US EditionScientists Retrace 30,000-Year-Old Sea Voyage, in a Hollowed-Out Log
EAST CHINA SEA FROM EASTERN TAIWAN TO YONAGUNI ISLAND, JAPAN, JUN 26 – A team paddled 225 kilometers over 45 hours in a dugout canoe to show how Paleolithic humans crossed the East China Sea using natural navigation and rudimentary tools.
- In June 2025, a group led by anthropologist Yosuke Kaifu successfully completed a 45-hour paddling expedition across the East China Sea, traveling from a location near Taiwan to Yonaguni Island, part of Japan’s southern Ryukyu Islands.
- The voyage reenacted a prehistoric route people likely crossed around 30,000 years ago, using a dugout canoe made with replicated Palaeolithic tools to test migration feasibility.
- The 7.5-meter canoe named Sugime was paddled by four men and one woman across roughly 140 miles, navigating the strong Kuroshio current without modern equipment.
- Kaifu explained that they conducted experiments using different times of year, launch locations, and rowing techniques under conditions reflecting both current and ancient environments, while oceanographer Yu-Lin Chang emphasized that unpredictable weather patterns could have contributed to unsuccessful attempts.
- The expedition demonstrated that ancient humans could have intentionally crossed these sea routes despite extreme risks, but Kaifu doubts a safe return journey was possible due to ocean currents.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Scientists retrace 30,000-year-old sea voyage, in a hollowed-out log - West Hawaii Today
In 1947, against the best navigational advice, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and five crew members set sail from Peru on a balsa wood raft to test his theory that ancient South American cultures could have reached Polynesia. The frail vessel, called Kon-Tiki, crossed several thousand nautical miles of the Pacific in 103 days and showed that his anthropological hunch was at least feasible.
Scientists retrace 30,000-year-old sea voyage, in a hollowed-out log - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
In 1947, against the best navigational advice, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and five crew members set sail from Peru on a balsa wood raft to test his theory that ancient South American cultures could have reached Polynesia. The frail vessel, called Kon-Tiki, crossed several thousand nautical miles of the Pacific in 103 days and showed that his anthropological hunch was at least feasible.
People from the Old Stone Age are often considered primitive. Researchers in eastern Asia now showed what impressive achievements people were capable of at that time - with a canoe trip.
With a primitive canoe, scientists replicate prehistoric seafaring
Our species arose in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago and later trekked worldwide, eventually reaching some of Earth's most remote places. In doing so, our ancestors surmounted geographic barriers including treacherous ocean expanses. But how did they do that with only rudimentary technology available to them? Read more at straitstimes.com.
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