Discussions of dispersals of early hominins from Africa assume that Southwest Asia and the Arabian Peninsula were the primary passageways for migrations to Eurasia. The Mediterranean is usually viewed as a barrier to early hominin movements because pre-sapiens hominins were thought to lack the technical means or the cognitive skills to construct boats. The discovery of early Palaeolithic artefacts in an archaeological survey on the Greek island of Crete challenges this view. Here we show that Palaeolithic artefacts in the Plakias region in southwestern Crete are associated with geological contexts that can be dated to the late Middle or early Late Pleistocene. Because Crete has been separated from the mainland throughout the Pleistocene, the presence of Pleistocene age artefacts there suggests that early hominins were able to cross open water.

When did a human presence reach Crete, largest of the Aegean islands, and invitingly joined to the mainland by intervening stepping-stones? Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, or only in the Neolithic, when the deep sequence of occupations under the site of the later palace at Knossos began. How many sailed to Crete? What did they bring with them?

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Arthur Evans discovered three large stone-lined circular pits, known as koulouras, in the West Court of the first palace at Knossos. A fourth kouloura was found under the Theatral Area. Since Evans's discovery four, or possibly five, koulouras have been found in the West Court at Phaistos, and eight in the southwest corner of the palace at Mallia. All were constructed and used during the first palace period. Like many features of Minoan palaces, the koulouras seemed to be a recurring architectural feature. Evans thought the koulouras at Knossos were 'rubbish-pits' or 'blind wells'. Since then, many scholars have interpreted their function as granaries. This paper contends that the koulouras at Knossos and Phaistos were not granaries, but those at Mallia were. Consequently, the storage capabilities of the first palaces of Knossos and Phaistos have been overestimated. The storage facilities of the three palaces did not function identically, and the role of grain storage in the emergence of the first Minoan palaces has been exaggerated.