Abstract – The Maltese archipelago is a small island chain that is among the most remote in the Mediterranean. Humans were not thought to have reached and inhabited such small and isolated islands until the regional shift to Neolithic lifeways, around 7.5 thousand years ago (ka)1. In the standard view, the limited resources and ecological vulnerabilities of small islands, coupled with the technological challenges of long-distance seafaring, meant that hunter-gatherers were either unable or unwilling to make these journeys2,3,4. Here we describe chronological, archaeological, faunal and botanical data that support the presence of Holocene hunter-gatherers on the Maltese islands. At this time, Malta’s geographical configuration and sea levels approximated those of the present day, necessitating seafaring distances of around 100 km from Sicily, the closest landmass. Occupations began at around 8.5 ka and are likely to have lasted until around 7.5 ka. These hunter-gatherers exploited land animals, but were also able to take advantage of marine resources and avifauna, helping to sustain these groups on a small island. Our discoveries document the longest yet-known hunter-gatherer sea crossings in the Mediterranean, raising the possibility of unknown, precocious connections across the wider region.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08780-y
Comment: The full Nature article is quite lengthy and is a big tough to get through unless you have an avid interest in archeology or anthropology. Even though I’m an anthropologist by schooling, my interest was spurred by the thought of Mesolithic hunters and gathers building a boat to voyage to an unknown land over the horizon. Bundìn er bàtlaus mađur.
There are quite a few archeological digs of stone age dugout canoes. And much like Thor Heyerdahl, a Czech professor of anthropology, Radomir Tichy, set out to prove that such dugout canoes could accomplish such a voyage. He and a band of students recreated several dugout canoes, based on similar craft found at more northern European archeological sites. His second canoe was a replica of the Neolithic Lake Marmotta find in Lake Bracciano, Italy. The stories of “The Monoxylon Expeditions” are a good read for everyone, not just anthropologists. There are also videos of at least one of the voyages.
Earlier efforts in such experimental archeology were carried out by Professor Harry Tzalas, of the Hellenic Institute of Ancient and Mediaeval Alexandrian Studies. But he chose to reconstruct a reed (papyrus) boat that was, at the time, archaeologically unattested in the Mesolithic/Neolthic Mediterranean region, rather than a dugout canoe that is archaeologically attested. Tzalas did this because he did not believe that dugout canoes were seaworthy, although later disproven by Tichy’s monoxyl reconstructions. (Monoxyl being just a scientific term for dugout canoe.) The reed raft tradition was well documented in Mediterranean archeology and existed on the island of Corfu until the early 1970s and it could be constructed with simple Neolithic tools. Plus Tzalas created his boat soon after the voyages of Heyerdahl’s Ra and Kon-Tiki, although those designs were not Neolithic.
TTG
I always figured that those ancient seamen adventurers started out by following the coast line. That would be the safest way to venture out. After a few generations’ of experience, they learned to build better boats, improved seamanship, learned how to prepare for increasingly longer journeys with increasingly longer periods of time away from land.
Looking at it that way (compounded multigenerational knowledge), it is easier to understand how they could sail some truly amazing distances, for me at least.
I suspect they may have caught sight of those islands while fishing within sight of the land they came from, those islands are rather hilly. I believe Malta, with it’s 800 ft mountain, would be visible from about 30 miles off shore. Once a sighting of a new, strange land was made, curiosity would’ve been overwhelming.
Eric Newhill,
Your “compounded multigenerational knowledge” is what we called culture in Anthro 101. And you’re absolutely right. Fathers and uncles taught sons from an early age. It’s more than just accumulated knowledge. It’s learning how to solve problems of all kinds. It’s like my father plopping an old two cycle engine on my workbench and telling me that when I got it working, we’ll build a gokart. I did and we did. I still use the knowledge learned in getting that old engine running on my cars.
That problem solving ability should be developed not just at home, but in K-12 schooling as well.
TTG,
Yep. That is how we survived and advanced. I am highly suspicious of very recent new modes of information transmission. It wisdom in depth, more like factoids with no context via practical experience. Everyone thinks google or AI has made then genius from the shelter of their little box in some bigger box in some urban setting. Humans need to get their hands dirty, feel pain and have an older mentor, who’s been there/done that to guide them through – also to be accepting of death as a possible outcome.
I don’t think the ancients had lawyers to sue when failures occurred or politicians to regulate maritime exploration. Amazing so much was accomplished without such people latching in and directing operations.
Eric –
The ancients did the smart thing and killed their kings or other leaders when failures occured.
I find it fascinating how much we tend to underestimate our ancestors, their ingenuity and most of all their bravery/stupidity. We have people doing things like climbing rock faces with no safety lines, skydiving to be caught by a net, so why do we think that some neolithic daredevil would not take a canoe out to open sea?
I’ve always enjoyed the whole “aliens built this” genre, where you have talking heads ascribing everything to aliens or advanced ancient civilizations (hello Atlantis). I see it as fiction and entertainment rather than having any real basis, but it amuses me to no end that there are semi-serious people who think that our ancestors were so dumb and incompetent that they couldn’t figure out a way to move a few large rocks 🙂
TTG, I see you have your undergrad cultural anthropology degree still activating your interests.
Likewise, my same undergrad studies still have maintained life long interests, tho, grad school took me into a different career.
Al,
Once I joined ROTC, I switched majors from geology to anthropology to study what truly interested me. I originally chose geology as a path to paleontology, but with the practical expectation that I could always get a job in the oil industry if the paleontology route didn’t pan out. The work of the Leakeys in Olduvai Gorge captured my imagination at a very early age. This stuff still fascinates me.
TTG, I switched majors from biology to cultural anthropology. Then off on a different graduate sch education and career path
The “cultural stuff” musta evolved into my offspring, tho. My oldest was married to a co-ed here in US from Mexico for 5 yrs. My youngest son married 20 yrs to wonderful Chinese woman he met on a Carribean island. My daughter married 14 yrs ago an Oklahoma State U grad from Guatemala (US citizen now)
Now have a very diverse/blended group of grandchildren
Al,
When I finally went to grad school, I went for international studies concentrating in East/Central Europe. For my thesis, I was going to look at the international studies/political science field from an anthropological point of view, basically treating the faculty as an Amazon tribe. I was advised by a friendly professor that I should choose a different topic because there were some professors who were not at all comfortable with my choice and that some of them would probably be sitting on my thesis review board. I changed my subject to a less controversial comparison of how collectivization was applied in Poland and Hungary. I jst wanted to get the degree.
My family is not near as diverse as yours. The closest we have to exotic is one of my nieces. My sister married an Albanian who recently emigrated to the US. Her daughter is now a novelist, Xhenet Aliu, writing about things close to her upbringing. Her first novel “Brass” centered on growing up working class in Waterbury, Connecticut. It was critically well received. Her second, just released, “Everyone Says It’s Everything” is set in Waterbury and the Bronx and centers around the Balkan War in Albania. We’re all pretty damned proud of her.
voislav,
I agree. Those ancestors of ours paid attention to the natural world around them and learned how to deal with it. The alternative was an early death. I like your idea of bravery/stupidity being an integral part of our nature. It has carried us far.
I’m not surprised. Long before that, Neanderthals were ancient mariners reportedly in the Greek islands:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328544-800-neanderthals-were-ancient-mariners/
https://www.science.org/content/article/neandertals-stone-age-people-may-have-voyaged-mediterranean
But back to Malta. The Nature article seem to imply that Sicily, the closest landmass, is the most likely origin point. Except of course for the knapped stone tools, which seem to suggest Sardinia. But Sardinia would be a 500 km plus trip unless they went first to Sicily then to Malta.
Science magazine suggests they could just as easily come from Tunisa or Libya.
https://www.science.org/content/article/mediterranean-hunter-gatherers-voyaged-across-open-sea-8500-years-ago
Although that does not explain the knapped tools unless Sardinians had hopped from home to North Africa then to Malta. There are several small islands between Malta and Tunisia that could have been used in island hopping: Pantelleria, Lampedusa, Linosa & tiny Lampione – regardless of where these early hunter-gatherers originated from.
Stone tools a million years old on Flores, long before Neandertals came into existence? I imagine any critter capable of knapping stone tools and utilizing fire as capable of imagining a dugout. “Few things are more worth doing than mucking about in boats” may pre-exist language.
I once lived next door to Bengt Danielsson, of Kon Tiki fame. His stories about the real Old Days was fascinating to my 8 year old mind. It also got me very interested in history, which I still have. I am also amazed how much can be learned from very small fragments of various kinds. I also think there will be much more that will be discovered.