Neanderthals have crossed the Mediterranean

Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean 300,000 years ago. Their specific 'Mousterian' stone tools were found on the Greek continent and also on the islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. That could be explained in two ways: either the area was not an island at the time, or our distant relatives went there.

Now expert George Ferentinos of Patras University in Greece asserted that the first reason could be ruled out. He believed that the islands were separated from the continent as long as the time when stone tools existed.

Mr. Ferentinos gathered data showing that 100,000 years ago, the sea level was 120 meters lower than the present, because water was confined in the larger ice caps of the earth. But the seabed off Greece today falls about 300 meters, meaning that when the Neanderthals live in the area, the sea may be at least 180 meters deep.

Neanderthals

Greek experts believe that Neanderthals have a culture of seafaring for tens of thousands of years. Modern people are said to go to sea 50,000 years ago, when they made their way to Australia.

The distance from the mainland to the islands of Greece is quite short, only 5-12km, but according to expert Thomas Strasser at the University of Rhode Island (USA), the Neanderthals did not stop there. In 2008, he found similar tools in Crete that he thought had a life of at least 130,000 years. Crete is an island that has existed for about 5 million years and is 40 km away from its nearest 'neighbor' .

Even if Ferentinos' judgment is correct, Neanderthals may not be the first to use boats. Stone tools of 1 million years old have been found on the Indonesian island of Flores. This suggests that it was possible that the ancient Homo erectus had crossed the sea to Flores even before the Neanderthals evolved.