Watercraft made much earlier than thought

Watercraft made much earlier than thought

NEW YORK (AP): Stone tools on an Indonesian island show that
human ancestors crossed large stretches of water more than
800,000 years ago -- much earlier than scientists had been able
to show before, researchers say.

The age of the tools indicates that Homo erectus reached the
island of Flores sometime between 800,000 years and 900,000 years
ago, researchers said. That meant crossing at least 19 kilometers
of water, probably on bamboo rafts, said archaeologist Mike
Morwood.

The work suggests Homo erectus had better mental,
technological and linguistic abilities than generally realized,
said Morwood, of the University of New England in Armidale,
Australia.

Previously, the earliest widely accepted evidence of major
water crossing was the colonization of Australia from eastern
Indonesia by anatomically modern humans between 40,000 and 60,000
years ago, he and colleagues wrote in Thursday's issue of the
journal Nature.

The stone tools were probably used for woodworking, Morwood
said. Although no Homo erectus remains have been found with them
yet, their age suggests erectus made them, the researchers said.

G. Philip Rightmire, an anthropologist at the State University
of New York at Binghamton, said erectus in that part of the world
has been thought to be less advanced than erectus in Africa. He
called that a bad rap and said the new finding will "clear the
record."

Rightmire said he wasn't surprised by the new finding. The
species was already known to have traveled from Africa to Java,
he said.

The crossing to Flores is "just another accomplishment to
chalk up in the Homo erectus column," he said.