By about 46,000 years ago, modern humans were established in parts of southern Siberia, shown by Initial Upper Paleolithic sites such as Kara-Bom. These early occupations help set the stage for later movement into much colder parts of northeast Asia.
Sea levels fell during the last Ice Age, eventually exposing the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia) between Siberia and Alaska. Recent sea-level reconstructions suggest the land bridge emerged relatively late, around 36,000 years ago, narrowing the window for land-based travel between continents.
At the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (north of the Arctic Circle), people lived in Arctic Siberia around 32,000 years ago. This is key evidence that humans could survive far-northern conditions before the coldest phase of the Last Glacial Maximum.
Genomes from individuals linked to Yana (about 31,600 years ago) show a distinct ancient population in northeast Siberia. These genetic results demonstrate that northern Eurasia already had complex population structure before later migrations into Beringia and the Americas.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) marks the coldest part of the last Ice Age, when ice sheets were large and sea levels were much lower than today. These conditions shaped travel routes by expanding Beringia while also creating major ice barriers farther south in North America.
A 24,000-year-old genome from Mal’ta (near Lake Baikal) revealed that Upper Paleolithic Siberians carried ancestry related to both western Eurasians and later Native Americans. This finding helped explain why Native American ancestry is not only East Asian in origin.
Cut-marked animal bones from Bluefish Caves in Yukon have been argued to show human presence around 24,000 years ago, during the LGM. While debated, this evidence is often discussed as possible support for people living in parts of Beringia before widespread movement south of the ice sheets.
Footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico date to roughly 21,000–23,000 years ago, placing people south of the North American ice sheets during the LGM. This strengthens the case that migration into (or through) Beringia occurred early enough to allow dispersal well before 15,000 years ago.
Remains of infants at the Upward Sun River site in Alaska date to about 11,500 years ago and include a genome representing an “Ancient Beringian” lineage. The results show an early branch within Native American-related ancestry, supporting a complex population history tied to Beringia.
As the climate warmed after the Ice Age, sea levels rose and the Bering Strait opened again, flooding much of the Bering Land Bridge. Geophysical and sediment records indicate this major flooding and opening occurred around 11,000 calibrated years before present, ending Beringia as a broad land corridor.
Genetic studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in living Native Americans helped popularize the idea that ancestral Native Americans spent thousands of years isolated in or near Beringia during the LGM. In this model, isolation in a northern refugium (a livable “safe area” during harsh climate) helps explain later genetic patterns in the Americas.
By the early Holocene, the Siberian Arctic–Beringia corridor was no longer a single exposed land bridge, but it remained central to explaining how people and ecosystems moved between Asia and North America. Modern research continues to refine the timing of exposure, habitable refugia, and the number and direction of migration waves during roughly 30,000–10,000 years ago.
Migration waves across the Siberian Arctic into Beringia (c.30,000–10,000 BP)