Provided by Will Dunham
(Reuters) -Our species originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago, and later moved ahead worldwide, eventually reaching the remote areas of the Earth. In doing so, our ancestors have overcome geographic obstacles, including insidious ocean plan. But how did they do it using only the initial technology?
Now the researchers have been taking an experimental journey through the eastern China Sea Strip, devoting to ushibi in the eastern Taiwan to Japan’s Yonaguni Island in Dugout Kanoja to show how such a trip could have been done about 30,000 years ago as people spread to the various Pacific islands.
Researchers have used methods when Paleolithic people used and used copies of tools from that prehistoric period, such as an ax and cutting implement, known as “Adze”, known as 25 -foot (7.5 meters) canoe, from the Japanese cedar wood, dumb in the Japanese.
The four men and one woman’s crew of kayak rowed canoe for more than 45 hours, driving about 140 miles (225 km) over the open sea and fighting one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, Kuroshio. The crew struck extreme fatigue and took a break for a few hours while the canoe drift in the sea, but was able to complete the safe crossing to Yonaguni.
Like prehistoric people, Voyagers browse the sun and stars, as well as the ocean directions, although they were accompanied by two escort crafts. Yonaguni is a part of the Ryukyu Islands chain, extending from Kyushu, the southern of four Japanese main islands to Taiwan.
In the past, researchers failed to go through the reed rafts and then bamboo rafts, learning that they were too slow, not durable and unable to overcome strong ocean currents.
“As part of the project with many failures, we learned the difficulty of crossing the ocean, and this experience has given us great respect for our Paleolithic ancestors,” said Yusuke Kaif, an anthropologist at the University of Tokyo, the main author of the study, published on Wednesday in Science Advances.
“We found that Paleolithic people could cross the sea with a strong ocean jet if they were excavated canoe and were smart, experienced rowers and navigators. They had to face the risk of drifting strong ocean currents and possibilities that they would never be able to return to their homeland.”
Archaeological evidence shows that about 30,000 years ago, people first moved from Taiwan to some Ryukyu islands containing Okinava. However, scientists perplexed how they could do it using the original technology of that time – there are no maps, no metal tools and only primitive dishes. And the Kuroshio current, similar to strength with the Gulf stream near the Mexico, has given a special challenge.
The research took place in the famous 1947. The Kon-Tiki expedition in which Norwegian researcher Thor Heyerdahl has built a much longer trip from South America through the Pacific to the Polynesian Islands. Heyerdahl sought to show how prehistoric people from America could colonize Polynesia.
“His theory is now contrary to a lot of evidence, but at the time it was a great trial. Compared to Kon -iki, we have more archaeological and other evidence of how to create real prehistoric travel models, said Kaif.
In the same magazine, an additional study published in which an additional investigation was published, 30,000 years ago, used the modeling of sea conditions to investigate whether such a crossing was available at the time of Kuroshio was even more powerful than today.
“As our Paleo-Canean modeling has shown, Kuroshio was possible in ancient times, so I think they have achieved it,” said the physical oceanographer and the main author of the studies, Yu-Lin Chang from Japanese Maritime and Earth Science and Technology Agency.
“But the ocean conditions were very diverse. So the ancient people may have encountered unpredictable weather conditions on their journey, which may have failed,” Chang added.
(Will Dunham’s message in Washington, edited by Rosalba O’Brien)