http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-human-precursors-sea-team.html
"...A team of researchers that included an North Carolina State
University geologist found evidence that our ancestors were crossing
open water at least 130,000 years ago. That's more than 100,000 years
earlier than scientists had previously thought.Their evidence is based on
stone tools
from the island of Crete. Because Crete has been an island for eons,
any prehistoric people who left tools behind would have had to cross
open water to get there...
...The tools the team found are so old that they predate the human species,
said Thomas Strasser, an archaeologist from Providence College who led
the team. Instead of being made by our species, Homo sapiens, the tools
were made by our ancestors, Homo erectus.The tools are very different from any others found on Crete,
Strasser said. They're most similar to early stone-age tools from Africa
that are about 700,000 years old, he said...."