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The expedition "North Oecumene" aims to find the northernmost ancient human site

  • 03 September 2015
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The expedition "North Oecumene" aims to find the northernmost ancient human site

According to NEFU Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, NEFU scientists are on their way to complete the unique expedition "North Oecumene", in which paleontologists search for the northernmost site of Paleolithic human and the location of fossil remains of the mammoth fauna animals.

‘One of the main aims of the expedition is to study the sites of ancient people in the North and the oldest site in Eastern Siberia. There are no analogues of such a project in Russia and in the world. If the project shows good results, we will involve leading experts in Pleistocene paleontology, archaeozoology and Paleolithic archeology from Russia, Europe and Asia’, said Semyon Grigoriev, the expedition leader and the Head of the laboratory of NEFU Mammoth Museum.

The expedition takes place in the Lyakhovsky Islands and Verkhnekolymsky and Ust-Yansky regions of Yakutia. According to Semyon Grigoriev, the findings of recent years, such as Yuka Mammoth and a spear made of woolly rhinoceros horn discovered on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, expand scientists' ideas about the time and the boundaries of human habitation in the Paleolithic of Northeastern Siberia. ‘All this requires urgent consideration,’ he said.

The project will run by international team of experts. About 20 scientists from NEFU Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, the Permafrost Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, paleontologists from Moldova, the Netherlands and South Korea will take part in the expedition. "North Oecumene" is supported and awarded the grant by the Russian Geographical Society, which the Institute received at the end of April 2015.

Author: Svetlana Leveryeva

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