The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariners

Unexpected find: Hominids with seafaring technology advanced enough to sail to Crete.  Wonder if they had pirates, too?

Primitive Humans Conquered Sea, Surprising Finds Suggests

Crete has been surrounded by vast stretches of sea for some five million years. The discovery of the hand ax suggests that people besides technologically modern humans—possibly Homo heidelbergensis—island-hopped across the Mediterranean tens of thousands of millennia earlier than expected.