Intelligent ancestors
australian researchers in Indonesia have found evidence that questions the assumption that the intellectual capacity of primordial humans was far below that of the modern ( Homo sapiens ).
Anthropologists and other scientists have held that human intelligence crossed a threshold (a 'magical' rubicon) with the arrival of Homo sapiens , who replaced Homo erectus a million years ago. It was believed that Homo erectus was not intelligent enough to make anything more than crude stone tools. The new evidence shows that in some parts of the Western Pacific Homo erectus may have built and travelled on seagoing craft about 800,000 years ago. Earlier evidence of repeated sea crossings dates around 50,000 years ago.
The ability to construct vessels and presumably guide them over miles of ocean takes drastically more brain power and know-how than conventional theory attributes to Homo erectus , the big boned creature that flourished for 1.5 million years. The new evidence suggests that the cognitive capacity of this species may be due for a reappraisal that would entail considerable social organisation and use of complex symbols through speech or other means.
" Homo erectus was clearly not just a glorified chimp,' said lead researcher Milce J Morwood of the Australian University of New England. Morwood's team examined two excavation sites on the eastern Indonesian island of Flores (about 15 miles