Τα ευρήματα του Κέρτις Ράνελς (Curtis Runnels), καθηγητή αρχαιολογίας στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Βοστόνης, της αρχαιολόγου Ελένης Παναγοπούλου, του Τόμας Στράσερ (Thomas Strasser) και των συνεργατών τους είχαν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον. Επιφανειακή έρευνα στην περιοχή από τον Πλακιά έως τον Άγιο Παύλο (συμπεριλαμβανομένης και της Πρέβελης) έδειξε πως σε τουλάχιστον οκτώ θέσεις υπήρχαν εγκαταστάσεις που ανάγονται τουλάχιστον πριν από 130.000 χρόνια.
Αψευδείς μάρτυρες είναι τα ίδια τα αντικείμενα που εντοπίσθηκαν και είναι λίθινα εργαλεία: μικρά τσεκούρια, εργαλεία κοπής και ξέστρα που χρονολογήθηκαν στην Κατώτερη Παλαιολιθική Εποχή. Θα μελετηθούν σε συνδυασμό με παλαιολιθικά ευρήματα στη νήσο Γαύδο, τα οποία αποκτούν τώρα ακόμα μεγαλύτερη σημασία.
Περίπου δύο χιλιάδες αντικείμενα εντοπίσθηκαν στην Κρήτη και τα 300 από αυτά μπροστά ή κοντά σε σπήλαια και σε πηγές νερού. Μερικά βρέθηκαν σε γεωλογικά άνδηρα σε ύψος 92 μέτρων από τη σημερινή επιφάνεια της θαλάσσης, αν και οι επιστήμονες πιστεύουν πως όταν τα σπήλαια κατοικούνταν θα πρέπει να ήταν πολύ κοντά στη θάλασσα. Η χρονολόγηση έγινε και με βάση τα γεωλογικά δεδομένα σε πέντε από τις 28 συνολικά θέσεις και έδωσε ως όριο το 130.000 π.Χ. και πίσω. Δηλαδή, κάποια μπορεί να είναι και παλαιότερα. Πάντως δεν έχουν εντοπιστεί ακόμη σκελετικά κατάλοιπα που θα καθόριζαν τις εξελίξεις.
Μέχρι τώρα η πρώτη βεβαιωμένη περίπτωση ναυσιπλοΐας ήταν πριν από 60.000 χρόνια ανάμεσα σε Ταϊλάνδη και Αυστραλία. Επίσης, ανατρέπει στερεότυπα σύμφωνα με τα οποία οι άνθρωποι που πέρασαν από την Αφρική στην Ευρώπη το έκαναν μέσω Γιβραλτάρ.
English version
Evidence for the world’s earliest seafaring has emerged from an archaeological survey in Crete. Tools of Lower Palaeolithic type, at least 130,000 years old, have been found on the Greek island, which has been isolated by the Mediterranean Sea for at least the past five million years, so that any human ancestors must have arrived by boat. At this date, they would have been of a pre-modern species: the earliest Neanderthalers or even Homo heidelbergensis are among possible contenders, but no such remains have so far been found on Crete.
''The early inhabitants of Crete reached the island using sea craft capable of open-sea navigation and multiple journeys, a finding that pushes the history of seafaring in the Mediterranean back by more than 100,000 years and has implications for the dispersal of early humans'', Professor Curtis Runnels said. The oldest uncontested marine crossing until recently was from Indonesia to Australia, dating to perhaps 60,000 years ago and made by anatomically modern humans of our own species, Homo sapiens, although we now know that earlier settlement on the island of Flores in Indonesia also necessitated a sea-crossing.
Professor Runnels, the Palaeolithic expert in the survey team, said that the investigation was carried out along the southwestern coast of Crete near the town of Plakias, facing Libya more than 200 miles to the south. These first Cretans may have crossed the Libyan Sea rather than island-hopping through the Cyclades from mainland Greece. Recent finds of what are claimed to be Palaeolithic tools from the island of Gavdos, off the south coast of Crete, would support this southern approach.
The survey has focused on the area from Plakias to Ayios Pavlos, including the Preveli Gorge, and has recovered more than 2,000 stone artefacts from 28 sites; the early tools were found at nine of these, eight in the area between Plakias and Preveli. ''The existence of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts in association with datable geological contexts was a complete surprise: until now there has been no certain evidence of Lower Palaeolithic seafaring in the Mediterranean'', Professor Runnels said.
Early human penetration of Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar at a much earlier Palaeolithic date has been proposed, on the basis of occupation at Atapuerca, near Burgos, dating to at least 1.3 million years ago. These first Europeans could also have come along the north side of the Mediterranean from Anatolia, via Greece and the Balkans, however. The impact of this Cretan evidence is to show that a sea-crossing by pre-modern humans from Morocco to Spain cannot be ruled out.
The Plakias survey team, headed by Dr.Thomas Strasser, of Providence College in Rhode Island, U.S.A. and Dr.Eleni Panagopoulou, of the Greek Ministry of Culture, and funded partly by the National Geographic Society, sought caves and rock shelters near the mouths of freshwater perennial streams and rivers emptying into the Libyan Sea and within five kilometres of the present coast. Because erosion has cut back many of these, the team sought artefacts on the slopes in front of their present entrances. Much of the material was found on old marine terraces up to 92 metres above modern sea level.
Up to 300 pieces were found at each of the early sites, and at five sites the geological context allowed an approximate date to be assigned. Professor Runnels considers his estimate of 130,000 years to be a minimum and cautions that the artefacts could be much older. The tools included handaxes, cleavers and scrapers, and the quartz rocks used were sufficiently abundant for tools to be discarded after only short periods of use.
Πηγές / Sources: Ethnos, Times Online
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