Early Fishing in East Timor
The main thrust of this news item is evidence suggesting humans were fishing 43,000 years ago, whereas the previous earliest date was just 12,000 years ago. But of equal interest was the fish they were catching:
The new finds blow that record out of the water. Sue O’Connor at the Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues dug through deposits at the Jerimalai shelter in East Timor. They discovered 38,000 fish bones from 23 different taxa, including tuna and parrotfish that are found only in deep water. Radiocarbon dating revealed the earliest bones were 42,000 years old.
Amidst the fishy debris was a broken fish hook fashioned from shell, which the team dated to between 16,000 and 23,000 years. “This is the earliest known example of a fish hook,” says O’Connor. Another hook, made around 11,000 years ago, was also found…
I’d be interested to know how old the tuna bones are – because they weren’t caught by fishing in ponds, streams or shallow coastlines. You’d need to be out in the ocean by choice, which would mean all sorts of other maritime activities were possible a long, long time ago.
