ABSTRACT

The rise of water transport technology enabled early modern humans to expand their habitable territory to insular environments. However, apart from intensive discussion for Wallacea, developmental process and regional variation of Palaeolithic seafaring remain unclear. To contribute this issue, the author presents a synthetic model for Palaeolithic seafaring in another region of the western Pacific, the Ryukyu Islands (Ryukyus). Here, some islands were more than 100 km away and invisible beyond the horizon, and one of the world’s strongest ocean currents intervened the seaways. Despite these challenging situations, Palaeolithic sites appeared throughout much of the 1,200 km chain of the islands ~35,000–30,000 years ago. By integrating currently available information from archaeology, skeletal morphology, genetics, palaeogeography, oceanography and our own experimental voyage project, the author discusses probable migration routes, possible watercrafts, preparation and strategy needed for successful maritime migrations, and other issues relevant to deeper understanding of the origins and development of human maritime activities.

摘要

水运技术的兴起使早期现代人类能够将他们的宜居领土扩大到与世隔绝的环境。然而，除了对 Wallacea 的深入讨论外，旧石器时代航海的发展过程和区域差异仍不清楚。为了贡献这一期，作者提出了西太平洋另一个地区琉球群岛 (Ryukyus) 旧石器时代航海的综合模型。在这里，一些岛屿在 100 多公里之外，在地平线之外是看不见的，世界上最强的洋流之一介入了航道。尽管面临这些具有挑战性的情况，旧石器时代遗址仍出现在距今约 35,000 至 30,000 年前的 1,200 公里岛屿链的大部分地区。通过整合来自考古学、骨骼形态学、遗传学、古地理学的现有信息，