A piece of a caribou's pelvic bone shows signs of butchering by humans, according to new research (Photo courtesy Lauriane Bourgeon)
Posted on 02/13/2015 12:15:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv
They're probably about half as old as scientists once thought they were.
But a pair of butchered bones found in a cave near the Alaska-Yukon border are "definite" evidence of human presence in North America just after the end of the last Ice Age, perhaps as much as 14,000 years ago, according to a new study.
The bones were originally discovered in the late 1970s by Canadian archaeologist Dr. Jacques Cinq-Mars at a site known as Bluefish Caves, high in northwestern Yukon Territory.
In one of the caves, dubbed Cave 2, archaeologists found more than 18,000 fragments of bones from caribou, Yukon horse, mammoth, and other animals.
Many of the bones appeared to bear the deep scrapes and sharp gouges associated with human tool use, suggesting that the cave was the site of an ancient, if temporary, hunting camp.
But, quite controversially, some of the samples produced radiocarbon dates as much as 25,000 years old -- considerably older than conventional estimates about when the Americas were first populated.
"The history of the Bluefish Caves has been controversial for a very long time because of the hypothesis that modern humans were occupying the site at around 25,000 years ago, which meant an earlier migration at a time when the climate was very cold and dry," said Lauriane Bourgeon, a graduate student of anthropology at the University of Montreal.
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
A piece of a caribou's pelvic bone shows signs of butchering by humans, according to new research (Photo courtesy Lauriane Bourgeon)
Ordinarily I'm pretty bored by PreColumbian finds, because of the restrictions of NAGPRA and the artificial floor on dates.
Yep, Yukon Cave Bears were vicious critters.
Brian Williams reports he hunted and killed one with his little bow and arrow.
18,000 bones in a “temporary” hunting camp. I have to do this: “Hell, here in Texas we call that lunch!”
Hold muh beer...
The critters just wandered up to the edge of the pit to scavenge the previous kills, and BANG! ;’)
I’m amazed anyone could survive inside a Yukon cave bear.
It needed to be said.
This was caused by global scratching warming.
LOL
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