Isotope tests ID salmon remains at Interior Alaska site

Ben Potter photo
1/2. Members of an excavation team work in a trench at the Upward Sun River archaeological site.

Ice age inhabitants of Interior Alaska relied more heavily on salmon and freshwater fish in their diets than previously thought, according to a newly published study.

A team of researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks made the discovery after taking samples from 17 prehistoric hearths along the Tanana River, then analyzed stable isotopes and lipid residues to identify fish remains at multiple locations. The results offer a more complex picture of Alaska’s ice age residents, who were previously thought to have a diet dominated by terrestrial mammals such as mammoths, bison and elk.

The project also found the earliest evidence of human use of anadromous salmon in the Americas, dating back at least 11,800 years.

The results of the study were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DNA analysis of chum salmon bones from the same site on the Tanana River had previously confirmed that fish were part of the local indigenous diet as far back as 11,500 years ago. [...] news.uaf.edu / Link 2