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"Navigation, Prehistoric."
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Stone Age Sailors
Over the past decade, evidence has been mounting that our ancestors developed skills to sail across large bodies of water early in prehistory. In this fascinating volume, Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation worldwide, then focuses on the Mediterranean. Recent work in Melos, Crete, and elsewhere-- as well as Simmons' own work in Cyprus-- demonstrate that long-distance sailing is a common Paleolithic phenomenon. His comprehensive presentation of the key evidence and findings will be of interest to both those interested in prehistory and those interested in ancient seafaring.
eBook
Seafaring as a Key Element in the First Peopling of the Americas: A Perspective from the Southern Cone
The Americas were the last continental areas to be inhabited by modern human beings. The Jesuit Father de Acosta had already proposed in 1590 that the first peopling might have involved the use of watercraft through the north Pacific. Still today researchers are debating whether the first inhabitants of the continent arrived from the northwest or the northeast and when this occurred. What may help solve these questions is the great amount of indirect evidence suggesting the first settlers had already developed a maritime culture and very likely a seafaring technology. Implications of considering this statement as valid are that it can shed new light on old problems related to the high mobility of groups, the use of maritime and riverine resources, the location of the first settlement camps near the coast, the transportation of raw materials from very long distances, and different aspects of social organization related to technological development. Bearing these ideas in mind, watercourses should not be considered as obstacles, but on the contrary, as elements of connection.
Journal Article
Stone age sailors : Paleolithic seafaring in the Mediterranean
\"Over the past decade, evidence has been mounting that our ancestors developed skills to sail across large bodies of water early in prehistory. In this fascinating volume, Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation worldwide, then focuses on the Mediterranean. Recent work in Melos, Crete, and elsewhere-- as well as Simmons' own work in Cyprus-- demonstrate that long-distance sailing is a common Paleolithic phenomenon. His comprehensive presentation of the key evidence and findings will be of interest to both those interested in prehistory and those interested in ancient seafaring.\" -- Provided by publisher.
Book
WORDS FOR CANOES: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN OCEANIC SAILING CRAFT
This article aims to reconstruct prehistoric Oceanic canoes by analysing four technological traits and their associated lexical terms: masts (movable versus fixed), stays (fore and back running stays), steering devices (steering paddle versus steering oars) and method of coming about (shunting versus tacking). By tracing the histories of cognates and/or semantic fields related to these terms, the study demonstrates that the shunting manoeuvre was known at the Proto-Oceanic stage, but no specific rig type can be reconstructed for that time period. The canoe of the Proto Central Pacific speakers used the shunting Oceanic lateen rig. The tacking Oceanic spritsail rigged canoe was a later Proto Polynesian innovation and served for the settlement of East Polynesia.
Journal Article
Seafaring in the Pleistocene
Archaeological data from Wallacea (Indonesia) and elsewhere are summarized to show that the history of seafaring begins in the Early Pleistocene, and that this human capability eventually led to Middle Palaeolithic ocean crossings in the general region of Australia. To understand better the technological magnitude of these many maritime accomplishments, a series of replicative experiments are described, and the theoretical conditions of these experiments are examined. The proposition is advanced that hominid cognitive and cultural evolution during the Middle and early Late Pleistocene have been severely misjudged. The navigational feats of Pleistocene seafarers confirm the cultural evidence of sophistication available from the study of palaeoart. With comments from Mike Morwood, Michael Rowland, Matthew Spriggs, Iain Davidson, Ursula Mania, and G.A. Clark and followed by a reply from the author.
Journal Article
WIND TUNNEL MEASUREMENTS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF CANOE SAILS FROM OCEANIA
To understand the sailing performance of traditional canoes in Oceania, we replicated ten sail rigs and tested them in a wind tunnel. Measurements of lift and drag forces demonstrate substantial differences in their performance. At low heading angles, from about 30° to 80° off the wind, three sails (Massim, Ninigo, Santa Cruz) are remarkable for their higher efficiency. Three other sails (Tonga, Hawaii, Tahiti) are remarkable for their lower efficiency from heading angles of about 90 to 130°. In between, four more sails (Arawe, Micronesia, Vanuatu, Marquesas) have roughly similar performance to each other. The ranking of these sails is followed by a description of their distribution with inferences on historical evolution of canoe rigs.
Journal Article
Sea People of the West
Two thousand years ago, or thereabouts, a double canoe sailed on a northeast tack (or maybe a southeast tack) from a Homeland (Hawaiki) among the islands of Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. After a voyage of 7,000 kilometers, which bypassed the many as yet uninhabited islands of the central Pacific (such as Tahiti) and the stretch of the seventy atolls of the Tuamotu that spread umbrellalike across the eastern entry of the Pacific, the canoe landed on islands that the Spaniards in 1595 were to call \"the Marquesas.\" The descendants of these first settlers call their islands \"Fenua'enata\" (Land of the People). Here I tell the story of this first beach crossing after what I consider to be the most remarkable voyage of discovery and settlement in all of human history. These first settlers (shall we say a dozen adults?) brought the animals and food plants that would make their island inhabitable. More mysteriously, these voyagers were-in body, mind, and spirit-all that we have come to call \"Polynesian\" in the great triangle of Hawai'i, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). \"Sea of Islands\" is the name the descendants of this first voyage prefer to call that great triangle. I here celebrate a Sea People's mastery of their Sea of Islands.
Journal Article