A volunteer excavates mammoth remains from about 45,000 years ago that have revealed the earliest known sign of humans in the Arctic. Because in 2012 a young boy some 1250 miles south of the North Pole in Siberia stumbled across the leg bones of a wooly mammoth protruding out of the ground. Through radiocarbon dating of the animal’s tibia bone and surrounding materials, the researchers dated it at 45,000 years old. The remains of a prehistoric mammoth bearing evidence of having been attacked by arrows or spears suggests humans lived in the Arctic thousands of years earlier than believed, according to a study published yesterday.
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At this time of year, many Canadians find themselves hankering for a tropical vacation to escape the cold, but a spectacular find on the Siberian tundra reveals that humans have been adept at making a living in the far north for much longer than previously thought. “It was injured several times by spears, mostly from the left side of the body, then partly butchered and for whatever reason left behind – they did not return”, said Vladimir Pitulko of the Institute for the History of Material Culture in St Petersburg.
Its bones exhibited a number of unusual injuries on the ribs, right tusk and jaw.
The fact that humans populated Arctic regions sooner than previously known suggests the possibility that people also crossed the Bering land bridge earlier than now suspected, Dr Pitulko said. They butchered the beast, including removing the tongue. In mainland arctic Siberia, the site of Berelekh, discovered by Nikolay Vereschagin in the early 70s, was for years the location yielding the oldest evidence for human migration into the arctic regions.
Daniel Fisher, a mammoth expert at the University of MI who did not participate in the study, said the markings on the mammoth bone strongly indicate human hunting.
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The people who endured the harsh Arctic conditions likely lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, Dr Pitulko said. “Until 15,000 years ago, sea-level (though changing) still remained low, which is clear from appropriate dates on terrestrial animals in the New Siberian islands”. A spectacular find and an exceptional case of archaeological sleuthing!
