The First Humans Were Capable Fishermen

Prehistoric people living with more than 40,000 years ago, he learned the ability to capture fast-moving, deep-sea fish such as tuna, an exclusive new archaeological discoveries have revealed.

In a small cave on the eastern tip of East Timor, north of Australia, the archaeologist Associate Professor Sue O'Connor of the National University of Australia has unearthed the bones of more than 2,800 fish, some of which were taken as 42,000 years back.

Research shows that people who live in the area was a sophisticated cognitive skills in a difficult journey, says O'Connor.

Their findings are published this week in the journal Science.

"If the site has shown us is that early modern humans on the island in Southeast Asia was surprisingly advanced maritime skills," he said.

"They were experts by capturing the types of fish that would be a challenge even today -. fish such as tuna, is a very exciting discovery. "

It is not clear which techniques to residents of the area at that time used to catch these fish.

Tuna can be caught with nets or hooks behind long lines through the water, O'Connor said.

"In any case, it is certain that these people are using very advanced technology, and personal watercraft to fish in the sea."

Site of the Cave

The place where the discoveries were made known Jerimalai cave is a small rock overhang hidden behind the leaves, a few hundred meters from shore.

"When I saw it in 2005, I did not tell us very soon Jerimalai occupation of East Timor," says O'Connor. "I was very surprised when I discovered all these fish bones and turtle bones."

So far, he and his colleagues have only dug two small test pits is a cave that contained a number of stone objects, bone points, animal remains, beads and fishhooks.

Only one of these holes, a square meter and 2 meters deep, was found with 39,000 fish bones.They also revealed a second rare find - a small piece of bark with a hook, which will take place between 23 000 and 16000 years ago.

This is the first example of a hook that has ever been found, the researchers say. They hope that more extensive archaeology excavations could reveal more hooks there.

"I think Jerimalai gives us a glimpse of what the occupation was as a coastal area from 40,000 to 50,000 years ago we did not really anywhere else in the world," says O'Connor.

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