KRASNOYARSK, SIBERIA—A human jawbone with teeth thought to be 14,000 years old was uncovered during emergency excavations ahead of bridge construction at the archaeological site of Afontova Mountain. During the Paleolithic period, the site was close to glaciers and was occupied by people who hunted animals such as mammoths. Analysis of the well-preserved jaw could produce information about the early colonization of Siberia. “This site, an ancient camp, has been researched since the late nineteenth century and has given us a lot of material, not just debris, but thousands of complete stone and bone tools. During our current excavations we hope to find probably not the same amount, but very close to this. Apart from stone and bone tools, we found a set of stone beads and some pieces of art including a triangular plate made of mammoth tusk with plotted points. It was probably a pendant,” archaeologist Leonid Galuhin of Krasnoyarsk Geoarheologiya told The Siberian Times.
