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c. 24,000 to 12,000 BCEPeer-reviewed · 2 sourcesDebated

Humans occupy the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon

Cut-marked mammoth and horse bones push the peopling of North America back tens of thousands of years

On the timeline · around c. 24,000 to 12,000 BCE · Modern CanadaBefore ContactHumans occupy the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon13,000 BCE12,000 BCE11,000 BCE10,000 BCE9,000 BCE8,000 BCE7,000 BCE6,000 BCE5,000 BCE4,000 BCE

Quick facts

Location
Bluefish Basin, northern Yukon
Excavated by
Jacques Cinq-Mars, 1977 to 1987
Date range
c. 24,000 to 12,000 years before present
Collection held at
Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau

What happened

In three small limestone caves overlooking the Bluefish Basin in the northern Yukon, archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars excavated animal bones between 1977 and 1987 that he argued carried human-made cut marks. For decades the claim was contested. In 2017 a University of Montreal team led by Lauriane Bourgeon re-examined 36,000 bone fragments in the collection, now held at the Canadian Museum of History, and used a scanning electron microscope to confirm cut marks on a horse mandible and other bones. Radiocarbon dating of those bones came back between 24,000 and 12,000 years before present, meaning people were butchering animals here during the coldest part of the last Ice Age, while much of North America was still locked under glacial ice.

Why it matters

The dates make Bluefish Caves the oldest confirmed evidence of humans in North America, roughly 10,000 years earlier than the long-dominant 'Clovis First' model allowed. It supports the 'Beringian standstill' idea, that people lived in the unglaciated refuge of Beringia for thousands of years before moving south, rather than arriving in one late migration.

How we know

The 2017 study in PLOS ONE (Bourgeon, Burke and Higham) used AMS radiocarbon dating on individually identified cut-marked bones and matched the results against earlier dates from the same collection, rather than relying on the original 1980s claims alone.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Canada38 events · From the first peoples of the Americas and a Norse camp in Newfoundland to Confederation, the railway, two world wars, and a reckoning with the residential-school systemView all →
Humans occupy the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon · History of Canada · SourcedStory