The earliest evidence of ocean navigation

The Earliest Known Logboats of China

“…The Earliest Known Logboats of China R eviews of the earliest archaeological evidence of nautical equipment have listed paddles and logboats from western Europe, Japan and Nigeria (Bednarik, 1997(Bednarik, , 1999(Bednarik, , 2003(Bednarik, , 2014. Most of these finds are from various parts of Europe, and no very early examples have been reported from China in the international literature (McGrail, 2004(McGrail, : 352-4, 2015.…”

An experiment in Pleistocene seafaring

“…Recently the topic of Pleistocene navigation has been introduced in this journal (Bednarik, 1997a), by reporting evidence of numerous successful colonizations of various islands, particularly in the region of Indonesia and Australia, which clearly involved the use of watercraft. Nearly all of this indirect evidence relates to hominids who had Lower or Middle Palaeolithic rather than Upper Palaeolithic technology.…”

“…No form of 'direct' evidence at all of Pleistocene seafaring has been found, no physical remains of artefacts, no acceptable depictions of watercraft (Bednarik, 1997a). The physical evidence comprises the artefacts and living floors found on many islands, and the remains of some 200 Pleistocene humans found in Australia.…”

Nale Tasih 2: journey of a Middle Palaeolithic raft

“…The evidence of hominid occupation of the Wallacean islands of Flores (Verhoeven, 1958;Maringer & Verhoeven, 1970;Sondaar et al, 1994;Bednarik, 1995Bednarik, , 1997Morwood et al, 1998;Bednarik & Kuckenburg, 1999), Timor (Bednarik, 1999a) and Roti (Bednarik, 19993) renders the southernmost of Birdsell's (1957) three routes to Australia the most likely. Moreover, the Late Pleistocene stone tool inventories in Timor show considerable similarities with the earliest lithic industries of Australia (Bednarik, 1999a;Bednarik & Kuckenburg, 1999).…”