Mariners at the Dawn of History How far did the horizons of our first ancestors extend? In the furthest past, even the nearest ridge of hills might then have disclosed a sight no human eyes had ever seen, and every river crossed was a ford into the unknown. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic were eras when all was a great trek, all an act of discovery and endurance. Yet there is one frontier we do not so often associate with the distant past today, one even greater, and more imposing, than the primordial steppes and forests: that of the oceans.

For many decades, conventional wisdom held that the ability to construct complex sea-going vessels did not develop until the last legs of prehistory, in the lead-up to agriculture and more complex societies. Hunter-gatherers were thought to be “reluctant seafarers” if they went at all, and if travel overwater did occur, it was mostly likely by hapless castaways, set adrift by misfortune. There were always archaeological finds from certain locations inaccessible save by long sea voyages—yet the paradigm was believed anyway, buoyed by convention and an element of prejudice against ancient peoples assumed to be little more than savages. This paradigm, however, is now crumbling, worn away by the waves of new discoveries and experimentation. (read on)