Yana did not merely push back the date of Arctic human occupation.

It demonstrated that the people who lived there were not struggling survivors clinging to the margins of habitability.

They were successful hunters with sophisticated technology, engaged in systematic exploitation of the Mammoth Steppe’s resources.

The ivory foreshafts, the worked rhino horn, the bone needles, the decorative ornaments — none of this speaks of a desperate, improvised existence.

This was an established way of life.

The implications reached beyond the Arctic itself.