Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / March 2005

'New World' link to Arctic find

Humans occupied the freezing lands high above the Arctic Circle during
the last Ice Age, say Russian archaeologists.
New Stone Age artefacts from Yana in northern Siberia have pushed back
the human presence in the Arctic by around 16,000 years, surprising many
experts.

The finds also hint that North America may have been populated much
earlier than thought given the dig's relative proximity to the Bering
Strait.

Full details of the discoveries appear in the academic journal Science.

Vladimir Pitulko from the Institute for the History of Material Culture
in St Petersburg, Russia, and others have uncovered numerous artefacts
and animal bones in frozen deposits from an ancient terrace by the Yana
River.

The artefacts, made by modern humans (Homo sapiens), include spear
"foreshafts" and stone tools.

The finds suggest humans may have been hunting big game animals in the
region by around 30,000 years ago.

Read the rest at BBC (includes pix & maps)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3361925.stm

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Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek.