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