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Human Ecology in the Arctic
Evidence has been found of early humans in the early Würm-Weichsel period hunting large Arctic mammals in the Ice Age steppes of northern Europe. However, it is still unclear whether these humans were just temporary migrants or inhabitants of Arctic colonies at the time. The earliest inhabitants of the polar regions were the Neanderthals, or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, who are considered to be an intermediate stage between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens. The Neandertalers made advances in the basic production of stone, bone antler and flint tools, which archaeologists call a Mousterian industry. About 40,000 years ago, the Neandertalers quickly disappeared and were replaced by modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens. Just a few thousand years after the sudden disappearance of the Neandertalers, modern humans occupied all the land that their predecessors had occupied. Some scientists believe that the Neandertalers were overcome by the incoming modern race, commonly called Cro-Magnon people, while others believe the race disappeared by integrating itself within the new population. The Aurignacoid (upper Paleolithic tool-making) tradition of the modern people is most associated with a feature called blade-and-core technology. According to Quaternary scientist C.V. Haynes, Arctic cave art also dates back to the Aurignacoid phase and climaxes during the end of the Pleistocene, which encompasses subjects such as hunting and spirituality. People stemming from the Clovis culture populated northern regions of Canada and formed what led to the Northern Archaic and Maritime Archaic traditions at the end of the Late Glacial period. Recently, small flint tools and artifacts from about 5,000 years ago were discovered that belonged to a culture now generally called the Arctic Small Tool tradition. The ASTt people are believed to be the physical and cultural ancestors of modern arctic Eskimos.