Ancient Seafarers Defy History

A new discovery has anthropologists once again reworking their notion of history, this time pushing back the dates of a seafaring population at least 67,000 years.

An excavation on Luzon, the northernmost island in the Philippines, has produced a foot bone. The bone was found at depths well below that of stone-tool flakes and animal bones from 26,000 years ago, at 2.5 to 3 meters. The nature of stratigraphy in archaeology is that the deeper the artifact, the older it is. The problem with finding a human foot bone this deep into the past is that it is completely contradictory to accepted history. Even during the last Ice Age when sea levels were 120 meters lower then current heights, it is not considered possible for human populations to accomplish such a feat, even with evidence in the archeological record like the migration of humans to Australia about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. The evidence is there, though it is not supposed to be possible.

According to archaeologist Armand Mijares, the bone that was found is definitely human, but "it's not a perfect match with any known group of humans." And though the size matches those of the current inhabitants of Luzon, the pygmy Negrito people, the bone shape is "unusual" and "falls within the ranges of Homo habilis and Homo floresiensis."

Though the bone "doesn't match that of any known human group," one thing remains certain, in a region and epoch when human beings were "too primitive" to sail a large expanse of water, the evidence remains that in south-east Asia and Australia, "humans had sea-faring capabilities by 60,000 to 70,000 years ago." While archaeologist continue to seek the infamous "missing link," with every discovery we realize the fragility of the knowledge we so adamantly declare as fact.

Image, "Bamboo Raft" by abstraktvisionz on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.