Science revision: The horse, Beringia, and early man

Science revision: The horse, Beringia, and early man

During the last ice age, herds of big game, such as the now-extinct Yukon horse and wooly mammoth, grazed in Beringia, a now-submerged landmass joining northern Siberia to Alaska and Yukon. Illustration: Woolly Mammoth and Yukon Horse © Government of Yukon/Artist George “Rinaldino” Teichmann 1999
During the last ice age, herds of big game, such as the now-extinct Yukon horse and woolly mammoth, grazed in Beringia, a now-submerged landmass joining northern Siberia to Alaska and Yukon. © Government of Yukon/Artist George “Rinaldino” Teichmann 1999

This article from March 7 tells the story of Jacques Cinq-Mars, who originally discovered the Bluefish Caves.

From Vilified to Vindicated: the Story of Jacques Cinq-Mars

“In three hollows known as the Bluefish Caves, Jacques Cinq-Mars and his team discovered something remarkable—the bones of extinct horses and woolly mammoths bearing what seemed to be marks from human butchering and toolmaking. Radiocarbon test results dated the oldest finds to around 24,000 years before the present.

“Bluefish Caves directly challenged mainstream scientific thinking. Evidence had long suggested that humans first reached the Americas around 13,000 years ago, when Asian hunters crossed a now submerged landmass known as Beringia, which joined Siberia to Alaska and Yukon during the last ice age.

“But Cinq-Mars didn’t buy that story—not a bit. His work at Bluefish Caves suggested that Asian hunters roamed northern Yukon at least 11,000 years before the arrival of the Clovis people. And other research projects lent some support to the idea.”

Read more at Hakai Magazine

 

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