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[left-of-center2012]

This message was self-deleted by its author (left-of-center2012) on Fri Oct 23, 2020, 09:11 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[Bayard]

1. Bookmarking for later

[dameatball]

2. Interesting stuff. Thank you.

[tblue37]

3. K&R & thanks. nt

[CatMor]

4. Fascinating...

trying to imagine life 130,000 years ago.

[niyad]

5. KNR and bookmarking.

[empedocles]

6. Yes

[Mister Ed]

7. I wonder, though, whether Crete was really isolated from the mainland during that time.

Water levels in the Mediterranean were much lower during the last Ice Age. I'm not at all knowledgeable on the subject, but I wonder whether there may have been much less open water for humans to traverse to get to Crete, or whether Create may have even been conjoined with the mainland at that time.

[left-of-center2012]

8. "Considering Crete has been an island for five million years"

I'm guessing they had reason to write this?

[Mister Ed]

9. Yep, I read that part.

It seemed to conflict with other information that turned up in a quick internet search, so I don't know which to believe.

[left-of-center2012]

10. I'd like to read what you found

Please post it.

[Mister Ed]

13. Interesting. Looking further, here's what I see:

My initial search was just for maps of the Mediterranean during low-water periods. I won't link to them here because I see that they don't correspond to the time period of the discovered settlements.

Instead, I see that, at the time the settlements were occupied, sea levels were actually higher than they are today:

The current sea level is about 130 metres higher than the historical minimum. Historically low levels were reached during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 20,000 years ago. The last time the sea level was higher than today was during the Eemian, about 130,000 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_sea_level

Now, this is only Wikipedia, which is not a definitive source. Nonetheless, it seems to bear out the caption in the ancient-origins article stating that, although the discovered settlements are high on a bluff today, they were at the shoreline when they were occupied.

This means that ancient mariners would have needed to traverse an even greater expanse of water 130,000 years ago than they would need to cross today. Or, if they'd only had the patience to wait another 110,000 years until the Glacial Maximum, they might have been able to hike there.

[Mister Ed]

15. I was saying it may have been either connected to the mainland or else closer to it at some times.

It's generally known that sea levels were about 120m lower than at present during the last ice age. With these lower levels, parts of the modern Mediterranean seafloor were dry land, including the Adriatic and Aegean areas:


https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/File:Mediterranean_Bathymetric_map.png

Some maps and videos I glanced across seemed to show Crete connected to the mainland at that time, or else closer to it. (Mediterranean view is at about 1:10 in this video)

However, as Post #12 says, reliable information on the topic is hard to find. And, as I learned before making post #13, the whole question has no bearing on the OP because this extreme low-water period occurred more than 100,000 years after the settlement described in the OP was occupied.

[Mister Ed]

17. Me too. I've said so in posts #13 and #15.

[left-of-center2012]

11. Maybe there's a travel guide ?

"Walking to Crete in the Year 120,000 B.C."

AAA rates cave lodging along the way.

Best place to get a mammoth burger.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Hard to find good info on that, but apparently it didn't make that much difference

The water around Crete is mostly pretty deep.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Thank you, left-of-center2012. Tremendous when discoveries are made pushing back the time barrier.

There's a lot to anticipate now, with improved technology to use in research.