Ancient artifacts discovered from the Mediterranean Sea confirm that Neolithic pioneers were using sophisticated nautical technologies even thousands of years ago, according to European archeologists. These artifacts, they say, even help to explain the origins of European farming and the cultivation of agricultural mainstays from the Near East.  

In their study published in PLOS ONE, a team of Italian and Spanish archeologists analyzed five dugout canoes — boats hollowed out from tree trunks — found beneath Lake Bracciano in Anguillara Sabazia, Italy. The findings, they say, indicate that many of the major advances in sailing must have occurred in the early Neolithic period 7,800 years ago.