News Archaeology

Stone Age hunter-gatherers may have been surprisingly skilled seafarers

Malta's first settlers arrived from mainland Europe 1,000 years earlier than thought

The cave entrance to a Stone Age archaeological site on Malta. The Mediterranean sea is in the background.

The ancient cave site of Latnija on the island of Malta contains evidence of hunter-gatherer seafaring prowess from the Stone Age.

Huw Groucutt

By Michael Marshall

Prehistoric hunter-gatherers were likely skilled seafarers who could make long and challenging journeys.

Stone tools, animal bones and other artifacts unearthed in Malta indicate that humans first inhabited the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, about a thousand years earlier than previously thought, researchers report April 9 in Nature.