Blue Fish Caves

Bluefish Caves – The Past Four Decades

In 1975, archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars made an unintentional discovery of the Bluefish Caves archaeological site while conducting a brief helicopter survey of the Bluefish River, located in Canada’s northern Yukon Territory, in the boreal forest [4]. The site, located 54 km southwest of Old Crow on Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation territory, consists of three small karstic caves at the base of a Devonian limestone ridge that is about 250 meters above the Bluefish River’s right bank. The initial excavations were conducted between 1977 and 1987. All three caves have a loess layer up to one meter thick deposited on bedrock, which is covered by a humus layer containing cryoclastic debris and modern surface humus. The loess deposit was further divided into three sub-layers using granulometric and sedimentological analysis. Within the deposit, archaeologists uncovered a diverse faunal assemblage dominated by Ice Age species, as well as a lithic assemblage of about 100 specimens, including microblades, microblade cores, burins, burin spalls, and small flakes [4][5]. In 2017, researchers at the Université de Montréal conducted a comprehensive taphonomic re-analysis of the assemblage, revealing cut-marked bone samples with AMS radiocarbon ages as early as 24,000 cal BP [2][3].

Blue Fish Caves Today

Active fieldwork at Bluefish Caves has resumed in earnest under the Odyssey Archaeological Research Program at the University of Kansas, working in ongoing collaboration with the Yukon Archaeology Program and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. Pilot research conducted in 2019 demonstrated that ancient DNA is well-preserved in the buried soils of Cave III. Survey work identified a previously unknown Cave IV, whose entrance is almost completely filled with sediment, suggesting a high potential for intact cultural deposits [1]. Excavations at Cave IV in 2022 recovered stone specimens and over 160 faunal remains from late-Pleistocene loess, with bone surfaces being examined microscopically for taphonomic marks [1]. As recently as the summer of 2025, the Odyssey Program returned for its fifth field season, reflecting the site’s importance in understanding the earliest human presence in North America [1]. For the Vuntut Gwich’in, the site carries a significance that extends well beyond its scientific value. Community members hold oral stories of their people living alongside animals no longer present in the territory, including giant beavers and other Pleistocene megafauna [6]. Bluefish Caves today continue to be an important place that has a living relationship with the Vuntut Gwich’in people

Digital Work on Bluefish Caves

Until very recently, Bluefish Caves had received no systematic digital documentation despite its significance. That gap began to be addressed through an international collaborative project in the summer of 2024. We used 3D scanning technology to digitally capture the four individual caves and the surrounding landscape. We also developed workflows specifically designed to filter dense vegetation from point cloud data that captures a cave setting, in order to better reveal cave dimensions and internal structures that are otherwise obscured. This work marks the first concerted effort to create a spatial digital record of the site itself. This also opens possibilities for remote analysis, site monitoring, public engagement, and integration with the ongoing excavation data. Digital documentation represents not only a research tool but a tool for education and outreach for the Vuntut Gwich’in’s future generation.

[1] “Bluefish Caves.” 2019. Ku.edu. 2019. https://kgs.ku.edu/bluefish-caves.

[2] Bourgeon, Lauriane. 2021. “Revisiting the Mammoth Bone Modifications from Bluefish Caves (YT, Canada).” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 37: 102969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102969.

[3] Bourgeon, Lauriane, Ariane Burke, and Thomas Higham. 2017. “Earliest Human Presence in North America Dated to the Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates from Bluefish Caves, Canada.” Edited by John P. Hart. PLOS ONE 12 (1): e0169486. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169486.

[4] Cinq-Mars, Jacques, and Richard E Morlan. 1999. “Bluefish Caves and Old Crow Basin: A New Rapport.” Ice Age Peoples of North America. Environments, Origins, and Adaptations of the First Americans. Center for the Study of the First Americans: Oregon State University Press.

[5] CinqMars, J. 1979. “Bluefish Cave L: A Late Pleistocene Eastern Beringian Cave Deposit in the Northern Yukon.” Canadian Journal of Archaeology / Journal Canadien D’Archéologie, no. 3: 1–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41102194.

[6] Forrest, Maura. 2017. “New Research Finds That Humans May Have Lived in the Yukon 24,000 Years Ago – Yukon News.” Yukon News. January 18, 2017. https://yukon-news.com/2017/01/18/new-research-finds-that-humans-may-have-lived-in-the-yukon-24000-years-ago/.

The following images illustrate the equipment used to digitally capture Blue Fish Caves, as well as how we travelled to and from the site.

Bluefish Caves are located approximately 54 km (about 34 miles) southwest of the Vuntut Gwichin community of Old Crow in northern Yukon, Canada. The archaeological site consists of three small caves situated near the Bluefish River.