Forgotten routes used by oceangoing vessels to navigate the world's seas

Dr. Josefine Huppertz
Germany

Summary: 
Beginning with the highly advanced cultures of ancient Syria and Egypt, I have elucidated how contained within their own sphere the Mediterranean countries actually were historically. Paleolithic cave art was initially not appreciated as stemming from prehistoric cultures. A chart of sea currents dating from early Stone Age Magdalenian times in the cavern of Castillo south of Altamira in Spain was not recognised for what it is because mastery of nautical navigation around 15,000 BC seemed impossible to modern Europeans.

These facts plus the world map of Turkish admiral Piri Re'is of 1513 launched my investigation. The evidence contained in Antarctic drill cores, the findings of ornithologists tracing the yearly migration of the Arctic tern to the Antarctic and back north, and also the most recent revelations by Aborigines of the Kimberley district of northern Australia have led me to the conclusion that we need to accord Paleolithic cultures the respect that is truly their due.

The results of my research clearly indicate that our judgemental distinction between cultures not having possessed written language and those who did should be maintained no longer, particularly as mankind's presence on earth can now be traced back over millions of years. Therewith evidence of writing within the last 4,000 years cannot by itself serve as the distinguishing characteristic of advanced culture. The art of c. 15,000 BC so far discovered must be considered at least as significant in the history of mankind and should not be seen removed in comparison with the development of advanced cultures of later millennia.

Further archaeological research will not only confirm ancient trade routes across the continents, but also early shipping routes that traversed the world's seas, as I was able to do on hand of a T'ao T'ieh on a golden crown discovered in the ruins of Chavín de Huántar in Peru. The design of this T'ao T'ieh is attributable only to the Shang period and thus it helps to open our view for a broader perception of our human history.

An important future direction of research will be to examine and to understand the historical and prehistorical global interaction of mankind's early cultures.