Humans, or more precisely our early ancestors, started eating fish at least 1.95 million years ago. That date comes from a site in northern Kenya called FwJj20, where archaeologists found hundreds of fish bones alongside thousands of stone tools on the shores of an ancient lake. It is the oldest definitive evidence of any human ancestor butchering and eating aquatic animals.
The Oldest Known Fish Meal
The site at Koobi Fora, in the East Turkana region of Kenya, preserves a remarkable snapshot. Early hominins gathered along a lakeshore or riverbank and processed fish, turtles, and crocodiles using simple stone flakes and cores made from basalt. The bones show direct signs of butchery, not just proximity to tools. Before this discovery, the earliest fish remains linked to hominins were two catfish bones from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, dated to about 1.8 million years ago.
No hominin bones were found at the Koobi Fora site, so the identity of these early fish-eaters remains uncertain. Both australopithecines and early members of our own genus, like Homo habilis, lived in the area at the time. Either group could have been responsible. What is clear is that these individuals were not just scavenging land animals. They were deliberately targeting aquatic prey in shallow water and along the shore.
Why Fish Mattered for Brain Growth
Fish and other aquatic animals are packed with a specific omega-3 fatty acid that is a primary building block of brain cell membranes, particularly in the networks responsible for cognition. The human body can technically produce this fat from plant-based precursors, but the conversion is extremely inefficient. Eating fish provided a direct, ready-made supply.
This has led researchers to argue that regular access to aquatic foods was not just a dietary bonus but a prerequisite for the dramatic brain expansion that defines the genus Homo. The timing fits: hominin brains began growing significantly right around the period when fish and other aquatic resources first appear in the archaeological record. The Koobi Fora site, with its mix of fish, turtles, and crocodiles alongside stone tools, is the earliest concrete evidence that our ancestors had tapped into this nutrient-rich food source.
Neanderthals and Shellfish
Eating aquatic animals was not unique to our own species. Neanderthals were harvesting shellfish from rocky shores and sandy beaches in southern Spain as early as 150,000 years ago. At Bajondillo Cave near Málaga, excavations turned up the remains of mussels, barnacles, snails, and other marine invertebrates alongside butchered land animal bones and stone tools. The sea was only about 200 meters from the cave, making it an easy walk to gather shellfish at low tide.
Mussels dominated the haul, and many of the shells showed signs of burning, suggesting they were cooked. This find is roughly contemporary with the earliest evidence of shellfish gathering by anatomically modern humans at Pinnacle Point in South Africa, which means both human species arrived at the same strategy independently.
From Harpoons to Fishhooks
For most of the nearly two million years that hominins ate fish, the methods were simple: wading into shallows, grabbing stranded fish, or scavenging along shorelines. The first specialized fishing tools appeared much later but still impressively early.
Barbed bone harpoon points from Katanda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo date to between 90,000 and 80,000 years ago. These were designed to spear massive prehistoric catfish that could weigh up to 68 kilograms, enough to feed 80 people for two days. The harpoons required careful shaping of bone into barbed points that would lodge in flesh and hold, a level of craftsmanship that reflects genuine planning and toolmaking skill.
Fishhooks came later still. The oldest known examples are made from shell and come from a cave in East Timor, dated between 16,000 and 23,000 years ago. A similar shell hook from Sakitari Cave in Japan dates to around 22,500 years ago. Bone fishhooks appeared somewhat later, with notable early examples from Natufian sites in the southern Levant, in what is now Israel and Jordan.
Deep-Sea Fishing by 42,000 Years Ago
Catching fish in shallow water is one thing. Venturing into open ocean to target fast-moving species like tuna is something else entirely. The earliest evidence of deep-sea fishing comes from the Jerimalai rock shelter in East Timor, where remains of pelagic (open-ocean) fish species date to 42,000 years ago.
Catching tuna and similar species requires boats capable of reaching deep water, knowledge of fish behavior and seasonal patterns, and some form of line or net technology. The Jerimalai finds suggest that modern humans living in Southeast Asia had developed remarkably sophisticated maritime skills tens of thousands of years before the end of the last ice age. This is also the site that produced the world’s earliest definitive fishhook, linking the technology directly to this ambitious style of fishing.
How Scientists Trace Ancient Fish Diets
Fish bones and tools tell part of the story, but they only survive under specific conditions. To fill in the gaps, researchers analyze the chemical signatures locked in ancient human bones. The ratios of certain carbon and nitrogen variants in bone protein shift depending on what a person ate. Aquatic food chains are longer than terrestrial ones, so fish-eaters accumulate distinctly higher nitrogen levels in their bones compared to people who ate only land plants and animals.
Marine and freshwater diets also leave different carbon signatures. People eating ocean fish show carbon values similar to marine mammals, while freshwater fish consumers show very different patterns. Using these markers, researchers have confirmed that by the Late Mesolithic period, many European populations relied heavily on aquatic foods. Coastal groups in Denmark and Scotland ate primarily marine fish and shellfish, while inland populations along the Danube in Romania and Serbia depended on freshwater fish like pike, perch, and whitefish.
This chemical evidence fills a critical gap because fish bones are fragile and often don’t survive in archaeological sites, especially older ones. The actual frequency of fish eating throughout prehistory was almost certainly higher than the bone record alone suggests.
A Timeline of Key Milestones
- 1.95 million years ago: Earliest definitive evidence of fish butchery at Koobi Fora, Kenya
- 150,000 years ago: Neanderthals gathering shellfish at Bajondillo Cave, Spain
- 90,000 to 80,000 years ago: Barbed bone harpoons for spearing large catfish at Katanda, DR Congo
- 42,000 years ago: Deep-sea fishing for tuna and pelagic species at Jerimalai, East Timor
- 16,000 to 23,000 years ago: Earliest shell fishhooks in East Timor and Japan
Fish eating is not a recent human invention or even a modern human one. It stretches back nearly two million years, predating our own species by a wide margin. What changed over time was not the impulse to eat fish but the technology and ambition behind it, from wading into shallows to chasing tuna across open ocean.