Human remains of this antiquity from the Alaskan Arctic are extraordinarily rare.

The physical evidence of the people who lived in this region during the early Holocene — the period immediately following the end of the last Ice Age, when the patterns of human settlement and population were still being established — is sparse to the point of near-invisibility.

Every well-dated specimen from this period is scientifically precious.

The Trail Creek tooth was, it turned out, one of the oldest known human remains from the North American Arctic.

Almost Seventy Years Later