Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known.
University of Alaska Museum of the North archaeology curator Daniel Odess recently presented the team's findings at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"The importance of whaling in arctic prehistory is clear. Prehistoric settlements were situated and defended so that people could hunt whales," says Odess. "Yet, as important as whaling is, we know very little about how, where and when it began."
Stone Age people may have started hunting whales as early as 6,000 BC, new evidence from South Korea suggests.
Analysis of rock carvings at Bangu-Dae archaeological site in Ulsan in the southeast of the country revealed more than 46 depictions of large whales.
They also show evidence that humans used harpoons, floats and lines to catch their prey, which included sperm whales, right whales and humpbacks.
