German man hopes to sail raft made of reeds across Atlantic

Newsday ^ | May 28, 2007 | author

[SunkenCiv]

A man who is convinced, despite a lack of evidence, that adventurers regularly crossed the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 years ago is using reeds and eucalyptus to build a raft so he can imitate their voyage. Dominique Gorlitz, 40, a former school teacher from Chemnitz, Germany, says the two-month journey he and 11 others will make on 41-foot-long craft will prove people could have traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in prehistoric times... More than 25 volunteers are working on the craft at Liberty Landing Marina. Gorlitz based the craft's design on a northeastern African drawing from 6,000 years ago. He said part of it was built in Bolivia by Amyra Indians and then shipped here. According to Gorlitz, the discovery of traces of tobacco and cocaine in the tomb containing the mummy of the pharaoh Ramses II in Egypt is evidence that there was trade between the Old World and New World. In addition, Gorlitz said cave drawings found in Spain demonstrate the intricate knowledge people had about currents 14,000 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

The sign of the ancient mariner
by Henry Gee

M. J. Morwood of the University of New England, New South Wales and colleagues discuss stone tools and bones of fossil elephants and other animals, buried between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago on Flores, in the Lesser Sunda island chain east of Java. When sea-level was at its lowest, during the last Ice Age, much of what is now Indonesia was joined up into a single landmass, which included Borneo, Java and Sumatra. Even then, Flores was separated by three deep-water channels, the narrowest 19 km wide. Suggestions that stone tools on Flores and elsewhere in offshore Indonesia could represent a very early phase of human navigational ability have usually met with disbelief. This age suggests that the makers of the tools were Homo erectus, because, as far as we know, there were no members of Homo sapiens in Asia at the time. Not only that, these creatures would have to have crossed the open sea not once, but three times. [And] in Germany 400,000-year-old wooden spears, perfectly shaped for throwing [were left by] people that lived long before modern humans or even Neanderthals came to northern Europe.

[SunkenCiv]

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[bannie]

At least, for this man the destination is not unknown. Still, that will be quite a task. I hope he has a “net” along the way.

[SunkenCiv]

Not least for the fish they’ll need to eat.

[muawiyah]

Way back when the Atlantic was not as wide (since ocean levels were lower), and aggregate temperatures were lower.

Might have been possible to do all sorts of crazy things with a substantially reduced incidence of hurricanes.

As far as cocaine and tobacco in mummies is concerned, that only "proves" New World expeditions to the Old World, not the other way around. Also proves the dope trade is difficult to erradicate.

[SunkenCiv]

erectus at sea

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Cradle of Chocolate?
by Roger Segelken
Oct. 8, 1998

Digging through history to a time before agriculture, archaeologists from Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley have found evidence of a village that was continuously occupied from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1000 as well as hints to the secret of the community's remarkable longevity.

"My guess is, it all comes down to chocolate," says John S. Henderson, professor of anthropology at Cornell and co-director, together with Rosemary Joyce of Berkeley, of the archaeological dig at Puerto Escondido, Honduras. The type of ceremonial pottery uncovered by the archaeologists points to that region of Mesoamerica as a possible "Cradle of Chocolate."

[annie laurie]

A man who is convinced, despite a lack of evidence, that adventurers regularly crossed the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 years ago is using reeds and eucalyptus to build a raft so he can imitate their voyage.

Hope he's not taking any koalas along.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I suppose there are more painful ways of committing suicide. ;-)

I wish him success...... Success in his trip, not suicide.

[hawkboy]

Didn’t Thor Hyerdahl sail an Egyptian style reed boat from Morroco to the Caribbean back in the ‘70’s?

[albee]

"I suppose there are more painful ways of committing suicide. ;-)

Sounds to me that we have a bunch of Darwin candidates planning a sea voyage.

[Fred Nerks]

Thor Heyerdahl built this 45 foot long copy of an ancient Egyptian papyrus vessel in 1969, with the aid of members of the Burundi tribe from Chad in Central Africa. Constructed at the foot of the Pyramids and named after the sun god Ra, it was later transported to Safi in Morocco, from where it set sail for Barbados. After c. 3000 miles there were problems with the construction of the stern, which could not take the strain. Just a short distance from Barbados the ship had to be abandoned. Ten months later four Aymara Indians from Bolivia, who still mastered the traditional art of building reed boats, built Ra II. This boat went on to complete a successful transatlantic crossing, covering the 4000 miles to Barbados in just 57 days. The voyages with Ra I and II proved that it had been possible with transatlantic contacts between the old civilisations and the Americas.Photo Ra II

[Fred Nerks]

” [And] in Germany 400,000-year-old wooden spears, perfectly shaped for throwing [were left by] people that lived long before modern humans or even Neanderthals came to northern Europe...”

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc97/3_1_97/fob2.htm

Of the animal bones at the site, most of them from horses, many have incisions and fractures typically produced during butchery, the German archaeologist says. The material probably dates to 400,000 years ago, based on its position in a soil layer sandwiched between deposits of previously identified ice ages, he adds.

(Previously identified ice ages???)

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.stonewatch.de/media/download/WWRockArtNews-GB.pdf

Cuevo del Castillo 12,000 YO rockart ‘map’ - Canary Islands Gulf Stream system...

[F.J. Mitchell]

It really does.

[camle]

been done. see Thor Hyerdahl and tha RA expedition.

[SunkenCiv]

I think they’ll make it.

[F.J. Mitchell]

After reading the info that you and some others posted, I have to agree. Historically speaking then, these guys are just reinventing the wheel.

[SunkenCiv]

Well, they’re doing something analogous, but using an older-style vessel.

[SunkenCiv]

a related story and update:

Local boat crew hopes to prove that trans-Atlantic travel is older than we think
by Madeline Baro Diaz
Sun-Sentinel
July 8 2007

Born in Slovakia to a Cuban father and Slovak mother, Valmana moved to Havana with his family when he was 2. Once a firm believer in Cuba's communist system, he changed his mind when he studied in Russia in 1986... A history buff, Valmana, 39, learned of the Abora III six months ago while tracking down a rare book by Thor Heyerdahl, the mariner famous for his voyages on primitive vessels. Valmana found the Abora III's Web site and got in touch with Goerlitz, who welcomed him aboard though he had no sailing experience. For Valmana, who said he wished he could have sailed with Heyerdahl, a dream had been fulfilled. When he got his first glimpse of the Abora III, his decision was confirmed.