Revisiting the mammoth bone modifications from Bluefish Caves (YT, Canada)

Abstract

The long-debated mammoth bone “core” and “flake” recovered from the Pleistocene loess deposit of Bluefish Cave 2 (Yukon Territory, Canada) and previously described by Cinq-Mars and Morlan (1999) are re-analyzed from a full zooarchaeological and taphonomic perspective. The core and flake are characterized by an absence of carnivore tooth marks and the presence of fresh fracture patterns and two striae potentially attributed to cultural activities. After rejection of several hypotheses involving natural causes, we state that humans were more likely responsible for the bone modifications and we support the hypothesis that a proboscidean bone technology may have been present in eastern Beringia (Alaska/Yukon Territory) sometime between ca. 28,000 and 16,000 years BP.