Explorations of the Mediterranean

Not too long ago, I was fortunate to go on  a Mediterranean Cruise, from the coast of Spain to the coast of France, and finally to the coast of Italy. With this cruise I have now be fortunate enough to have visited most of the countries of the Mediterranean Sea--save those of Africa on the Southern end. I have been to Israel, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. I now have seen  the eastern, northern, and western Mediterranean pretty much covered. Only the Southern shore remains. So what have I learned from my travels?

Let's start with the prehistory of the Mediterranean area. Modern human fossils ( homo sapien sapien) have been discovered in Israel dating from 90,000 years ago. These modern humans came out of Africa across the Levant. There is some debate about it, but most paleoanthropologists believe this strand of modern humans, for unknown reasons, died out. They would have encountered Homo Neanderthalis (the Neanderthals) before they ceased to exist. The Neanderthals had been in Israel and Southern Europe since about 400,000 years ago.

The next group of modern humans to enter the Mediterranean area would have come about 43,000 years ago. This was the group that came out of Africa around 55,000 BC and crossed the southern most tip of the Red Sea into modern Saudi Arabia. This exodus is known as the famous Out of Africa Theory. These are the modern humans who were us! They are the ones who conquered the world and eventually inhabited every part of the globe. They were Hunter Gatherers who spread throughout the Northern Mediterranean region and became known as the Cromagnons. These were the modern humans who painted the well known animal pictures on the cave walls of Spain and Southern France. They are also the ones who interbred with the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals eventually died out in Spain around 30,000 BC. Wow!!