The faunal assemblage is diverse in a way that suggests these were not hunters focused on a single prey species but flexible opportunists who took what was available across the range of conditions they encountered.

The bone needles at the site — some of the finest preserved from the Upper Paleolithic anywhere in the world — are perhaps the most important single indicator of how the community managed the environmental extremes.

A needle implies thread or sinew.

Thread or sinew implies sewing.

Sewing implies tailored garments — garments that fit the body closely, that can be layered, that trap air against the skin and use the body’s own heat to maintain survivable temperature in extreme cold.

Modern experiments in cold-climate survival have demonstrated that the difference between adequate and inadequate cold-weather clothing is literally the difference between life and death at Arctic temperatures.