At minus 40 degrees, which was a realistic winter temperature in Pleistocene northeastern Siberia, improperly clothed humans die within minutes.

Adequately clothed humans can function, work, and hunt.

The people at Yana had figured this out.

Their needles tell us that their technology of cold-weather clothing was sophisticated enough to keep a community — including children — alive through Arctic winters at 31,000 years before the present.

The Ivory Economy — Understanding The Tools

One of the most striking aspects of the Yana material culture is the extensive use of mammoth ivory.

Ivory — the same material as elephant tusks — was the primary medium for a range of important tool types at Yana, and its use reveals something important about the relationship between the community and the mammoths they hunted.