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Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands?

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Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands? Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27.2 (2014) 211-230 ISSN (Print) 0952-7648 ISSN (Online) 1743-1700 Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands? Curtis Runnels Archaeology Department, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Humans evolved in Africa and colonized Eurasia in successive adaptive radiations, establishing themselves in Europe ca. one million years ago. It is assumed that these dispersals were by land through southwest Asia, or secondarily across the Strait of Gibraltar, because early hominins lacked the cognitive faculties and technical skills needed to cross the open Mediterranean. Such crossings are thought to have occurred only at the end of the Pleistocene, after ca. 11,000 years ago. This reasoning is challenged by the presence of early Palaeolithic artifacts on the Greek islands, suggesting that hominins made sea-crossings more than 130,000 years ago, and indicating that the Mediterranean—and by implication other seas—were at times open roads rather than barriers to hominin dispersals. Keywords: Acheulean, Greek islands, hominin dispersals, Mediterranean, Palaeolithic, sea-crossings, stone tools Introduction The usual assumption is that hominin adap- tive radiations from Africa (hereafter ‘dispersals’) Were there humans on the Greek islands in the Palaeolithic? For decades this simple question followed land routes through southwest Asia has been difficult to answer because of a lack into Eurasia, with perhaps secondary crossings of evidence. Here I consider new evidence for at the Strait of Gibraltar and the mouth of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic (LP and MP) Red Sea (Aguirre and Carbonell 2001; Anton artifacts on Greek islands that are, on present and Swisher 2004; Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen evidence, thought to have been separated from 2001; Carbonell et al. 2008; Rolland 2013). It the mainland by open sea. The catalyst for is thought that early hominins such as Homo this study was the discovery of LP materials of erectus lacked the cognitive faculties, technical Acheulean type at Plakias on the island of Crete abilities, and linguistic capacities needed to in geologic contexts indicating an age greater construct watercraft to cross the open sea (e.g., than 130 kyr (Strasser et al. 2010; 2011; Run- Davidson and Noble 1992). It was simpler to nels et al. 2014). Although the small samples walk across the Sinai, like Moses. If sea-crossings of rough stone tools from Crete and the other were attempted, it was only when it was possible islands discussed here are from unexcavated to island-hop from shore to shore. Such oppor- findspots, poorly dated, and possibly include tunistic crossings of short distances using simple both earlier and later materials, their presence floats have been termed ‘seagoing’ (Broodbank suggests that humans may have reached some 2006: 200) to distinguish them from the sus- Greek islands as early as the Middle Pleistocene. tained maritime voyaging implied by the term © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v27i2.211 212 Runnels ‘seafaring’. But if a Palaeolithic presence on the Instead, lithic assemblages are used as proxy evi- Greek islands is confirmed, it would imply that dence for the presence of hominins. The dating early hominin seagoing was more ambitious of the Greek Palaeolithic is also sketchy. The LP than island hopping. is ascribed to the Middle Pleistocene (781–126 The possibility of Mediterranean crossings has kyr), ending before the Last Interglacial, perhaps been considered before (e.g., Bednarik 1999), ca. 250 kyr (Tourloukis 2010: 23-44; Run- but the evidence for them has been consid- nels 2001), and the MP is thought to begin in ered as unconvincing (e.g., Shackleton et al. the late Middle Pleistocene and continue into 1984; Bailey and Carrion 2008; Straus 2001; the Late Pleistocene (126–28 kyr) (Papagianni Villa 2001; Broodbank 2006; 2013: 91-96). A 2000; Runnels 2001). reconsideration of Mediterranean sea-crossings is prompted not only by new evidence from The Lower Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean the Greek islands, but by the discovery of LP artifacts at Mata Menge and other sites in the Early hominins were present in southwest Asia Soa Basin on Flores in southeast Asia that may beginning in the Lower Pleistocene (Figure 1). have resulted from sea-crossings in southeast The earliest is Dmanisi (Georgia), ca. 1.8 myr, Asia as much as 1 myr (Morwood et al. 1998; with a pebble core assemblage similar to the Morwood 2001; Bednarik 2001a; 2003; Brumm African Oldowan industrial tradition (Mode et al. 2010). To this it can be added that humans 1) (Gabunia et al. 2001) associated with well- reached Australia and New Guinea by sea ca. 50 preserved hominin fossils, the exact taxonomic kyr (O’Connell et al. 2010; O’Connor 2010), identification of which is debated (Lordkipan- earlier than any currently accepted island exploi- idze et al. 2013; cf. Klein 2009: 350-57). In tation in the Mediterranean and demonstrating Israel, Ubeidiya (ca. 1.4 myr) and Gesher Benot the ability of Palaeolithic humans to make such Ya’aqov (ca. 0.8 myr) are younger (Shea 2013: crossings. 47-80). Ubeidiya has both a pebble core and an Here I briefly review what is known about Acheulean assemblage with large cutting tools LP Mediterranean sites used for documenting (LCTs), viz. handaxes, cleavers, trihedral picks, hominin dispersal by land. This is followed by a protobifaces, and massive scrapers. Gesher Benot review of the early Palaeolithic on the Mediterra- Ya’aqov has an Acheulean assemblage noted for nean islands and a consideration of the early Pal- the ‘giant’ core technique for producing flakes aeolithic record for the Greek mainland. Finally, for making LCTs, a method with parallels in the evidence for the Palaeolithic—including east African assemblages (Shea 2013: 64-74). both the LP and MP—on the Greek islands is There may be sites in Israel as old as Dmanisi, considered. The inclusion of both LP and MP but these are not widely accepted (Shea 2013: as ‘early’ Palaeolithic is necessary because there 70-73). Other LP sites in southweast Asia are overlapping technical and typological ele- include Latamne in Syria, and Yarimburgaz ments in the two traditions that are difficult to Cave, Dursunlu, and Kaletepe Deresi 3 in Tur- separate, especially when dealing with surface- key. Yarimburgaz and Dursunlu have pebble collected lithics dated within broad limits. Fossil core assemblages, and Kaletepe Deresi 3 has an evidence will not be considered. It is probable Acheulean assemblage. The Turkish LP may be that several hominin species were responsible for about 1.1-1.3 myr in age (Kuhn 2003; 2010; the Greek Palaeolithic, including H. heidelber- Slimak et al. 2008). It is thought that the peb- gensis, Neanderthals (Harvati et al. 2009; 2011; ble core assemblages resulted from the earliest 2013) and H. erectus (Kappelman et al. 2008), hominin dispersals (Shea 2013: 70-78), and the but there are too few fossils to be of use here. Acheulean from later dispersal events about 1 © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2014 Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands? 213 myr (Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen 2001; Kuhn be 0.9 myr in age (Scott and Gibert 2009), 2010; Shea 2013: 70-76). If so, the two indus- although the dating is controversial (Jiménez- trial traditions documented for Greece and Tur- Arenas et al. 2011). Despite these and other key (Kuhn 2002; 2010; Runnels and Özdoğan early sites (e.g., Pakefield in the UK; Parfitt et al. 2001; Runnels 2003a) may also be evidence for 2005), Roebroeks (2006) argues that a human multiple hominin dispersals. presence in western Europe during the early Both the pebble core and Acheulean industrial Middle Pleistocene was only ‘occasional’ before tradition are found in the west Mediterranean about 0.5 myr (Roebroeks 2006). A new assess- in Iberia, France, and Italy (Roebroeks and van ment by Rolland (2013), however, makes the Kolfschoten 1994; Raposo and Santonja 1995; case for an early hominin presence in Europe Falguères et al. 1999; Gamble 1999; Mussi as early as 1.4 myr. He argues that glacial sea- 2001; Roebroeks 2006; Klein 2009: 358-72). level lowstands in the Pleistocene reduced the In Spain, the initial arrival of hominins is asso- Gibraltar strait at times to ca. 8-11 km, making ciated with the pebble core tradition, perhaps possible the crossing from Africa to Spain (see before about 1 myr (e.g., at Atapuerca, followed also Bednarik 1999; 2001b). Rolland (2013: ca. 650 kyr by the arrival of new hominins with 10) argues that hominins crossed the Strait of the Acheulean industrial tradition (Mosquera Gibraltar at the same time they traversed the and Rodríguez 2013). Acheulean sites in the southwest Asian land route as part of ‘multiple, south of Spain, however, may be as early as the multidirectional, multistage dispersals’. He sup- pebble core tradition: handaxes from La Solana ports this conclusion with a bimodal spatio- del Zamborino and Estrecho del Quípar may temporal distribution of European LP sites and Figure 1. Map of the Mediterranean showing Palaeolithic sites mentioned in the text. Drawn by Al B. Wesolowsky. © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2014 214 Runnels fossils (Rolland 2013: 3, fig. 1) that shows sites of the islands—as opposed to occasional forays of the same Early Pleistocene age at the western or makeshift drift voyages—that resulted in a and
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