I will shortly be posting in English to LexiLine my originally German-language presentation at the Machalett Conference in May of this year 2007 in which I presented my view of how ancient seafarers surveyed Europe and Africa in the Neolithic Era, using astronomy as their triangulation measuring stick and megalithic sites as their survey markers.
Support for my general theory is found in a just published July 19, 2007 archaeology news report.
In an article at Yahoo News titled "Ancient mariner tools found near Cyprus", George Psyllides, AP writer,
reports on new archaeological finds on the island of Cyprus which suggest that ancient seafaring was more far-reaching and much older than previously thought by the mainstream scientific community.
Psyllides quotes Colgate University's Albert J. Ammerman, the survey's director, as follows:
"These are the people who are the pioneers.... All of what we see on the land is just a tip of the iceberg of what is in the water...."
Psyllides writes further:
"The archaeologists believe that tools found at the two sites were used by seafaring foragers who frequented the island well over 10,000 years ago — before the first permanent settlers arrived around 8,200 B.C.
They are thought to have sailed from present-day Syria and Turkey, at least 46 miles north and east of the island.
The dawn of seafaring in the region has been put at around 9,500 B.C. from evidence found 20 years ago at Aetokremnos, on Cyprus' southern Akrotiri peninsula.
The finds indicate these early wanderers traveled more widely, and more frequently, than was previously believed, outside experts say.
"This just shows there is a lot more activity than was originally thought," said Tom Davis, an archaeologist and director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute.... "We're looking at repeated visits around the island."
"These would be people stopping deliberately, coming to the island to use resources, setting themselves with a clear understanding of the landscape," Davis said."
