(May 13, 2013 at 1:58 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Line
We are not going to find direct evidence of boats. Boats are not made of stone. They are generally organic materials like wood, rope, animal skins. These items do not preserve well in humid climates and that is where you use boats.
So, a little deductive reasoning is required. If ancient man could not walk to a place and did not have the ability to fly ( I assume we agree there?) that really only leaves cross-water travel.
Water transport remained the easiest and cheapest way to travel until the building of the railroads in the 19th century. Think about this, who has the easier task? A man in a canoe paddling along a river or a man walking alongside the river?
We also know that accidental overwater travel by otherwise nonaquatic animals, resulting in the founding of new populations overseas, even over large tarnsoceanic distances, can and has happened. So the fact that it could have happened does mean therefore there was nautical technology accompanying any instances where it did happen.
