DHAKA: Archeologists have found world’s oldest fish hook till date in a cave of Japanese island Okinawa.

The pair of hook, found with other relics, have been dated back to 23,000 and made from sea snail shells.

It is thought humans inhabited the island from at least 30,000 years ago, surviving despite scarce resources, BBC reports.

The findings suggest a wider use of advanced maritime technology in that era than previously thought.

“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.

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 fish hooks predate ones found in Timor, thought to be at least 16,000 years old, and Papua New Guinea, from at least 18,000 years ago.

Fish hook findings were published in a scientific paper. The authors even suggest that those who visited the cave did so seasonally, when certain species of crab were at their ‘most delicious’.

BDST: 1500 HRS, SEP 19, 2016
NR/BD