Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Questions regarding the migration patterns of early modern humans in East Asia have been unanswered for a long time. Finally, a unique and fascinating scientific expedition in a dugout canoe can shed light on the subject.
Building a canoe the old-fashioned way. The team used replica tools and a real tree. ©2025 Kaifu et al. CC-BY-ND
The dates and locations of the earliest modern human migrations and their settlements in East Asia are relatively well-documented.
However, how these populations moved between islands across the dangerous regions of the sea remains a mystery.
Researchers from Japan and Taiwan, led by Professor Yousuke Kaifu from the University of Tokyo, simulated ancient journey methods and used period-accurate tools to create replicas of canoes for their own journey.
Evidence suggests humans crossed the sea around 30, 000 years ago. They made these risky crossings without maps, metal tools, or modern boats. Simulations and experiments, including the use of physical recreations, helped to learn the most plausible way these crossings were achieved.
“We initiated this project with simple questions: ‘How did Paleolithic people arrive at such remote islands as Okinawa?’ ‘How difficult was their journey?’ ‘And what tools and strategies did they use?'” said Kaifu.
“Archaeological evidence such as remains and artifacts can’t paint a full picture as the nature of the sea is that it washes such things away. So, we turned to the idea of experimental archaeology, in a similar vein to the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.”
In 2019, the team built a 7.5-meter dugout canoe, ‘Sugime’, from a Japanese cedar trunk using replicas of ancient stone tools, and paddled it 225 kilometers from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island in the Ryukyu group. They navigated by sun, stars, swells, and instincts. The journey took over 45 hours across open sea with limited visibility of their destination.
Crossing the Kuroshio. The team set out in their handmade canoe, making the entire experience as authentic as possible. ©2025 Kaifu et al. CC-By-ND
Years later, the team continues to analyze data from the experiment to inform and test models about ancient sea crossings in that region.
“Our last candidate for Paleolithic seagoing crafts in the region was a dugout canoe. Initially, we thought they used rafts, but experiments showed rafts are too slow and not durable enough to cross the Kuroshio,” said Kaifu.
These canoes are known to be fast and durable for crossings, but that’s only part of the story. The male and female pioneers were likely skilled paddlers with practical strategies and strong willpower. A return journey wasn’t considered possible without maps or knowledge of Kuroshio’s flow patterns, which likely came much later in history, according to the researcher.
“I major in oceanography and use numerical methods and particle tracking techniques to research things like eel and salmon migrations, pumice drift after volcanic eruptions, and oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Yu-Lin Chang from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and a visiting researcher at UTokyo and lead author of one of the papers in this study.
“The Kuroshio Current is generally considered dangerous to navigate. I thought if you entered it, you could only drift aimlessly. But the results of our simulations went far beyond what I had imagined. I’m pleased this work helped illuminate how ocean voyages may have occurred 30,000 years ago.”
The simulations helped fill gaps that a one-time experiment could not. They revealed that launching from northern Taiwan offered a better chance of success than from further south, and that paddling slightly southeast rather than directly at the destination was essential for compensating against the powerful current. These findings suggest a high level of strategic seafaring knowledge among early modern humans.
“Scientists try to reconstruct the processes of past human migrations, but it is often difficult to examine how challenging they really were. One important message from the whole project was that our Paleolithic ancestors were real challengers. Like us today, they had to undertake strategic challenges to advance,” said Kaifu.
“For example, the ancient Polynesian people had no maps, but they could travel almost the entire Pacific. There are a variety of signs on the ocean to know the right direction, such as visible land masses, heavenly bodies, swells and winds. We learned parts of such techniques ourselves along the way.”
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Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
