Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in
Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
, Canada, located southwest of the
Vuntut Gwichin community of
Old Crow
Old Crow is a low-priced brand of Kentucky-made straight bourbon whiskey distilled by Beam Suntory, which also produces Jim Beam and several other brands of whiskey. The current Old Crow product uses the same mash bill and yeast as Jim Beam, but ...
, from which a jaw bone of a
Yukon horse
''Equus lambei'', common name, commonly known as the Yukon horse or Yukon wild horse, is an Extinction, extinct species of the genus ''Equus (genus), Equus''. ''Equus lambei'' ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago. B ...
has been
radiocarbon
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
dated to 24,000 years before present (BP). There are three small caves in the area.
Context
Bluefish Cave was initially known to the local
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
, but was popularized by a fishing expedition in 1976, and later by researchers. This site is made up of three small caves, ranging from . The first cave contains various animal bones that appear to have been dragged there by predators; findings of tool marks and some tools themselves point to a human presence.
The
Old Crow Flats
Old Crow Flats (''Van Tat'' in the Gwichʼin language) is a wetland complex in northern Yukon, Canada along the Old Crow River. It is north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Beaufort Sea, and is nearly surrounded by mountains.
Site
The site ...
, another important area with early human presence, are located about 75 km northeast of the Bluefish Caves.
Dating
The site was excavated by archaeologist
Jacques Cinq-Mars
Jacques Cinq-Mars Born: 1941/42 (died 27 November 2021, aged 79) was a Canadian archaeologist specializing in Canada, especially Yukon. Cinq-Mars excavated the Bluefish Caves site in the Old Crow area from 1977 to 1987. His careful research showed ...
between 1977 and 1987, and the initial radiocarbon dating suggested an age of 24,000 before present (BP). This was considered controversial as it was in contrast to the
Clovis-First theory, widely accepted by academics at the time, which considered the earliest settlement date of North America to be around 13,000 BP.
A review of the site in 2017 found it to be 24,000 years old, lending support to the "Beringian standstill" hypothesis — that the ancestors of Native Americans spent considerable time isolated in a Beringian refuge during the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
before populating the Americas. A later paper questioned the dating (based on claimed disturbances) and the culturality of the faunal remains, but support for the 2017 study was reiterated by the author of that report.
[LaurianeBourgeon. 2021. "Revisiting the Mammoth Bone Modifications from Bluefish Caves (YT, Canada)," ''Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports'' 37, 102969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102969
]
See also
*
Beringia
Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
*
Pendejo Cave
Pendejo Cave is a geological feature and archaeological site located in southern New Mexico about 20 miles east of Orogrande. Archaeologist Richard S. MacNeish claimed that human occupation of the cave pre-dates by tens of thousands of years th ...
References
Further reading
* Heather Pringle (MARCH 8, 2017)
What Happens When an Archaeologist Challenges Mainstream Scientific Thinking?€”The story of Jacques Cinq-Mars and the Bluefish Caves shows how toxic atmosphere can poison scientific progress. Hakai Magazine, SMITHSONIAN.COM
* ''The Bluefish Caves in Beringian Prehistory'' by Jacques Cinq-Mars,
Archaeological Survey of Canada
The Archaeological Survey of Canada is a division of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Its mandate is the preservation of archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity ...
{{Authority control
Archaeological sites in Yukon
Prehistory of the Arctic
Geography of Yukon
Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas
Caves of Canada