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Experimental Archaeologists Recreate 30,000-Year-Old Sea Crossing From Taiwan to Yonaguni

Using a dugout canoe built with prehistoric tools, ocean-current simulations, celestial navigation, researchers demonstrate how Paleolithic voyagers could have paddled 140 miles to reach the Ryukyu Islands.

Overview

  • Two papers published in Science Advances combine hands-on canoe construction with numerical ocean models to test Paleolithic seafaring across the East China Sea
  • In 2019, the team carved a 7.5-meter dugout canoe named Sugime from a single Japanese cedar using replica stone tools and paddled it for over 45 hours
  • Early tests with reed-bundle and bamboo rafts proved too slow and fragile to overcome the powerful Kuroshio Current
  • Simulations showed that departing from northern Taiwan and steering slightly southeast significantly improved the odds of a successful crossing
  • Navigating solely by sun, stars, swells and instinct, the experiment underscores advanced strategic seafaring skills of early modern humans despite an impractical return voyage without maps