Archaeologists are currently locked in a debate about whether or not one of our most enigmatic ancestors possessed language. According to some, traces of the extinct human species Homo erectus on remote islands suggests they must have been able to build boats and navigate the waves, all of which would have required advanced communication skills.
However, a new analysis of this theory has found some major holes, ultimately concluding that the idea simply doesn’t float.
First appearing in the archaeological record around 2 million years ago, H. erectus spread through Eurasia before disappearing a little over 100,000 years ago. It has even been suggested that the extinct human lineage made it all the way to the islands of Flores in the Indian Ocean and Crete in the Mediterranean.
This apparent maritime mastery has inspired the theory that H. erectus possessed the necessary language skills to collaboratively build seaworthy vessels and sail the seas, yet linguistics professor Rudolf Botha from Stellenbosch University is unconvinced. For starters, he says it’s a bit of a stretch to assume that the ancient species ever set foot on Crete in the first place.
To back up this argument, Botha points out that no H. erectus fossils have ever been found on the island, and while prehistoric Cretan stone tools have been tentatively attributed to the species, some scholars think they were more likely to have been made by Neanderthals. Over on Flores, meanwhile, the most ancient human remains ever discovered belong to the famous “Hobbit-like” Homo floresiensis, which is thought to be a descendent of H. erectus but may also have evolved from other hominids like Homo habilis or Australopithecus.
It’s therefore not completely certain that H. erectus actually made it to either of these islands, although Botha admits that this does seem more likely in the case of Flores than it does for Crete. However, even if the ancient human lineage did sail to Flores, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they did so deliberately or built boats for their trip.
Pointing to assertions made by numerous other scholars, Botha suggests that H. erectus may have accidentally ended up on Flores after being swept out to sea on “natural rafts” made of local vegetation. “Crossing the stretches of open water separating Flores from the nearest other islands did not necessitate the use of boats or non-natural rafts,” he writes. “For this purpose, natural rafts were readily available to Homo erectus.”
Exactly how these involuntary voyages occurred is unclear, although “anecdotal accounts of natural rafting events and pertinent modeling” suggest that tsunamis and cyclones may have played a role.
Overall, then, the study author concludes that there simply isn’t enough evidence to prove that the species intentionally built boats and sailed to either Flores or Crete. Using this so-called “Seafaring Inference” as a basis for H. erectus language is therefore highly flawed, although that doesn’t mean that the ancient lineage definitely lacked linguistic skills.
Indeed, other researchers have pointed to the collaborative scavenging tactics employed by H. erectus as evidence for the use of language, while others say that the hominid’s ability to create symmetrical tools, combined with its large brain size, may indicate that it was intelligent enough to talk.
The study is published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
Source Link: Did Homo Erectus Have Language, Build Boats, And Sail Across Oceans?