There almost certainly was very little, if any, contact between Africa and
Tropical America (at least in a westerly direction) before Columbus. If
there had been the Native American would not have been so totally
vulnerable to Old World tropical diseases.
As for Neandertal seafaring capabilities there is very little evidence that
they had any. There is indeed very little evidence of any pre-sapiens
hominids crossing even narrow water gaps. I am aware of only two (neither
as yet quite certain) cases: The Lesser Sundas and Corsica-Sardinia. In
both cases only short or very short water crossings would have been needed
and in both cases the "seafarers" were probably Homo erectus rather than
neandertalers. The rarity of such pre-sapiens colonizations probably means
that they were due to "sweepstake-dispersal" rather than deliberate
voyages. It is notable that for example England was apparently uninhabited
during the entire last interglacial, which means that för more than 10,000
years no Neandertalers crossed the Channel despite the fact that the land
on the other side is easily visible.
On the other hand Paleolithic Homo sapiens apparently were capable of
fairly extensive seafaring. Australia-New Guinea was reached before 40,000
BP, New Britain and the Solomons by 25-30,000 BP, Manus by 20,000 BP and
Cyprus before 10,000 BP. Particularily the colonization of the Manus
islands is quite remarkable since it requires a sea crossing of about 300
km.
Tommy
---------
> Från: Gerry Reinhart-Waller <waluk@...>
> Till: Brentlords@...; cybalist@egroups.com
> Ämne: [cybalist] Re: Just Joined, got lots of questions-help?
> Datum: den 30 november 1999 19:40
>
> Welcome to the group Brent Lords.
>
> To answer your questions 1-4, how specific an answer are you looking
> for? Perhaps the exact date, place, time (do you need it in minutes or
> will the appromixate hour be sufficient).
>
> Or if you're interested in a generalist answer one could say they split
> after they had gathered into a group.
>
> As far as question #5, folks on this list (and others) are still trying
> to figure out what type of craft was used to sail between Africa and
> South America and whether Neanderthal was capable of constructing such a
> vessel.
>
> Perhaps you'd like to offer some of your own answers to your questions.
> Cheers, Gerry
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/cybalist
> http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
>
>
>