the beginnings of the (pre)history of navigation can therefore only be based on hypotheses that follow a logical order of events. It is very likely that we should imagine the first navigator in history as simply a person clinging to a driftwood . It shouldn’t have been difficult to understand that traveling on the wood would be more comfortable. That is where the continuous challenge for which humanity has not stopped trying to improve boats from prehistory to the present day and those to come would begin.
This first contact between the human being and the navigation options would be limited to rivers and other accumulations of water that were, to a certain extent, finite and controllable. Launching into the open sea required the construction of canoes, rafts and other primitive ships that were molded to the rhythm of the needs and problems that the seafaring experience itself would entail for our ancestors.
the first canoe
To date, Pesse’s canoe is the oldest ship in history. It is a wooden boat 298 centimeters long and 44 wide. It was found in 1955 during works to build a Dutch highway. At a point near the town of Pesse, what looked like a trunk was found, but they ended up recognizing the shape of a canoe.
The boat is dated with a Mesolithic chronology, between the years 8040 and 7410 BC. C. There are those who have doubted its status as a vessel. There were those who could have thought that it was a manger to feed animals, but carbon dating made this option impossible, because in those years there were still no domesticated animals to feed. In addition, in 2011 it was demonstrated with a replica that Pesse’s canoe can sail carrying a sailor.
References:
Bermúdez de Castro, JM 2021. Gods and beggars. The great odyssey of human evolution. Criticism.
Guerrero Ayuso, VM 2006. Eat before you travel. Monoxyle-based fishing and boats in western prehistory. Mayurqah 31, 7-56.
