The Land Bridge You’ve Never Heard Of

For many of us, when we think of land bridges, we tend to think of the Bering Land Bridge (actually more of a swamp^[1]), which ancient humans traversed to reach North America from modern-day Siberia during the last Ice Age. But there may have been another, crucial stretch of land that aided early human migration—this time, far across the continent, on the Anatolian coast.

That’s the major new finding from a team of Turkish archeologists who have uncovered over 100 stone artifacts from ten different sites along the peninsula. They indicate that a land bridge, now underwater, had once existed between the western edge of Asia and Europe, enabling humans to move between these regions. If their theory holds, it would reveal a previously unknown chapter in the history of human migration at a critical moment in our evolution and development as a species.

An unexplored prehistoric region

“This study explores the Paleolithic potential of Ayvalık, a region in western Anatolia that has remained largely unexamined in Pleistocene archaeology,” the researchers wrote in their study^[2], which was published Friday in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. “These findings reveal a previously undocumented Paleolithic presence and establish Ayvalık as a promising locus for future research on early human dispersals in the northeastern Aegean.”

The Paleolithic^[3] Period—around 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago—and the Pleistocene^[4] Epoch—around 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago—refer to roughly the same stretch of time. The former is an anthropological term, while the latter is a geological term.

During the last Ice Age^[5] (between around 120,000 and 11,500 years ago), Earth’s landscape looked much different than today. Besides gargantuan amounts of ice, the sea level then was significantly lower. Ayvalık’s islands and peninsulas, for example, would have been part of a single stretch of land connecting Anatolia and Europe.

An unforgettable moment of discovery

Still, scholars have long believed that Homo sapiens mostly reached Europe from Africa by traveling through the Levant and the Balkans. But the newly discovered tools, indicate that people were present in Ayvalık’s bygone landscapes. The researchers found Paleolithic hand axes, cleavers, and Levallois^[6] flake tools (stone implements that had sharp edges and were likely used as knives). The team argues that the findings offer an alternative narrative of early human migration.

“The presence of these objects in Ayvalık is particularly significant, as they provide direct evidence that the region was part of wider technological traditions shared across Africa, Asia, and Europe,” Göknur Karahan, an archeologist from Hacettepe University, said in a statement^[7].

“It was a truly unforgettable moment for us. Holding the first tools in our hands was both emotional and inspiring,” Karahan added.

Substantive artifact dating, stratigraphic excavations, and reconstructions of the ancient environment will be crucial to determining whether their theory is correct, including possibly searching for artifacts on the bottom of the Aegean sea.