Evidence discovered in a cave on Malta indicates hunter-gatherers visited the picturesque Mediterranean island long before they began farming on mainland Europe. If true, the 8,500-year-old archeological site appears to contradict commonly held assumptions about societal development among the continent’s last Mesolithic communities. Researchers published their findings on April 9 in Nature, and argue that as much as a millennium’s worth of Maltese prehistory may warrant reevaluation.
The trajectory of paleohistorical societies often goes something like this: first farming, then the open ocean. That’s because, generally speaking, the tools and techniques needed to craft seafaring technology such as sails only arrived after the invention of farming tools. Because of this, most archeologists long believed Mediterranean islands like Malta were some of the last wildernesses to encounter humans.
However, a cave site known as Latnija in Malta’s northern Mellieħa region is forcing experts to consider alternative historical narratives. There, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Malta have uncovered evidence indicating a human presence on the island at least 8,500 years ago—roughly 1,000 years before the first known farmers arrived. More specifically, Latnija contained stone tools and hearth fragments, as well as cooked food waste. Some of this food even came from animals believed to have already died out on the island.
“We found abundant evidence for a range of wild animals, including Red Deer, long thought to have gone extinct by this point in time,” study lead author Eleanor Scerri said in a statement. “They were hunting and cooking these deer alongside tortoises and birds, including some that were extremely large and extinct today.”
In addition to land animals, the cooked food scraps also included a large array of marine resources such as seals and fish, as well as thousands of gastropods, crabs, and sea urchins.
But just how far did these hunter-gatherers sail to host these Maltese cookouts? According to experts, at least 62 miles (100 km) of open water. Even more impressive, these ancient sailors likely made their journeys in simple dugout canoes without the aid of sails.
“Relying on sea surface currents and prevailing winds, as well as the use of landmarks, stars, and other wayfinding practices, a crossing of about 100 km is likely, with a speed of about 4 km per hour,” said study co-author Nicholas Vella, adding that, “Even on the longest day of the year, these seafarers would have had over several hours of darkness in open water.”
The study’s authors believe their findings can help kick off thoughtful reexaminations of Europe’s last hunter-gatherer societies, as well as their influence on the natural world around them. It’s now possible that at least some endemic animal populations on Malta and other distant Mediterranean islands went extinct partially due to humans. The discovery even raises the chances of still-unknown seafaring links between Mesolithic communities.
“The results add a thousand years to Maltese prehistory and force a re-evaluation of the seafaring abilities of Europe’s last hunter-gatherers, as well as their connections and ecosystem impacts,” said Scerri.
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