In brief
A Japanese research team successfully navigated a replica of a 30,000-year-old canoe, the Sugime, from Taiwan to southern Japan, employing ancient navigational methods to explore human migration routes in the Pacific.
In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl made headlines with his ambitious expedition across the Pacific Ocean on a balsa wood raft called Kon-Tiki, challenging long-held beliefs about ancient migration. Fast forward to 2019, when a team led by Yousuke Kaifu, an anthropologist from the University of Tokyo, embarked on a similar mission by constructing a dugout canoe. This endeavor aimed to explore how early humans, around 30,000 years ago, managed to navigate the formidable Kuroshio current from Taiwan to islands like Okinawa without modern navigation tools.To glean insights into this ancient migration, the team employed a method known as experimental archaeology. According to Dr. Kaifu, this approach was necessitated by the lack of physical evidence, as artifacts from those eras would have likely succumbed to oceanic erosion.On June 25, two significant studies revealing the outcomes of this research were published in the journal Science. The first study utilized sophisticated ocean models to simulate hundreds of possible voyages, examining different seasons, starting points, and paddling techniques under both modern and prehistoric scenarios. The second paper detailed the actual journey undertaken by Dr. Kaifu and his crew, which included four men and one woman. They paddled the 25-foot canoe, Sugime, crafted from a hollowed cedar log, for an impressive 122 nautical miles from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island in the southern Ryukyu chain over a span of 45 hours. Relying solely on natural markers like the stars, sun, and wind, they often faced the challenge of navigating without a visible land target.Peter Bellwood, an archaeologist from the Australian National University who did not participate in the research, hailed the findings, stating that this crossing represented one of the earliest and longest migrations of Homo sapiens, surpassed only by the human journey to Australia approximately 50,000 years ago.The project not only sheds light on ancient navigational skills but also deepens our understanding of human resilience and adaptability in the face of the vast, uncharted ocean. The journey of the Sugime exemplifies the innovative spirit of our ancestors, who ventured into unknown waters and made lasting connections across the Pacific.
