The hunters probably lived in small, roving groups at that time, advancing into areas north of the Arctic Circle during the summer, then retreating southward again with the onset of the cold season. Researchers today cannot say with any certainty how large the first hunting communities in the Siberian Arctic were. Assuming, as some researchers do, that he left Africa, his continent of origin, for the first time only 65,000 to 50,000 years ago, only a few thousand years remained for the long and arduous migration to the north – a remarkable achievement.
This finding also sheds new light on our knowledge about the evolution and dispersal of modern man, Homo sapiens. These two excavations prove that modern humans must have roamed extensively in the Siberian Arctic long before the onset of the last glacial period. These animals were slain by humans about 29,000 years ago. They also discovered the bones of a wolf. Near the Jana River, about 1700 kilometres to the east, scientists have found the remains of several bison and woolly rhinoceroses. The prehistoric Arctic hunters, however, did not stalk only mammoths. When these are damaged the animals will soon bleed to death. It has proven to be very effective because vital arteries and veins are located in this part of the head. The technique of aiming a spear at the trunk of an elephant is still used by hunters in some parts of Africa today. According to detailed reconstructions, the prehistoric hunters had wounded the mammoth with spears in the shoulder, stomach, rib cage and trunk areas so severely that it eventually died. This was 10,000 years earlier than hunters were previously believed to have been present in the Arctic. Nevertheless, Russian scientists were amazed in the summer of 2012 when they discovered the cadaver of a young bull mammoth preserved in permafrost on the steep shore of the Siberian Taymyr Peninsula, between the Kara and Laptev Seas, and determined that the animal had been slain by humans around 45,000 years ago.
This is not surprising since, even today, because of its location and land connection, the Arctic is much easier for people and animals to reach than Antarctica, which is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. The oldest human traces in the polar regions have been found in the Arctic.
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