The First Farmers if Europe Prof Stephan Shennan

[Judith]

First posted in https://anthrogenica.com/showthread....hlight=Shennan Thanks!

I have bought the Kindle edition of this book and I want to recommend it. Thanks again for the lead JS1 DSY388=13
I have only read parts so far such as the Mediterranean north coast migrations and I have learned a lot too. It gives the archeological background to Olalde 2015 of the Cardial early Neolithic.
Have you ever wondered what sort of boats they had as they migrated 300km per generation? I have,(since I sail). A 10m canoe 1m wide has been found which with no keel would have been unstable but with an outrigger it would carry cattle and they clearly did.

I am not an archaeologicist but Prof Shennan is at UCL a high ranking UK university and most of this synthesis work was done on an ERC advanced research grant which are only given to the best researchers with the best ideas.

I look forward to all of your views!

[Helen]

Thank you for recommending this book. I ordered it after reading your post and have found it a very thorough and interesting book using scientific approaches and clear explanations.

[Saetro]

Transport methods were very important to my ancestors, both in the last few centuries and further back.
And I used to sail for a short but vivid time.
So I always wonder about how people got around, particularly in boats.
I have recently finished reading J P Mallory's The Origins of the Irish with early Irish crossing water and the first farmers bringing cattle across water.

But the bigger puzzle for me is the much earlier crossing (circa 65,000 ya) between Sunda and Sahul - a landmass then encompassing Papua New Guinea and Australia.
A recent paper looked at that but seemed to me to focus on a crossing between two points where, to me, there would have been very strong currents as the area was a serious pinch point. I think it more likely that one of the other possible locations was more likely than this Scylla and Charybdis strait.
There was no sign that any of the authors of that paper were sailors.
Although they did consider likely craft used - for carrying capacity as much as fabricability.
The likely papers are not coming up for me this morning.
I think they are C Clarkson et al Nature 2017.
Or Norman et al (including C Clarkson) Quaternary Science 2018.
Using "Clarkson" and "Sahul" as search terms.
If they cooperate later I will let you know.

[Judith]

This First Farmer book got me interested so I have also bought Barry Cunliffe’s On the Ocean, but I have not opened it yet, but will add more then.

I am a sailor and I looked at my Pacific crossing guide when contributing to a on-line discussion on Homo floriencis. It gives all of the inter island currents and distances. There was more land then (even more for Flores man) so the crossings were shorter.
A canoe with outriggers seems the best option to me as a craft, and if you only want to go somewhere as opposed to a specific destination then paddling and prevailing winds work well.