We modern humans tend to look down on our ancient Neanderthal cousins. In our imagination, Neanderthals were brutish, cave dwelling lunks who couldn’t hack it once we left Africa and set up shop in Neanderthal territory in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

 

　　But Neanderthals were more sophisticated than we tend to give them credit for. They had sophisticated tools and almost certainly had some form of spoken language. And, according to new research, Neanderthals likely took to the seas long before modern humans.

 

　　Archaeologists have found Neanderthal tools dating from around 100,000 years ago on the Greek islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos. If Neanderthals were on those islands, scientists reason, they must have gotten there by boat.

 

　　Now, it’s possible that long ago those islands weren’t islands, or that sea levels were low enough that Neanderthals could have crossed over to the islands by walking or even swimming. But scientists have shown that the Mediterranean sea was at least 590 feet deep when Neanderthals lived in what’s now modern Greece.

 

　　Plus, scientists have found pre-historic tools on the island of Crete that predate even Neanderthals. So it seems that even more ancient proto-human species knew how to sail.

 

　　In any case, although it’s impossible to know for sure, it seems likely that Neanderthals were sailors long before modern humans built their first sea faring vessels.

 

　　穴居人远比我们想象的聪明！

 

　　我们现代人常看不起古代的尼安得特人兄弟。在我们的想象中，尼安得特人是野蛮的、居住在洞穴里的笨蛋，一旦我们离开非洲，在欧洲、中亚和中东的尼安得特人居住地开商铺的话，他们一定应付不来。

 

　　但是，尼安得特人比我们想象的要厉害的多。他们有复杂的工具，几乎可以肯定他们会说某种语言。并且，根据新的研究，尼安得特人可能比现代人早很多就懂得航海了。

 

　　考古学家已经在希腊群岛中的凯利法尼亚岛和扎金索斯岛上发掘到100,000年前尼安得特人的工具。科学家认为，如果尼安得特人曾经在那些岛上出现过，那么他们一定是乘船去的。

 

　　当然，那些岛屿可能很久之前还不是岛屿，或者海平面很低，尼安得特人能够走着或游泳到那些岛屿上。但是，科学家已经证实，在尼安得特人居住在现代希腊的领土上时，地中海至少有590英尺深。

 

　　此外，科学家已经在克里特岛上发现早于尼安得特人的史前工具。看来似乎更早期的原始人类已经知道如何航海了。

 

　　不论如何，尽管不能确定，但尼安得特人很可能在现代人造出第一艘船的很久之前，就已经航海出行了。