Early human use of anadromous salmon in North America at 11,500 y ago

Abstract

Salmon represented a critical resource for prehistoric foragers along the North Pacific Rim, and continue to be economically and culturally important; however, the origins of salmon exploitation remain unresolved. Here we report 11,500-y-old salmon associated with a cooking hearth and human burials from the Upward Sun River Site, near the modern extreme edge of salmon habitat in central Alaska. This represents the earliest known human use of salmon in North America. Ancient DNA analyses establish the species as Oncorhynchus keta (chum salmon), and stable isotope analyses indicate anadromy, suggesting that salmon runs were established by at least the terminal Pleistocene. The early use of this resource has important implications for Paleoindian land use, economy, and expansions into northwest North America.

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

“…4). These results are significant in terms of (28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36), from modern interior Alaska (in this study), and bone collagen from USR fauna (in this study), and other ancient salmon in Alaska (23,(37)(38)(39). AB, aquatic bird (red square); FF, freshwater fish (blue square); SA, salmon (pink square); TA, terrestrial animals (green square).…”

“…The USR site is located in loess deposits on a sand dune south of the Tanana River in central Alaska (Fig. 1), and details on its geology and chronology have been described (21)(22)(23). The site is well stratified with three major components: Component 1 (13,200 cal y B.P.)…”

“…contains 11 hearths, including 1 hearth within a residential feature associated with the burial of two infants (22) and a child cremation (21) (SI Materials and Methods). Faunal analyses indicated that the remains accumulated during processing/ cooking/disposal events within the hearths (21,22), and genetic analyses provided evidence for the presence of the salmonids that were marine (anadromous) chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) (23). Thus, USR offers important controls to evaluate proportional contributions of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine food resources reconstructed through chemical profiling of hearth sediments.…”

The life aquatic: advances in marine vertebrate genomics

“…However, several studies based on DNA extracted from archived samples that were collected before the intensification of industrial fishing (for example, in Atlantic cod) have found no evidence of diversity loss despite population size reductions down to 1% of the historical maximum 75,76 . Future work with genome-scale data and ancient samples that cover longer time scales should provide more comprehensive insights into the circumstances under which fisheries are likely to erode genetic diversity 77 .…”

Effects of lipid extraction and ultrafiltration on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of fish bone collagen

“…In addition to the supporting role that fish bone isotopic compositions play in the interpretation of prehistoric human diet, they also have the potential to serve as valuable paleoecological indicators in their own right, which has led to a recent increase in the number of studies utilizing fish bone collagen. Fish bone isotopic compositions may provide insight into dietary shifts driven by natural or anthropogenic disturbances and can serve as indicators of shifts in dominant primary producers or nutrient cycling . Studies such as these rely on subtle variations in isotopic compositions on the order of a few ‰ and, consequently, accurate determinations of isotopic compositions are paramount.…”