Earliest known evidence of North American salmon fishing found in Alaska

Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have found evidence that Ice Age humans were fishing for salmon 11,500 years ago.

It’s always been a given that Native Alaskans have been fishing for thousands of years, but now a new study concludes the practice dates all the way back to the Ice Age, Alaska Dispatch News reports.

A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found the earliest known evidence Ice Age humans in North America used salmon as a food source. Ancient DNA and stable isotope analysis from salmon vertebrae bones found in Interior Alaska indicate sea-run chum salmon were consumed by North American hunters 11,500 years ago.