28 Thousand Year Old Bone and Horn Art

[Marianne Kiendl]

The Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (RHS) locality is a group of six important Upper Paleolithic sites, all located above the Arctic circle in Siberia, and occupied beginning 28,000 calendar years ago (cal BP). Yana RHS is important for a number of things: it is the farthest north of any Upper Paleolithic site in the world; it may be been occupied by the ancestors of the first colonists in the Americas before they moved into Beringia; and, reported most recently, it contained an extensive and remarkable collection of carved and decorated bone and ivory artifacts. A 2012 article in Antiquity described these artifacts in some detail: researcher Vladimir Pitulko was generous enough to let us get a closer look at them here.

Nearly 3,000 pieces of worked, polished and engraved bone and personal objects have been recovered from the sites to date. This collection represents the oldest forms of elaborated symbolic activity found above the Arctic Circle, and many of the particular objects are unique in Eurasian Paleolithic archaeology

[Zochitl]

The designs are very interesting but unusual. The shortest piece seems to be showing a pine tree in their drawing. The longest piece seems like continuous letter A's at the bottom. Maybe they were learning the alphabet?

[Marianne Kiendl]

Yes, wonder what they were used for?

[Zochitl]

Hard to tell.

[Dennis Barsten]

Keeping themselves busy at night...?

[redhand]

The one on the left seems to have a couple of pyramids on it. Early drafts for new construction when they reach the new homeland?