A new study by Ateneo de Manila University claims that early Filipinos had already mastered boatbuilding and other seafaring skills thousands of years before renowned explorers like Ferdinand Magellan, Zheng He, and the Polynesians. Advanced boats were created around 40,000 years ago, changing the understanding of humanity's mastery of marine technologies.
Archaeological sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste yielded remains of deep ocean fish such as tuna and sharks, indicating that early Filipinos engaged in deep-sea fishing.
Archaeologists Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik initiated the First Long-Distance Open-Sea Watercrafts (FLOW) Project in collaboration with naval architects from the University of Cebu. The project aims to test raw materials that were possibly used in the past and to design and test scaled-down models of seacraft.
Supported by a research grant from Ateneo de Manila University [https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1074507], the FLOW Project seeks to understand how prehistoric peoples achieved ocean crossings. Organic materials like wood and fiber, typically used for boats, rarely survive in the archaeological record, making this an enduring mystery. Inspired by several years of fieldwork on Ilin Island, Occidental Mindoro, Fuentes and Pawlik decided to explore this topic and test their hypothesis.
"The remains of large predatory pelagic fish in these sites indicate the capacity for advanced seafaring and knowledge of the seasonality and migration routes of those fish species," stated Fuentes and Pawlik.
In addition to fish remains, these archaeological sites have also produced fishing implements such as hooks, gorges, and net weights. The discovery of fishing implements indicated the need for strong and well-crafted cordage for ropes and fishing lines to catch the marine fauna. This suggests that ancient seafarers possessed a technological capability comparable to much later civilizations.
Microscopic analysis of stone tools excavated in these regions revealed traces of plant processing. According to Phys.org, this includes the extraction of fibers necessary for making ropes, nets, and bindings used in boatbuilding and open-sea fishing. The presence of such technology points to boat construction using organic composite materials held together with plant-based ropes.
Fuentes and Pawlik highlight that the Philippines and Island Southeast Asia have evidence of early human habitation despite never being connected to Mainland Asia. As reported by GMA Network, this lack of connection poses the question of how the inhabitants were able to cross oceans. "Prehistoric migrations across ISEA were not undertaken by mere passive sea drifters on flimsy bamboo rafts but by highly skilled navigators equipped with the knowledge and technology to travel vast distances and to remote islands over deep waters," stated the researchers.
The study conducted by Fuentes and Pawlik is scheduled to be published in the April 2025 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq