HOW MAN REACHED EUROPE
Author:GILES TREMLETT
Abstract: srjasfer
Spanish Investigators believe they may have found proof that
Neanderthal man reached Europe from Africa not just via the Middle East but by
sailing swimming or floating across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Prehistoric remains of hunter-gatherer communities found at a site known as La Cabililla
de Benau in the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta
are remarkably similar to these found in south Spain –investigators said. STONE
TOOLS : Stone Tools at the site correspond to the middle Palaeolithic
period when Neanderthal man emerged and resemble those found across Spain. This
could break the paradigm of most investigators who have refused to believe in
any contact in the Palaeolithic era between southern Europe and Northern Africa.. Investor Jose Ramos explained in the University of Cadiz’s research journal. Although the
scientists have not yet reached definite conclusions they say the evidence that
Neanderthal man mastered some primitive techniques for crossing the sea into
Europe from the coast from Ceuta
looks promising. If the theory could be proved and a two pronged arrival of Neanderthal
man is accepted it would help solve some problems on the mysteries thrown up by
prehistoric sites around Europe. During the
ice age that affected much of Europe the distance from Africa across the strait of Gibraltar
would have been much less than its current eight miles the Investigators from Cadiz University
said. There was also evidence that small Islands
may have existed in the middle of the Strait which would have made travelling
from one side to the other much lesser. Fauna and flora evidence from the same
era suggested both sides of the Mediterranean
were by no means isolated.A Neanderthal ability to travel across small stretches of sea would
help explain why the liberlian Peninsula has other examples of human remains than
say France.
If only the way of getting to Europe the middle east
then theoritically they should have go to france before reaching
spain