Mammoth Bones Show Humans Lived in Arctic 45,000 Years Ago

Frozen remains of a woolly mammoth were found in Siberia. The carcass is showing clear signs of spear wounds. This provides good evidence that people inhabited Arctic regions around 45,000 years ago, a period thousands of years earlier than it was previously thought.

According to the website ABC, the Russian scientists declared that the male mammoth excavated near the Arctic Ocean, from a bluff on Yenisei Bay, was killed by hunters 45,000 years ago. The discovery has been published in the journal Science.

Prior to this discovery, the scientists considered that first humans arrived in the region only 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. However, the new discovery is providing a different indication of the presence of humans in the Arctic.

The senior research scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg, Dr. Vladimir Pitulko, declared that, as of now, scientists hold only evidence that humans arrived in the Arctic region around 30,000 years ago. They are likely to have lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and had to endure the harsh Arctic conditions.

Mammoths are close elephant relatives and at that time were the largest land creatures in the region. This made them an important resource for the first humans in the Arctic.

Mammoths have provided an endless source of various goods such as fat marrow, and meat for food, as well as fat, dung and bones for fuel. Raw material was also extracted from ivory and bones.

The new discovery shows with clear evidence that the mammoth was killed by humans living there around 45,000 years ago. Its injuries shown on the carcass remains are consistent with signs of being killed with sharp weapons and then slaughtered with sharp tools.

Scientists consider that mammoth-hunting has been a critical factor in enabling people to survive in the trek across North Siberia and the Arctic. This also enabled them to reach the Bering land bridge that linked at the time Siberia to Alaska. This way it was possible for the first humans to cross the land bridge and reach the New World, then spread through the Americas.