It places the Bluefish Caves evidence in a global context that confirms its plausibility: people were doing exactly the same kinds of things — systematic large-animal butchery in cave contexts — in Europe 24,000 years ago, and the European evidence is generally accepted without controversy.

The skepticism that greeted the Bluefish Caves evidence was at least partially a function of the specific paradigmatic context of North American archaeology — the “Clovis first” model’s influence on how evidence for early human presence was evaluated — rather than a general methodological problem with the type of evidence being presented.

The global comparative perspective is relevant for another reason: it shows that the subsistence strategies implied by the Bluefish Caves cut marks were not exotic or implausible.

Large-animal hunting during the Last Glacial Maximum was the dominant subsistence strategy for modern human populations across Eurasia, from Western Europe to the Russian Far East.