Posted on Monday 5 January 2004 to Story So Far

A recent discovery in eastern Siberia indicates that people were living in the Arctic region at least 30,000 years ago. A camping site found on the Yana river is 480 km north of the Artic circle is twice as old as anything found previously in that part of the world. At the time of occupation, most of the land in the higher latitudes was covered with glaciers but the Yana River area was free of ice. It was a dry flood plain which served as a habitat for mammoths, horses and other game that could be hunted for food.

Inevitably, this discovery has been used to bloster arguments about the feasibility of human migration across the Bering Strait land bridge into North America. It also supports arguments that migration may have been possible much earlier than previously thought and long before the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago.

"Getting people across to the New World was not the problem... The problem was getting people into that part of the world so they could cross."

But before we jump to conclusions, it's worth noting that the evidence for linking this particular group with the Clovis people of North America is still tentative. However despite the time gap of 18,000 years that separates them, evidence of human habitation this far north during the ice age certainly does improve the odds for this theory.

See also:

Paleoamericans
More evidence that Native Americans came by boats

Update: In the comments, PF (who also happens to write one of my favourite blogs) brings his considerable local knowledge to bear on the problem of early human migration in eastern Siberia.