Reconstructed setting· The columns of time

Mammoth steppe

129 ka → 11.7 ka

This backdrop shows the mammoth steppe, a vanished biome: a cold, dry, treeless grassland rich in flowering herbs, grazed by mammoth, horse and steppe bison.

Backdrop representing a vanished biome: a cold, dry, treeless grassland rich in flowering herbs, grazed by mammoth, horse and steppe bison.

What the evidence shows

Artemisia and grasses dominate the pollen record of eastern Beringia at the height of the glacial, and ancient sedimentary DNA identifies mammoth, horse and steppe bison there, the grazing megafauna of the biome. Shrubs are absent from the composition for a chronological reason: the expansion of dwarf birch and willow is precisely what marks the collapse of the biome, 13,900 to 13,200 years ago, so that depicting them would place the end of this environment inside its own image.

Bounds and conventions

No present-day landscape constitutes a satisfactory analogue, which makes this the most difficult backdrop to establish. The reconstruction rests on pollen and sedimentary DNA from eastern Beringia; the same biome extended as far as western Europe, where its aspect may have differed.