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