In brief
A study led by Yousuke Kaifu from the University of Tokyo has successfully traced back ancient maritime migration strategies from Taiwan to Japan using experimental archaeology, replicating a 30,000-year-old voyage with an ancient canoe.
In 2019, a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo, spearheaded by anthropologist Yousuke Kaifu, embarked on an ambitious project to explore oceanic migration routes taken by ancient humans over 30,000 years ago. Constructing a dugout canoe — a 25-foot vessel named Sugime carved from a cedar log — they sought to understand how these early navigators traversed the powerful Kuroshio current from Taiwan to the southern Japanese islands, such as Okinawa, without modern navigational tools. This undertaking mirrors that of the famous Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who, in 1947, set sail on a balsa wood raft called Kon-Tiki to demonstrate the feasibility of ancient maritime movements across the Pacific. Dr. Kaifu explained that due to the lack of physical evidence from so long ago, they relied on experimental archaeology to attempt to recreate the ancient journey.The findings of their research were published in two new studies in the journal Science on Wednesday. One of the studies utilized advanced ocean models to simulate hundreds of potential voyages, analyzing factors such as seasonal conditions, various starting points, and differing paddling techniques under both contemporary and prehistoric scenarios. The other paper details the actual journey taken in 2019 from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island in the Ryukyu Islands. The team, which consisted of four men and one woman, completed the 122-nautical-mile voyage over 45 hours, solely using the stars, sun, and wind for navigation. Often, they were unable to directly observe their destination, which represented not only a test of their navigational skills but also a significant step in understanding early human migrations.Peter Bellwood, an archaeologist at the Australian National University and an observer of the project, remarked on the significance of their findings. He suggested that this potential maritime crossing stands out as one of the earliest and longest migrations of Homo sapiens prior to the journey to Australia from eastern Indonesia, which took place roughly 50,000 years ago. This exploration enriches our historical perspective on human adaptability and ingenuity in navigating the seas long before the advent of modern navigation techniques.
