Early human presence in the Arctic: Evidence from 45,000-year-old mammoth remains

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Pitulko, Vladimir V., Tikhonov, Alexei N., Pavlova, Elena Y., Nikolskiy, Pavel A., Kuper, Konstantin E., Polozov, Roman N.
• Other Authors: Russian Foundation of Basic Research, Rock Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aad0554; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aad0554

Earliest human Arctic occupation Paleolithic records of humans in the Eurasian Arctic (above 66°N) are scarce, stretching back to 30,000 to 35,000 years ago at most. Pitulko et al. have found evidence of human occupation 45,000 years ago at 72°N, well within the Siberian Arctic. The evidence is in the form of a frozen mammoth carcass bearing many signs of weapon-inflicted injuries, both pre- and postmortem. The remains of a hunted wolf from a widely separate location of similar age indicate that humans may have spread widely across northern Siberia at least 10 millennia earlier than previously thought. Science , this issue p. 260