Humans may have lived in the Arctic as long as 30,000 years ago. Towards the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago, hunters of caribou, woolly mammoths and woolly rhino followed herds of these animals through northern Siberia. They became the first humans to cross the Bering Strait to North America; a few thousand years later, some had settled along the Arctic coasts and become expert hunters of whales, walruses and seals. Although the indigenous peoples of the circumpolar world were ethnically diverse and scattered widely, their clothes, homes and semi-nomadic lifestyle gave them much in common. They hunted the same animals, shared some spiritual beliefs and organized their communities along co-operative lines. Extraordinarily resilient, they thrived by constantly adapting to an environment that can be both harsh and abundant.
The ancient Greeks gave the region its name, Arktos, meaning ‘bear’ – a reference to the Great Bear constellation that circles the northern sky. The Vikings first sailed north of the Arctic Circle in the ninth century when Erik the Red colonized southern Greenland. Then in the 12th century Russia began exploring and colonizing parts of northern Siberia. By the end of the 17th century the whole vast territory was part of the Russian empire. From the 1500s, European explorers travelled further and further north, claiming lands and often kidnapping a local native person to take home as proof of possession.
