And it is these methods — not available in the same form during the original Cinq-Mars excavations — that were applied in the study that eventually provided the most compelling evidence from Bluefish Caves.

Loïc Bourgeon and the Reanalysis

In the mid-2010s, Lauriane Bourgeon, a researcher working with Ariane Burke of the University of Montreal and Tom Higham of the University of Oxford, undertook a systematic reanalysis of the Bluefish Caves faunal collection using modern taphonomic methods.

The collection by this point was housed at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec — thousands of specimens of Pleistocene-era animal bone that had been sitting in archival storage for decades, waiting for someone to apply the analytical tools that had been developed since the original excavations.

The reanalysis was comprehensive.