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posted by janrinok on Monday September 19 2016, @02:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the searching-for-line-and-sinker dept.

Sink your hooks into this:

Archaeologists have found the world's oldest fish hooks in a cave on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The pair, dating from about 23,000 years ago, were carved from sea snail shells and found with other ancient relics, according to a paper.

It is thought humans inhabited the island from at least 30,000 years ago, surviving despite scarce resources. The findings suggest a wider use of advanced maritime technology in that era than previously thought.

Modern humans first moved to offshore islands some 50,000 years ago. While fishing has been essential for early humans to spread around the planet, it is unclear how the technology evolved, with evidence limited to sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. "The new evidence demonstrates a geographically wider distribution of early maritime technology that extended north to the mid-latitude areas along the western Pacific coast," according to the National Academy of Sciences. The fish hooks pre-date ones found in Timor, thought to be at least 16,000 years old, and Papua New Guinea, from at least 18,000 years ago.

Advanced maritime adaptation in the western Pacific coastal region extends back to 35,000–30,000 years before present (open, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607857113) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 20 2016, @02:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 20 2016, @02:53AM (#404096)

    Those look like earrings I've seen some chicks wearing.
    I'm betting that female vanity goes back at least that far.
    ...and there's no particular reason to even limit it to "female".

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]