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, from which a jaw bone of a Yukon horse 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 co ...

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 Nat ...

, 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, 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 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 Eu ...

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

Context

Dating

See also

References

Further reading