A new analysis of ancient maritime travel in the Philippines over 40,000 years ago revealed the first verified use of advanced technology in the region, including building sophisticated boats and perfecting deep-sea fishing capabilities thousands of years earlier than previously believed.
Past studies have found similar technologies in parts of ancient Africa and Europe. However, finding evidence of similar maritime technologies within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) could help solve the mystery of how ancient peoples populated the regions millennia before modern societies evolved.
Evidence of Advanced Technology Thousands of Years Ago
In their published study, researchers Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, highlight the history of maritime travel throughout prehistory, focusing on the advanced technology required to make such journeys. For example, they note that evidence for maritime technologies like fiber-based cords and knots has only been discovered in other parts of the ancient world.
“While artefactual evidence of fibres and the use of knots has been reported from archaeological sites in Africa and Europe during the Pleistocene, material evidence of this technology is generally limited in ISEA, despite its potentially widespread use for fishing and seafaring,” they write.
Past research has looked at how extracting tree resin by early homo sapiens likely aided the advent of maritime travel in the Pacific over 55,000 years ago. Another study cataloging evidence of human occupation in the nearby areas of Indonesia and Timor revealed the likely use of relatively advanced technology to traverse the seas over 42,000 years ago.
Several other studies have found evidence for advanced technology appearing millennia before archaeologists previously believed. These include the use of hand carts in the Americas 22,000 years ago, the use of an ochre-based glue-like substance by modern human’s Neanderthal cousins over 40,000 years ago, and even the “sudden and rapid advance in technology” around stone tools over 600,000 years ago.
Still, the Ateneo de Manila University researchers point out that direct evidence for the types of boats used to travel such long distances and the nets used to capture deep sea fish has likely been lost since they were almost surely made of organic materials that would survive for tens of thousands of years. As a result, the researchers focused on evidence supporting the use of these comparatively advanced technologies to show how these ancient people likely traversed the oceans millennia before modern Polynesian seafarers.
Sophisticated Deep-Sea Fishing and Fiber Extraction
The research team focused their study on the ISEA region, as much of the area was never directly connected to mainland Asia via land bridges or recorded ice sheets. The researchers point out that the area has also yielded artifacts showing human occupation as far back as 42,000 years ago, meaning that humans must have traversed the sea to get there. Unfortunately, since wood and fiber-based materials wouldn’t survive until the present day, whatever technology they used to make those crossings must be inferred.
The team started unraveling the mystery by conducting a microscopic analysis of several stone tools collected at these archaeological sites. According to the researchers, this analysis revealed identifiable traces of plant processing on several stone tools. The evidence was most substantial for extracting fibers used to make ropes, nets, and bindings, an advanced technology essential for long-distance travel.
Separately, the team studied materials collected from archaeological sites in Mindoro and Timor-Leste. Those efforts revealed fishing hooks, gorges, and weights used in fishing nets. The site also yielded the remains of deep ocean, large, predatory “pelagic” fish that would be impossible to catch without ropes and nets.
According to the researchers, these findings indicate “the capacity for advanced seafaring and knowledge of the seasonality and migration routes of those fish species.” The researchers also note that the discovery of fishing implements “indicates the need for strong and well-crafted cordage for ropes and fishing lines to catch the marine fauna.”
Evidence for Behavioral Modernity?
In the study’s conclusion, the Ateneo de Manila University researchers note that finding the artifacts of ancient peoples on these disconnected islands provides “ample evidence that early modern humans were able to cross the open sea.” However, they also note that the circumstances of why and how they moved into and across (ISEA) “remain to be addressed.”
“The identification of boat building materials through direct or indirect evidence is vital in understanding movements across and within island environments,” they write.
Along with explaining how these ancient peoples were able to travel such vast distances to occupy the thousands of islands in the region, the researchers believe that “the connection between traces of prehistoric plant processing and seacrafts” used by these ancient people is “arguably an indication of behavioural modernity.”
“The discussion on sea crossings partly touches on the complexity of human behaviour in island environments,” they write. “However, in terms of traits of behavioural modernity and cognitive complexity directly associated with prehistoric seafaring during the Pleistocene, the archaeological evidence is scarce.”
The study “Testing the waters: Plant working and seafaring in Pleistocene Wallacea” was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.