Overview

Over the past decade, evidence has been mounting that our ancestors developed skills to sail across large bodies of water early in prehistory. In this fascinating volume, Alan Simmons summarizes and synthesizes the evidence for prehistoric seafaring and island habitation worldwide, then focuses on the Mediterranean. Recent work in Melos, Crete, and elsewhere-- as well as Simmons’ own work in Cyprus-- demonstrate that long-distance sailing is a common Paleolithic phenomenon. His comprehensive presentation of the key evidence and findings will be of interest to both those interested in prehistory and those interested in ancient seafaring.

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9781611321142

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Reviews

This timely and important book will surprise--and challenge--the reader. It marshals the growing body of surprisingly diverse evidence for prehistoric voyaging and seafaring by pre-humans and early humans around the world, and it challenges the reader to re-think the role of seafaring in human prehistory. If our early hominin ancestors were able to cross large bodies of open water, we will henceforth have to regard seas and oceans not as barriers, but as open lanes connecting the islands and continents of the world, and to reconsider the timing and course of early human adaptive radiations from first principles. --Curtis Runnels, Boston University

Scholars of prehistory have been waiting for this book. The approach is global, but the focus is on the Eastern Mediterranean at least 12,000 years before the present. UNLV archaeologist Simmons and doctoral student DiBenedetto ground this book in their work on Cyprus. The authors explore and explain all aspects of seafaring before the Neolithic, clearly demonstrating that humans became sailors soon after they learned to paddle rafts. ... One of the book's many strengths is their step-by-step approach to putting all the pieces of the puzzle together--seamanship, currents, and winds. ... For methodology, explanations, and discussion of shipbuilding 12,000 to 4,000 years ago, there is not a better guide when combined with Brookbank's book [The Making of the Middle Sea]. Summing Up: Essential. R. Higham, emeritus, Kansas State University

Author Information

Alan H. Simmons is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA. He has excavated extensively in Cyprus, in the Middle East, and in the American Southwest, including heading a long-term project at the prehistoric site of Akrotiri Aetokremnos on Cyprus. Simmons is author of half a dozen books and over 150 research papers and reports on the prehistory of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. His book The Neolithic Revolution in the Near East won the G Ernest Wright Book Award of the American Schools for Oriental Research. Katelyn Benedetto is a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA.

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