“The main aim of the project is to set up a northern border, which reached up to the Palaeolithic people. We want to reconstruct conditions of that environment in the Arctic zone of the northwest of Eurasia, and also find out peculiarities of behavior and nutrition of Palaeolithic people. During the expedition we plan to study the possible impact of people on the fauna and flora of late Pleistocene, collect the material on the fauna of fossil mammals of North Yakutia, and do research on the genetic features of ancient animals and people,” says Semyon Grigoryev, Head of the Mammoth museum, North-Eastern Federal University Institute of Applied Ecology of the North.
The leading experts on the paleontology and anthropology of Russia, Europe and Asia are part of this project. The first expedition was organized in July 2015, and the research will continue until next year.
There are no analogues of such projects in the world. The most northern sites of Palaeolithic people and the locations of fossil remains of the mammoth fauna animals will be explored in case of successful realization of the project. The expeditions will take place in Ust-Yansky, Verkhnekolimsky and Bulunsky regions of the Sakha Republic, including the Lyakhovsky Islands.