Evidence found of early man’s deep sea fishing skills

Ecavation website demonstrating fish bones and hooks at a cave in East Timor. New research revealed in the journal Science indicates people were deep-sea fishing 42,000 a long time back, considerably previously than believed. (Sue O’Connor, AP Image/Australian Countrywide University)

(CBS Information) It really is one particular of the oldest human endeavors – and no, not that one. Archeologists say they have found an historical fishhook together with accompanying evidence to help the idea that modern humans had been fishing the oceans at least 42,00 several years back.
Fish appeared in the human diet regime about one.nine million several years back. Early catchers waded into freshwater lakes and streams without having the require for boats or complex tools. It was not until later that people decided to ply the ocean in research of fish.

The newest evidence comes from an excavation on the southeast Asian island of East Timor in which continues to be of tuna and other deep-water fish ended up uncovered inside of a cave. Making use of dating techniques, a team led by archaeologist Sue O’Connor of Australian Nationwide College decided the age to be 42,000 years old — generating it the earliest evidence for ocean fishing.

The final results of the excavation were revealed in the journal Science.

Archeologists working in a limestone cave site in the northern element of East Timor identified a couple of damaged shell fishhooks, ranging in age between sixteen,000 and 23,000 several years – as effectively as fish bones which went back 42,000 many years. Prior to this discovering, experts explained that the most historic fish hook artifacts dated in the very last ten,000 a long time.

It continues to be unclear how the fish were caught but since catching tuna and marine fish needs tools and advance organizing, this meant men and women should have created the psychological and technological know-how to exploit the sea.

&quotWell, they should have been hooked up with robust fiber lines of some kind, string, but we genuinely do not know regardless of whether they had been making use of this variety of fishing technologies at 42,000 several years back,&quot Chris Clarkson, a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, told the on the internet publication The Globe Nowadays. &quotThey could nicely have been out in boats with nets. They could have been spear fishing but undoubtedly by type of 20,000 years in the past it appears that they were using powerful, fibre lines and almost certainly hand casting or dangling these fish hooks off the edge of some kind of boat.&quot

Experts believe that the early anglers probably fashioned boats by tying logs with each other and utilized nets and sharpened parts of wood or shells as hooks.

&quotThese men and women have been smart,&quot explained Kathlyn Stewart, a investigation scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, who was not component of the study. &quotThey realized there were fish out there.&quot

It really is unclear how way the early mariners ventured. As soon as the bounty was caught, they probably ate it raw or went back to camp to cook it, Stewart explained.

In spite of their antique age, the fish bone finding does not set a new file. The oldest fish bones, which had been located at the Blombos Cave in South Africa, date from 140,000-fifty,000 several years ago.