title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775; cmhalffman@alaska.edu.
authors.forename: Carrin M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Halffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775;
authors.forename: Ben A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775;
authors.forename: Holly J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biological Sciences and Geosciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209;
authors.forename: Bruce P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Finney
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6;
authors.forename: Antonia T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6;
authors.forename: Dongya Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164; School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Kemp
mesh_terms: D000413:Alaska; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes; D017685:Oncorhynchus keta / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D055110:Radiometric Dating / Q000379:methods; D045483:Rivers; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013131:Spine / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D029941:Fish Proteins; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes; D004247:DNA; D045303:Cytochromes b
keywords: Beringia; Paleoindians; ancient DNA; salmon; stable isotopes