~5500 years old is the youngest plausible age based on historical sea levels.
We assume anything older than that has to be hunter gatherers. Personally I'm skeptical and think this is more evidence that points at much more advanced and older civilizations than what archeology seems willing to entertain right now.
We've known that humans have been harnessing natural fire (e.g. sticks/vegetation set alight by lightening) for over a million years.
However, until last week, we thought that the earliest point of humans _deliberately creating_ fire – e.g. through flint and tinder – was 50,000 years ago.
A new find has dated the first instance of deliberate fire to be 400,000 years ago (probably by early Neanderthals).
So I agree - the archaeological evidence and our interpretation of history is spotty at best.
Suppafly|2 months ago
manarth|2 months ago
Heritage Daily has an article with more details, undersea mapping, photos, and cites the source (the International Journal of Nautical Archeaology).
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/12/network-of-submerged-s...
felixhammerl|2 months ago
poulpy123|2 months ago
FloorEgg|2 months ago
We assume anything older than that has to be hunter gatherers. Personally I'm skeptical and think this is more evidence that points at much more advanced and older civilizations than what archeology seems willing to entertain right now.
manarth|2 months ago
However, until last week, we thought that the earliest point of humans _deliberately creating_ fire – e.g. through flint and tinder – was 50,000 years ago.
A new find has dated the first instance of deliberate fire to be 400,000 years ago (probably by early Neanderthals).
So I agree - the archaeological evidence and our interpretation of history is spotty at best.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/10/man-made-fir...