| Long before the ruthless Roman Empire walked | | | | of the famous Venus Figurines and carefully |
| the shores of what is now known as Great | | | | crafted beads made from mammoth tusk |
| Britain, an ancient form of wisdom existed | | | | throughout the whole of Europe.They lived well |
| amongst the people who populated those ancient | | | | hunting the migrating herds as they travelled |
| forests and mountains and its echo is still felt | | | | toward the summer grazing and breeding areas in |
| today.180,000 years before the present, the | | | | the north and laid in wait for them as they |
| planet was at the end of the last interglacial period | | | | crossed shallow places in rivers and swum the |
| and traces of our ancient seafaring ancestors can | | | | short distances from bank to bank.The evidence |
| be found today in caves along the coast of South | | | | of the use of caves in Britain in the summer |
| Africa using red ochre and selecting specialist | | | | months as part of their annual hunt can be found |
| stone to make spears and other hand tools from | | | | at such places as Creswell Crags in the middle of |
| small quarries along the coastlines.The use of | | | | Britain where a drawing of an Ibex which is |
| these caves disappeared after 70,000 BP showing | | | | indigenous to the French Pyrenees has been |
| no further signs of occupation until around 12500 | | | | found thus proving the annual hunter gatherer |
| BP.The reason for this was the forming of ice on | | | | migration and the lack of the English Channel to |
| the cooling poles as the new Ice Age drew the | | | | block the herds.The sailing craft of this ancient sea |
| water from the oceans, globally lowering sea | | | | going people only drew around 18 inches and so |
| levels and leaving the caves stranded and out of | | | | could easily hide in ambush amongst the tall reeds |
| reach.It is now known that Homo sapiens spread | | | | at the shallow inlets and river mouths.Some of |
| along the coastlines of the world and populated | | | | the descendants of these vessels were reported |
| nearly every continent.What is not considered by | | | | by Julius Caesar in 64 BC and were estimated to |
| modern science is how they crossed the great | | | | be as long as 60 feet and were so swift under |
| rivers and jumped from island to island or even | | | | sail that they appeared to fly like birds over the |
| the oceans that separated the great | | | | waters of the Atlantic Ocean.The system of |
| landmasses.There were other forms of men in | | | | construction using a light wooden frame and |
| those times, some of a much more robust kind | | | | stretched animal hides can still be found on the |
| such as Neanderthal.Homo sapiens were less | | | | west coast of Ireland in the form of the Currach |
| robust and more susceptible to injury from the | | | | or Curragh which is still built and used to catch |
| mighty creatures that roamed the land beside the | | | | salmon and is extremely seaworthy and stable on |
| shores. | | | | ocean swells as was proved by Tim Severin in his |
| But our ancestors had a secret weapon that | | | | Atlantic crossing to prove the possibility of |
| allowed them to survive the terrible cataclysms | | | | Voyage of St Brendan the Navigator to the |
| that struck the planet ending the last ice age and | | | | Americas.It was the buoyancy of these craft that |
| that was their ability to sail lightweight sea going | | | | probably saved Homo sapiens when all the |
| craft made from animal skins.They were | | | | mammoths, Giant Elk, Sabre toothed tigers and |
| shamanic and animistic in the same way as our | | | | Neanderthal man met their end in the sudden |
| more modern indigenous cousins the Amerindians | | | | melting of the ice sheets 12500 years ago.It is |
| who held this way of thinking until only a few | | | | only now, with the advent of modern |
| hundred years ago when it was almost wiped out | | | | documentaries that the public begins to glimpse |
| under the onslaught of the colonisers from the | | | | the awesome forces unleashed by tsunamis and |
| west.Before Christianity these ancient tribes held a | | | | flooding.Great ice cliffs, as much as 1 mile high, |
| deep reverence for the planet and its | | | | broke sending tidal waves southward across the |
| inhabitants.What had brought them to this world | | | | oceans at speeds in excess of 400 miles per hour |
| view was their ancient background as nomadic | | | | and as they reached the coasts they attained |
| mariners as they followed coastlines and crossed | | | | heights of 60 feet or more utterly destroying all |
| estuaries in search of the seasonal bounties of | | | | life as the roared across the plains and estuaries |
| nature's providence.Their affinity with caves such | | | | of the Ice Age world raising sea levels by 300 |
| as Lascaux as long ago as 36,000 BP is well | | | | feet world wide and destroying any evidence of |
| documented revealing their annual meeting places | | | | the works of Ice Age Man. |
| up rivers in France and include the wide distribution | | | | |