Is Prehistoric Seafaring Such a Stretch?

Plato, in his story of Atlantis, says that ships from all over the world were visiting the busy port of Atlantis in order to trade. Skeptics find this idea of primitive seafaring absurd and, for them, it is one more reason why Atlantis could never have existed.

Archaeological findings in the areas of Plakias and Preveli of Crete, attributed to Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo Erectus, show that these two species had reached Crete by sea 130.000 to 700.000 years ago. The Paleolithic positions which were investigated were in caves that at that time were coastal. It is worth noting here that Crete has been an island for the past 5 million years and it was also quite far from the nearest land.

The sea level might have been lower back then compared to today, but the sea is so deep in that area that the change in sea level does not have such a great effect on the distance from Peloponnese (the nearest Greek mainland) to Crete. And while there are a couple of islands (Kythera and Antikythera) in between, there is still a significant distance you have to travel in open sea to reach Crete, provided you do not miss the very small island of Antikythera on the way. And the island of Kythera does not really help much as an in-between stop, as it is very close to Peloponnese.

By the way, if you think the Aegean is a safe and easy sea because it is not in the ocean you are wrong. It was summer of 480 BC when one-third of the Persian fleet was destroyed by a storm close to the coast of Magnesia. At about the same time, a group of 200 ships was completely destroyed by a storm near the Hollows of Euboea. A few years before that 300 Persian ships were lost to the weather while sailing around Athos. Νote that the Persian warships were manned by experienced Phoenician sailors who were obviously much more technologically advanced than the primitive humanoids we are talking about. Αlso note that in each mentioned occasion the Persian fleet was sailing along the coast, while the primitive people who sailed to Crete did so in open sea.

Bottom line is, if people could travel the seas so further back in time, it is only logical that they could have very well advanced to the level of seafaring Plato describes in 10.000 BC. Especially when we consider the fact that those prehistoric trips to Crete were made by human species other than Homo Sapiens, as we (Homo Sapiens) are considered to be more evolved.