A sequence of underwater caves off the southern coast of Sicily holds clues about Ice Age-era human migration. A group of ‘citizen scientists’ — together with a tugboat captain and each leisure and Italian navy divers — helped uncover them.
The findings, reported in PLOS ONE, describe 25 caves and rock shelters that present indicators of human occupation from about 17,000 years in the past. Many students think about Sicily to be among the many first islands people settled within the Mediterranean.
On this case, the researchers had been all in favour of what crops and animals inhabited the island earlier than people entered, what the geology was like after they arrived, and, presumably, how actions like looking and foraging might have modified the island’s surroundings.
“There’s a very sophisticated puzzle right here that we are attempting to tease out,” says Ilaria Patania, an archeologist at Washington College in St. Louis.
Underwater Caves Reveal Human Migration Patterns
Pinpointing when people arrived in Sicily is just step one. “We hope to reconstruct not solely the timing of human occupation, but in addition the surroundings these individuals lived in and the way they negotiated with pure occasions like earthquakes, climatic and environmental adjustments and perhaps even volcanic eruptions,” says Patania.
There may be nonetheless no definitive proof of how people acquired to Sicily or from the place they got here. However this analysis has opened the potential of an method from the south. Earlier work emphasizes human arrival on the island’s north aspect.
Learn Extra: Looking for Life in Underwater Caves
Traces of Early Settlements in Italy
There’s no definitive proof that early people sailed from Italy, by the unique “rock and a tough place” historical Greeks referred to as the monsters Scylla and Charybdis — named presumably for volcanoes, whirlpools, or treacherous shoals.
The geology then was very totally different, with plate tectonics possible tipping the northern part of the island, and decrease sea ranges making land bridges attainable.
“What we see at this time is just not the panorama that people noticed 17,000 years in the past,” says Patania.
Again then, the people most likely reached the caves by descending a pure terraced staircase. To enter them now, individuals have to swim underwater and emerge into chambers above sea stage. The caves include stone instruments, pottery, and indicators of cooking.
Most of the caves had been found earlier, then forgotten about. To relocate them, Patania, who was born in Sicily, tapped into native data. She talked to beachcombers, leisure divers, and even a retired tugboat captain who used to pilot a ship within the space.
Learn Extra: Ice Ages: What Causes the Earth to Freeze Over Each Few Million Years?
Recruiting Citizen Scientists
She confirmed them what stone instruments they could discover underwater and requested them to be looking out for geologic clues that may point out human exercise. Patania additionally recruited members of the Italian navy who typically dive within the space to clear underwater ordnance left over from World Struggle II.
“We’ve discovered so many websites that method — simply by speaking to individuals,” says Patania. “With out that native data, we might not have achieved half of the stuff we now have achieved.”
Learn Extra: The World’s Deepest Underwater Cave
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Earlier than becoming a member of Uncover Journal, Paul spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science coverage and international scientific profession points. He started his profession in newspapers, however switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications together with Science Information, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
