A team of scientists exploring an underwater region of southern Southeast Alaska has discovered what might be the oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world.
The existence of the fish trap, which is thought to date to at least 11,100 years ago, was confirmed earlier this year by a group of university academics and Sunfish Inc., a robotics company specializing in undersea exploration and inspection.
The scientists, in partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, are using artificial intelligence to explore ancient, submerged caves in the region and to seek evidence of early human occupation.
The age of the weir, which was found in Shakan Bay on the west side of Prince of Wales Island, pushes back Native occupation of the region by more than 1,000 years, said Rosita World, Sealaska Heritage Institute president, noting previous scientific studies have confirmed that Indigenous people lived in Southeast at least 10,000 years ago.
“It further substantiates the great antiquity of Native people in Southeast Alaska. It also demonstrates that Native people had acquired knowledge about salmon behavior and migrations, then developed the technology to harvest a significant number of salmon,” Worl said.
Stone weirs, or tidal fish traps, were typically low arced walls made of boulders and sited across gullies. The weirs were built so that during high tide, the fish would swim over the stone walls, and as the tide ebbed, the fish would be trapped behind them, allowing fishers to catch them with nets, spears and other means.
Fish weirs — which also were made of other materials, such as reeds or wooden posts — were commonly used around the world in ancient times, and other stone weirs have been documented in Southeast Alaska. However, this is by far the oldest one ever found, and it is the first one ever confirmed underwater in North America.
The structure was first found in 2010 by use of side-scan sonar technology, which detects and images objects on the seafloor. Scientists suspected the vague image to be that of a stone weir, but mostly due to funding constraints, the team was not able to confirm their hypothesis through underwater exploration until earlier this year, said Kelly Monteleone, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary.
Monteleone said the actual age of the weir was determined to be approximately 11,1000 years, but she anticipates that upon further investigation they’ll find evidence in Southeast Alaska that dates the structure to at least 16,000 years ago. Monteleone added that the plan in moving forward is to explore underwater caves within the same region.
“In Southeast Alaska, there’s been a ton of amazing finds in caves, and so we have sonar data to help narrow down where the caves are,” Monteleone said.
“Next year we’ll be going back … so we’ll learn more about sea level change and sea level rise and we’re hoping that we find more archeology.”
The Juneau Empire contributed to this report.
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