New Discoveries Reveal Early Humans Thrived on Remote Mediterranean Islands

Traditional stories about the Mediterranean’s prehistoric era divided its inhabitants into two groups: hunter-gatherers living off wild resources and early farmers cultivating crops across scattered islands. However, archaeological discoveries in Malta challenge this conventional view.

For example, findings show that hunter-gatherers inhabited Malta around 8,500 years ago, nearly a millennium before the arrival of the first farming communities.

A 2025 Nature paper overturned previous assumptions that hunter-gatherers were incapable of establishing themselves on small, isolated Mediterranean islands. While reaching Malta by sea was a feat, staying there for lengthy periods posed even greater questions.

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Could Hunter-Gatherers Actually Reach Isolated Islands?

The breakthrough came from Eleanor Scerri’s research team, who uncovered evidence of a previously unknown Mesolithic settlement at Latnija in northern Malta. Initially, they were skeptical that such an occupation existed based on analyses of stone tools, fire residues, animal remains, and wild plant traces. Excavations from 2021 to 2023 eventually revealed a deep stratum of human activity dating back about 8,500 years, at the time when farming first appeared on the island.

Malta is separated from Sicily by around 85 km at its nearest point. Surrounded entirely by water, there was no land passage allowing hunter-gatherers to simply walk to Malta, as rising sea levels prevented such connections. Factors like ocean currents, prevailing winds, and navigational challenges mean even a direct route between Sicily and Malta stretched closer to 100 km.

Reenactments using replica dugout canoes show travel speeds near 4 km/hour. A voyage during summer could consume all daylight and several hours of night travel, indicating this was no simple trip.

Yet crossing the sea was just the first challenge. Scerri’s team applied multiple independent techniques to confirm that the site’s occupation preceded Malta’s agricultural era. This included accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of charcoal and establishing a comprehensive chronological framework of sediment layers.

Within these strata were limestone tools, fire pits with ashes, remains of terrestrial animals, as well as fish, shellfish, and marine mammals. The presence of marine fauna reveals that the island’s early inhabitants supplemented their diet substantially with ocean resources instead of depending exclusively on land-based food sources.

In their Nature publication, Scerri et al. described these voyages as “the longest hunter-gatherer sea expeditions known in Mediterranean prehistory.” Moreover, the occupation persisted for nearly a thousand years, indicating that arriving on Malta was only one part of their survival strategy.

Sustaining a hunter-gatherer population on a small, semi-arid island like Malta presented significant challenges. Even with enough nutrition, too small and isolated a group would risk demographic collapse.

By modeling Malta’s available resources against the minimum viable population for long-term survival, Scerri’s team inferred that the island could only support a limited number of people for centuries. Continuous contact with larger neighboring populations, such as those on Sicily, was essential for survival.

Life on Malta Hinged on Connections to Larger Communities

This research shifts our perception of ancient seafaring. Rather than sporadic expeditions by adventurous individuals, frequent sea crossings were likely critical for maintaining populations—enabling exchanges between Malta’s residents and bigger communities, while preserving genetic diversity over millennia.

These insights have broader implications. Hunter-gatherers in the central Mediterranean had developed sophisticated navigation skills long before Neolithic farmers arrived. As reported in Science, organized maritime activity in this region dates back much earlier than previously believed.

The reasons behind these open-sea journeys remain a mystery. While archaeologists can identify fireplaces, food remnants, and tools, the social motivations and bonds influencing these voyages remain beyond reach.

Rather than viewing the central Mediterranean as isolated landmasses, evidence indicates it functioned as a connected network facilitating human movement and cultural interaction.

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