January 19, 2017

Human Occupation of Beringia at 24,000 Years Ago?

The bones of horses. bisons, mammoths and other remains at Blufish Cave in the Yukon Territory excavated decades ago placed the bones at 25,000 years old. Anthropologist Lauriane Bourgeon at the University of Montreal believes a few of these bones show clear evidence of human cut marks on the bones of a dozen of the remains. This human cut mark theory was first proposed in 1977. The area of the bones were part of a land mass called Beringia, east of the Bering Strait. This goes further to proving what is called the “Beringian Standstill.” The theory is that a genetically isolated human population lived in Beringia before the last Ice Age. And they moved into the Americas from there, once the ice in front of them receded. The team studied 36,000 bones in the caves using high tech equipment.
15 of the bone samples prove human butchery says the research. The oldest sample with this find was dated at 24,000 years ago. The research is published in PLOS One journal.
Bourgeon, L., Burke, A., & Higham, T. (2017). Earliest Human Presence in North America Dated to the Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates from Bluefish Caves, Canada PLOS ONE, 12 (1) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169486

(My Note; Cut mark evidence in the absence of any other human evidence is not always reliable many archaeologists maintain. Lauriane Bourgeon does state that this is just a beginning theory that has to be buttressed by other evidence such as human DNA evidence. So much more research has to be done. And many questions remain in Pre-Clovis science. Did the inhabitants of Beringia enter the Americas before any other groups? Are they related to the Pre-Clovis folks that lived at Monte Verde in Chile or the Pre-Clovis folks who utilized Paisley Cave?)

Western Digs has the report here;
http://westerndigs.org/bones-in-yukon-cave-show-humans-in-north-america-24000-years-ago-study-says/

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