It is thought that boating started 40,000 years ago. Modern man is only 50,000 years old.
The article is about stone artifacts on Crete. Stone shaping started about 2 million years ago.
If the stone artifacts on Crete are 130,000 years old, then they were made by pre-humans. If they are on Crete, then they probably used some type of boat to get there.
If pre-humans had boats, then it’s probable that early humans had boats as well. However, the entire article has nothing to do with humans, so the opening paragraph shouldn’t have said anything about humans. This is anecdotal evidence that pre-humans had boats and means squat for humans.
Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe and the Middle East is only 40,000 ya, but Homo sapiens sapiens is also found in SA dating to 150,000 ya - MDA trace goes back 200,000 ya.
Genetic records of original Homo sapiens sapiens mostly destroyed after MT Toba supervolcano eruption in 74,000 BC.
None of this is to be confused with Homo Erectus or Ergaster. HSS was concurrent with these other homo variations.
Where did you get that figure from? Humans are much older than 40,000 years.