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Letter: On the adventures of Stone Age seafarers (1)

Published 18 February 2026

From Keith Pearce, Dursley, Gloucestershire, UK

Michael Marshall speculates about how seafaring was learned. Could it have developed incrementally as rising water levels turned a society’s accustomed range into a series of islands (where once there were hills), with the gaps between them developing from dry land to a swamp to a small waterway to a larger waterway and then finally to a sea? They would be motivated to cross by their knowledge of exploitable resources, and maybe cousins to trade with on the other side (31 January, p 32).

Issue no. 3583 published 21 February 2026

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