tiny lemmy 

45-hour voyage in replica canoe tests Paleolithic migration theory

c/world · u/some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 76 points

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Thinking about the Out of Africa phase of human migration always interests me. One thing that must be considered, relative to this experiment, is that our ancestors wouldn’t initially have know that there was any land to reach at the end of their voyage. What drove them to paddle into nothingness (if this was an accurate representation of how they traveled)? Fascinating stuff.


Comments

u/some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 points

There's still a lot of faith in a theory there. Prove that there's an island before I'll row with you. It's pretty wild.

u/some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 points

From the article:

So we turned to the idea of experimental archaeology, in a similar vein to the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.”

u/flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz · 8 points

Yes but he did it the wrong way South America -> Polynesia.

Turns out it actually happened the other way around Asia -> Polynesia -> South America. Most likely, still a lot to be determined.

u/kata1yst@sh.itjust.works · 16 points

The Polynesian people had many ways of detecting land far beyond the horizon using ocean currents, temperatures, weather patterns, animal movements, and others which they used to island hop all the way through the Pacific Islands.

I have little doubt it was a well informed theory before they got into their vessels.

u/catloaf@lemm.ee · 10 points

Didn't Thor Heyerdahl do this on a raft like 50 years ago?