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While it seems clear that Great Britain has had a land connection with continental Europe numerous times, I'm not sure that I agree with the assumption that ear

While it seems clear that Great Britain has had a land connection with continental Europe numerous times, I'm not sure that I agree with the assumption that early humans couldn't have crossed the English Channel by boat. > whatever their other skills, Roger and his kind could not cross 34 km of open sea. We see similar arguments with respect to the Bering Sea land bridge, despite the fact that Siberians and Alaska Natives had seaworthy vessels that were crossing the Bering Strait (~80 km) on a regular basis long before European contact, and continue to do so to this day (there are still a few groups constructing traditional vessels for cultural reasons). While I'm sure some of the indigenous people of the Americas did cross during "land bridge" periods, I'm equally sure that many arrived by boat.

ZanyProgrammer 4y ago
I'm not sure the people who might've crossed over to Britain almost a million years ago were literally the same people who migrated over the Bering Strait land bridge (physically, that is). Were they even anatomically modern humans, with the same ability to make tools and think creatively?
- Turing_Machine 4y ago
  Oh, they were definitely different people. I was thinking more in terms of the Neanderthals he was talking about later in the article, rather than the million-year-old ones. I feel confident that Neanderthals could make boats (certainly rafts) if they were of a mind to do so.
  - macintux 4y ago
    I think the article is less “could someone physically make it to Britain” and more “could there be enough of a presence to sustain itself and leave an archaeological record”.
NoGravitas 4y ago
The people that first crossed the Bering Strait were anatomically modern humans, and certainly had reasonable boating technology. Since the article is talking about 900kya, though, it's talking about Homo erectus (taxonomic splitters may use a different name). But nevertheless, in Southeast Asia, Homo erectus is known to have crossed the Lombok Strait by 800kya, as well as reaching Luzon by 700k; both of these would have required crossing substantial bodies of water.

ZanyProgrammer 4y ago

I'm not sure the people who might've crossed over to Britain almost a million years ago were literally the same people who migrated over the Bering Strait land bridge (physically, that is). Were they even anatomically modern humans, with the same ability to make tools and think creatively?

Turing_Machine 4y ago
Oh, they were definitely different people. I was thinking more in terms of the Neanderthals he was talking about later in the article, rather than the million-year-old ones. I feel confident that Neanderthals could make boats (certainly rafts) if they were of a mind to do so.
- macintux 4y ago
  I think the article is less “could someone physically make it to Britain” and more “could there be enough of a presence to sustain itself and leave an archaeological record”.

NoGravitas 4y ago

The people that first crossed the Bering Strait were anatomically modern humans, and certainly had reasonable boating technology. Since the article is talking about 900kya, though, it's talking about Homo erectus (taxonomic splitters may use a different name). But nevertheless, in Southeast Asia, Homo erectus is known to have crossed the Lombok Strait by 800kya, as well as reaching Luzon by 700k; both of these would have required crossing substantial bodies of water.