🦣 c. 18,000 BC | Ancient Humans Hunting a Woolly Mammoth What you’re seeing: Ice Age hunters stalk a woolly mammoth on the “mammoth steppe” (a cold grassy plain from Spain to Siberia during the last Ice Age, c. 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). They move slowly through shallow snow with spears ready while the mammoth walks ahead, its fur coat and tusks lit by low Arctic sun. Who are these hunters? They are Homo sapiens (anatomically modern humans) in the late Ice Age, following migrating herds in small mobile groups and using detailed knowledge of snow, weather and big-game behavior. Where is this on today’s map? This flat, treeless frozen steppe fits northern Siberia / Alaska / Yukon, in a region once linked by Beringia (the ancient land bridge between Siberia and Alaska). How do we know what they wore? Archaeologists find bone needles and awls (sharp pointed tools for piercing leather), plus burials and figurines that hint at fitted garments. In this climate, survival needs tail...