  Map of Sakha Republic showing the location of Yana RHS  Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (Sakha Republic) | |
| Location | Sakha, Russia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 70°43′25″N 135°25′47″E / 70.72361°N 135.42972°E |
| Area | 3,500 m2 (38,000 sq ft) |
| History | |
| Founded | Upper Palaeolithic, c. 32,000 BP |
The Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (Yana RHS) is an Upper Palaeolithic archaeological site located near the lower Yana river in northeastern Siberia, Russia, north of the Arctic Circle in the far west of Beringia. It was discovered in 2001, after thawing and erosion exposed animal bones and artifacts. The site features a well-preserved cultural layer due to the cold conditions, and includes hundreds of animal bones and ivory pieces and numerous artifacts, which are indicative of sustained settlement and a relatively high level of technological development. With an estimated age of around 32,000 calibrated years before present (cal BP), the site provides the earliest archaeological evidence for human settlement in this region, or anywhere north of the Arctic Circle, where people survived extreme conditions and hunted a wide range of fauna before the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum. The Yana site is perhaps the earliest unambiguous evidence of mammoth hunting by humans.
A 2019 genetic study found that the remains of two young male humans discovered at the site, dating to c. 31.6 ka BP, represent a distinct archaeogenetic lineage, named 'Ancient North Siberians' (ANS).[1]
The Yana RHS site is preceded in Siberia by a few Initial Upper Paleolithic archaeological sites such as Ust-Ischim (with modern human remains, 45,000 years BP), or Kara-Bom (dating to 46,620 +/-1,750 cal years BP), Kara-Tenesh, Kandabaevo, and Podzvonskaya.[2]
- ^ Kozintsev 2022, p.1:"The ancestor of ANE was the ANS (Ancient North Siberian) autosomal component, represented in a male from the Upper Paleolithic Yana site, dating to 31.6 ka BP (Sikora et al., 2019). ANS is thought to have originated among West Eurasians soon after their divergence from East Eurasians about 43 ka BP. The picture is complicated by an approximately 22 % genetic contribution received by early West Eurasians from East Asians shortly after their split.".
- ^ Hamilton et al. 2010, p1:"Distribution maps (Figures 2A–D) show that the four earliest sites (Kara-Bom, Kara-Tenesh, Kandabaevo, and Podzvonskaya) predating 40k calBP are located in southern Siberia.", "The oldest site in the dataset is Kara-Bom at 46,620+/-1,750 cal BP, and so is used to represent the point of origin for the population expansion.".