Excavations began formally in 2002 and continued across multiple seasons.

The inventory of what came out of the ground was staggering.

More than 2,500 artifacts were recovered.

Stone tools: flakes and points and scrapers in various stages of production.

Items made of mammoth ivory: foreshafts for spears, points, needles.

Items made from antler.

Items made from animal bone, including the bones of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, horses, bison, and a remarkable variety of other animals that would have lived on the Mammoth Steppe — the great cold grassland ecosystem that extended across northern Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

Among the artifacts was something that drew particular attention: a fragment of what appeared to be a decorative ivory headband or hair ornament.