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22h ago

Researchers Recreate 30,000-Year-Old Sea Crossing to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands

Detailed in Science Advances, the team’s dugout canoe made with replica stone tools proved that Paleolithic seafarers could cross the powerful Kuroshio Current

A dugout canoe with four men and one woman paddling is pictured during a crossing across a region of the East China Sea from near Ushibi, Taiwan to Yonaguni Island, traversing the Kuroshio current, in this handout image released on June 25, 2025. Yousuke Kaifu/Handout via REUTERS
Researcher Kunihiro Amemiya uses a period-accurate axe to chop down a Japanese cedar tree in Noto Peninsula, Japan, to make a dugout canoe for a crossing across a region of the East China Sea from Taiwan to Yonaguni Island, in this handout image released on June 25, 2025. Yousuke Kaifu/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
© photograph by Yousuke Kaifu
An axe accurate to a period of 30,000 years ago, that scientists used to make a dugout canoe for a crossing across a region of the East China Sea from Taiwan near Ushibi to Yonaguni Island, traversing the Kuroshio current, is seen at Noto Peninsula, Japan, in this handout image released on June 25, 2025. Yousuke Kaifu/Handout via REUTERS

Overview

  • The researchers constructed a 7.5-meter dugout canoe named Sugime from a single Japanese cedar using replicated 30,000-year-old stone tools after initial reed and bamboo rafts failed.
  • A crew of five paddlers navigated roughly 225 kilometers from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island over more than 45 hours using only celestial cues, ocean swells and instinct.
  • Advanced numerical simulations evaluated different departure points, seasons and paddling strategies under both modern and Late Pleistocene ocean conditions to test voyage feasibility.
  • The experiment demonstrates that early modern humans possessed strategic seafaring knowledge, including route planning and current-compensation techniques, for long-distance sea travel.
  • Published in June 2025 in Science Advances, the study offers new insights into Paleolithic migration routes as researchers continue to analyze the experiment’s data.