30,000 year-old '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. 

Last Updated: Friday, 2 January, 2004, 03:13 GMT  
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3361925.stm

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