[HN Gopher] Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Med...
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       Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean
       islands
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2025-04-13 15:40 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | throw0101a wrote:
       | For the very early history of the Med--geological to 500 BC--I
       | found the book _The Making of the Middle Sea_ by Cyprian
       | Broodbank to be an interesting read; ToC:
       | 
       | > _One: A Barbarian History * Two: Provocative Places * Three:
       | The Speciating Sea (1.8 million - 50,000 years ago) * Four: A
       | Cold Coming We Had of It (50,000 years ago - 10,000 BC) * Five:
       | Brave New Worlds (10,000 -5500 BC) * Six: How It Might Have Been
       | (5500 - 3500 BC) * Seven: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (3500 -
       | 2200 BC) * Eight: Pomp and Circumstance (2200 - 1300 BC) * Nine:
       | From Sea to Shining Sea (1300 - 800 BC) * Ten: The End of the
       | Beginning (800 - 500 BC) * Eleven: De Profundis_
       | 
       | * https://thamesandhudson.com/the-making-of-the-middle-sea-978...
       | 
       | * https://archive.org/details/makingofmiddlese0000broo
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprian_Broodbank
        
         | yannis wrote:
         | Thanks, I read the book and yes it is interesting an with a
         | well written narrative.
        
       | AnimalMuppet wrote:
       | Unanswered (and probably unanswerable) question: Was it
       | deliberate? Or did they get blown off course while trying to go
       | somewhere much shorter, and wind up hitting Malta before they
       | sank or hit somewhere else?
        
         | deepsun wrote:
         | Or deliberately blown off to a random place.
        
         | potato3732842 wrote:
         | You can see Malta from Sicily if conditions are just right.
         | There's zero chance the inhabitants didn't know there was
         | something there, just a matter of time until someone decides to
         | make the trip.
        
         | davidw wrote:
         | "Gilgamesh's Island"
        
       | arbuge wrote:
       | I'm from Malta. It's dead center in the Mediterranean sea, just
       | 60 miles off the coast of Sicily, and always has been a melting
       | point of cultures from around the Mediterranean as a result. This
       | is literally the first time in my life I've heard it described as
       | remote.
        
         | apercu wrote:
         | And during ice ages, even closer to continental settlements. I
         | think I remember (speculation?)that there might have even been
         | a land bridge to Sicily?
        
         | kjkjadksj wrote:
         | 60 miles off the coast during premodern times seems pretty
         | remote to me. How long would that be on makeshift raft an oar?
         | A days journey or longer with smooth seas?
        
           | ch4s3 wrote:
           | The early European hunter-gatherers uses something like
           | dugout canoes, and examples dating back 7k years have been
           | found in Italy. Experienced paddlers with good wind and
           | current conditions could cover 60 miles in about a day. The
           | 90 miles form Sicily to Tunisia is also possible to cover in
           | such a canoe, and DNA form skeletal remains does indeed show
           | that people made the journey.
        
       | fforflo wrote:
       | It's also exciting that their code to actually reproduce these is
       | also available. https://github.com/wccarleton/mesoneomalta
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-16 17:01 UTC)