Settlement of Arctic Siberia at the Yana site
- Date
- c. 32,000 years ago
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Northeastern Siberia (Yana River, Russia)
- Era
- Prehistory
- Significance
The Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (Yana RHS), at 71° north on the Yana River in far northeastern Siberia, pushed back the date of human settlement above the Arctic Circle to around 32,000 years ago — roughly twice as old as any previously known Arctic occupation.
Discovered in 2001, the site has yielded stone tools, mammoth and woolly-rhinoceros bone, a foreshaft made from rhinoceros horn, and personal ornaments and decorated objects that count among the oldest art of the Eurasian Arctic. Living through the harsh conditions preceding the Last Glacial Maximum required tailored clothing, reliable fire, big-game hunting, and sophisticated logistics. Ancient DNA from individuals at Yana defines a distinct population, the 'Ancient North Siberians,' related to later Ancient North Eurasian groups that contributed ancestry both to West Eurasians and, importantly, to the ancestors of Native Americans. Yana thus illuminates the deep Siberian background of the later peopling of the Americas.
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Related exploration & colonisation events
- Dmanisi: the earliest well-dated humans in Eurasiac. 1.8 million years ago
- Pre-Clovis America: Monte Verde and the Pacific coastal routec. 16,000–14,500 years ago
- Settlement of Sahul: human occupation of Australia at Madjedbebec. 65,000 years ago
- White Sands footprints: humans in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximumc. 23,000–21,000 years ago
- Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateauc. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago
- Earliest humans reach Asia: stone tools at Shangchen, Chinac. 2.1 million years ago
Further reading
The wider story
The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
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