(Courtesy Susan O'Connor)
Two 11-square-foot pits dug
in Jerimalai Cave on the east
end of East Timor, an island
nation off northwestern Australia, have
provided some of the earliest evidence
of fishing technology. Though there
is little evidence of fishing activity
beyond 10,000 years ago, fragments
of fish hooks found in the cave date
to between 16,000 and 23,000 years
ago, making them the oldest ever
recovered. A more complete
hook dating to 11,000 years ago
was also found at the site.
The inch-long hooks, all of
which were made of shells from
sea snails, would have been
used to catch shallow-water fish,
such as grouper
and snapper,
says Sue
O'Connor,
an archaeologist
at Australian
National
University, who
coauthored a study
on the finds in Science. "They would
have had a fiber line attached to the
shank, and bait put on the hook," she
explains. "Then, they would be cast
or lowered into the water and left
stationary."
Fish bones were also found in the
deposits. Offshore species, such as
tuna, account for nearly 50 percent
of the remains dating to earlier than
7000 B.C. After that, shallow-water
and reef species start to dominate,
likely due to warmer climate and the
proliferation of reef habitat. The variety
of the bones depicts the humans of
the time as skilled seafarers capable of
fishing many species in both shallow
and deep water.
