Australian archaeologists have uncovered evidence that prehistoric humans living 42,000 years ago mastered the art of deep-sea fishing, they revealed on Friday.
They also found the world’s earliest recorded fish hook, made of shell and dating from between 23,000 and 16,000 years ago, during excavations at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor.
The findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, stem from work done by Professor Sue O’Connor from the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.
She said it demonstrated prehistoric man had high-level maritime skills, and by implication the technology needed to make the ocean crossings to reach Australia.
“The site that we studied featured more than 38,000 fish bones from 2,843 individual fish dating back 42,000 years,” O’Connor said.