Humans and carnivores at the Bluefish Cave II (northern Yukon): interpretation of the faunal remains

Summary

While research is still ongoing, the earliest date for the first modern humans in America is well accepted at 14,000 cal BP. Some archaeological sites propose a date prior to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, however. This is the case of the Bluefish Caves which proposes a human presence in northern Yukon as early as 25,000 uncal BP. Here, approximately 18,000 bone specimens recovered from Cave II have been determined and examined under stereomicroscope. This zooarchaeological and taphonomic study reveals significant additional details about the broad faunal spectrum in the cave, the main agents responsible for the accumulation and modification of the bone assemblage, as well as the cultural activities performed at the site. The ungulate fauna is dominated by horse, bison, caribou and Dall sheep, mixed with some carnivores such as lion, wolf and smaller canids. The highly fragmented material is consistent with patterns of breakage and marrow extraction processed by humans. However, carnivore action is significant and indicates that carnivores played a major role in the modification of the assemblage. Overall, only a few traces can be attributed to human activities. The time, duration and ultimate role of human activity at the site is evaluated here.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage