Original subtitles

A grim discovery is made on a glacier

high in the mountains of Pakistan.

At the edge of the glacier was a man lying motionless.

At first, the shepherd thought he might be unconscious.

But as he got closer, it was clear the man wasn't breathing.

He was dead.

There was no decay, there were no visible wounds,

and no signs of struggle. Clothing was almost perfectly intact.

So they needed to find out who this person was and how he ended up here.

In the frigid tundra of Russia's Siberian Arctic,

a remarkable creature emerges from the frozen ground.

They noticed something poking out of the thawing permafrost.

It was quite big with brown fur, possibly a large animal.

So, how did this animal die

and how long has it been preserved in the ice?

A veteran scientist mysteriously vanishes

on the Greenland ice sheet.

And he tells the team that he's going to look at his data,

and then he starts walking toward the main camp area.

Hours later, Simon returned to the camp.

He hadn't seen Konrad since he set off to study his data.

But when they returned, they realised

Konrad wasn't in his cot sleeping.

That's when panic set in.

These are the strangest mysteries

trapped in the coldest places.

Lost relics.

Forgotten treasures.

Dark secrets.

Locked in their icy tombs for ages.

But now, as ice melts around the world...

...their stories will finally be exposed.

High in the dramatic Kohistan mountain region

of northern Pakistan, the Supat Valley cradles

a sprawling glacier known as Lady Meadows.

At 13,000 feet above sea level,

this icy river winds through a landscape of jagged towering peaks.

This is where the world's most legendary mountain ranges meet -

the Hindu Kush, the Himalayas, and the Karakoram.

It's one of the most glacier-rich areas on Earth.

Pakistan has more than 13,000 glaciers, which means it has

the largest volume of glacial ice outside of the polar regions.

The region has been predominantly inhabited by indigenous tribes

since ancient times.

The Kohistanis primarily speak Indus Kohostani, including Torwali

and Gawri, which are distinct from the more widely spoken

Kashmiri language.

Throughout history, these tribes have faced invasions

from powerful empires like the Persians, Greeks, and Mughals.

And yet they've steadfastly maintained

their strong cultural identity.

Winters here are extremely harsh.

Even as the valleys begin to thaw in spring,

the glaciers remain locked in sub-zero temperatures year-round,

and the ice has shaped the landscape for thousands of years.

But now, the glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate,

and sometimes what they reveal is haunting.

On July 31st, 2025, a shepherd is travelling

near Lady Meadows Glacier when he spots something strange.

At the edge of the glacier was a man lying motionless.

At first, the shepherd thought he might be unconscious.

But as he got closer, it was clear the man wasn't breathing.

He was dead.

Local authorities were summoned,

and they were stunned by the condition of the body.

There was no decay, there were no visible wounds,

and no signs of struggle.

The clothing was almost perfectly intact.

So they needed to find out who this person was and how he ended up here.

With climate change causing glacial retreat

the world over, shocking discoveries

high in the mountains are not uncommon.

One of the most famous was Otzi the Iceman.

When hikers found him in the Alps in 1991,

he looked like someone who had died just days earlier.

But testing revealed he'd been frozen for more than 5,000 years.

His skin, organs, even the food in his stomach had all been preserved.

This process is called "natural mummification."

The body freezes quickly, then remains sealed off from air,

water, and scavengers.

If it's trapped in a crevasse, or buried under compact ice,

the cold and the lack of oxygen can almost completely halt decay.

Initially, researchers believed Otzi died from exposure in the icy,

brutal mountain terrain.

But later examination uncovered the disturbing truth.

Otzi didn't die by accident, he had been murdered.

Now, with this frozen body in Supat Valley, a similar question arises -

was his death accidental or something more sinister?

Looking for answers, the authorities search

through the man's clothing and in one of the pockets,

find a weathered ID card.

The name on it was Naseeruddin.

This was a 31-year-old father from a nearby village, and he'd been

reported missing back in 1997, nearly three decades earlier.

When local officials showed the mummified man to his family,

they confirmed it was Naseeruddin.

For years, the family searched for any sign of him,

refusing to give up hope.

But only recently did they finally accept that he was gone,

even performing a traditional ceremony to mourn the loss.

But the discovery alone doesn't explain how Naseeruddin

came to rest here, or what caused his death.

So the question remains, what really happened to this man frozen in time?

In this region of northern Pakistan, the local police force

doesn't have the resources to perform a full investigation

or autopsy. So, authorities turn to Naseeruddin's family

to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

According to his brother, Kathiruddin,

he was there the day Naseeruddin went missing in June of 1997.

At the time, there was a long-standing village feud

threatening to turn violent.

So, the two of them fled into the mountains to escape.

That day, they were moving through remote territory

and they heard gunfire.

Naseeruddin quickly ducked into an icy cave to hide,

but when Kathiruddin went after him, his brother wasn't there.

He'd vanished.

But not all accounts agreed.

Some relatives gave officials a different version of what happened.

They said there was a snowstorm in the mountains.

Naseeruddin, who was riding horseback,

was caught in the blizzard's force, and both he and his horse

slipped into a crevasse in the glacier.

But if that's the case, why wasn't the horse found too?

There was no trace of it,

and Naseeruddin's body didn't show the kind of trauma

you'd expect from such a fall, so there must be another explanation.

In the far north of Pakistan, with its remote valleys,

insulated communities and long-standing traditions,

folklore runs deep.

Generations have passed down stories of supernatural beings

like the Jinn and Pari, stretching back to pre-Islamic times.

In these high Kohistan valleys, many people believe mysterious events

like strange disappearances, sudden deaths,

and even miraculous reappearances

can be blamed on forces beyond the human world.

The mountains are said to be strongholds for spirits

like the Jinn, dwelling in caves and in wild hidden places.

For locals, a man vanishing into a cave is a familiar occurrence.

It's actually a common motif in their stories.

Some even claim to have seen these spirits with their own eyes.

For believers, how else could they explain a man

vanishing into thin air, then reappearing

nearly three decades later, perfectly preserved?

And adding to the eeriness is the timing.

His body surfaced soon after his family

had finally given up their search.

So, could it have been the Jinn who took Naseeruddin

and returned him decades later?

It's highly unlikely, but for many people in these parts,

this folklore offers a way of making sense of the unexplainable.

In 1997, the year Naseeruddin went missing,

Pakistan was in turmoil.

Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been removed from power,

and Nawaz Sharif had taken her place.

It was a tense time.

Despite the new government's promise of stability,

the country remained on edge - corruption scandals,

sectarian violence, and intense political rivalries

drove fear and distrust throughout the country.

Even in the remote mountains of Kohistan,

people weren't completely shielded from the unrest.

Historically, this area was known to outsiders as Yaghistan.

It's a Persian term meaning "the land of the unruly",

and it reflects the region's long history of fiercely independent

peoples consistently resisting control from outside authorities.

In the late 1990s, it wasn't uncommon

for people to disappear, especially those living in

disputed territories or tribal areas.

Some were taken by rival groups, while others,

according to human rights reports,

may have vanished at the hands of government authorities.

So it's possible that Naseeruddin wasn't the victim

of a tragic accident on the mountain at all.

Maybe he was taken captive by rivals, or by government officials,

and left to perish in the glacier's crevasse.

But the problem with this theory is that there's nothing

to directly connect Naseeruddin to political activity.

At least nothing anybody's willing to talk about.

And there's no evidence linking his death to government forces.

With no autopsy and no physical evidence,

the exact cause of Naseeruddin's death will likely remain a mystery.

The most probable scenario is that he fell into the crevasse

and never made it out.

Once trapped, his body froze quickly

and the icy walls sealed him off from animals and the elements.

For nearly three decades,

these unique conditions kept him preserved,

shielded by the mountain itself.

For now, the truth about what happened to Nazaredeen

remains elusive. The Kohistan Mountains hold their secrets close,

and this one remains frozen in silence.

In the Russian high Arctic, hundreds of miles north

of the Siberian mainland, sits Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island.

Perched on the southernmost part of the New Siberian archipelago,

the island serves as a natural barrier between the Laptev Sea

to the west and the East Siberian Sea to the east.

It's nearly impossible to access, thanks to the harsh environment

and lack of infrastructure.

As a result, it has no permanent population.

In the middle of winter, temperatures plunge to like

minus 23 Fahrenheit, there's almost no sun at all.

And all of that keeps the island locked under this

2 million year old layer of permafrost

that's anywhere from 100 to 130 feet thick.

Reindeer herding is a vital part of life in the Russian Arctic.

Very few other animals, if any, can survive in the frigid tundra,

making reindeer essential to the survival

of the indigenous communities in the area.

Reindeer provide nearly everything needed for daily life.

The meat is eaten, the skins are turned into clothing

and blankets, and the antlers are used for tools and weapons.

In 2020, a group of reindeer herders

traversing the desolate tundra of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island

make an unprecedented discovery.

They noticed something poking out of the thawing permafrost.

It was quite big with brown fur, possibly a large animal.

Upon closer inspection, they realised it was

the remains of a bear. The carcass was completely whole

and unscavenged, perfectly preserved in the ice,

with its fur, ears, teeth and nose completely intact.

It's a bear.

It's about a two or three-year-old female weighing around 170 pounds.

A necropsy, or animal autopsy,

revealed that the animal's internal organs were all in place.

There were even remains of her last meal undigested in her stomach,

which included unidentified plants and some feathers.

So, how did this bear die?

And how long has it been preserved in the ice?

In May 2007, 1,200 miles west in the Amal Peninsula,

once again, it's a group of reindeer hunters

that comes across something incredible.

Washed out from the permafrost along the Yuribey River,

they found the perfectly preserved carcass of a baby woolly mammoth.

It was a female, somewhere around 30-35 days old,

and already it weighed around 100 pounds.

CT Scans revealed that the internal organs were in beautiful shape,

there was even traces of the mother's milk inside the stomach.

And all this despite the fact that she was 40,000 years old.

Could the bear found on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island be that old?

It's certainly possible.

Ancient cave bears were known to live in this part of the world.

The cave bear can be traced back over 5 million years

and became extinct nearly 30,000 years ago.

It's believed that Stone Age populations

sometimes hunted cave bears, but evidence is scarce,

and it's improbable that human beings caused their extinction.

Evidence suggests that most cave bears died

during severe glacial winters, as many discovered remains

show signs of disease or illness.

The extinction may have been the result of changes

in the bear's skull, which evolved to include larger sinuses

that helped them survive hibernation,

but with a thinner skull.

This diminished their biting force

and restricted their diet to softer, lower value foods.

The extinction was most likely a gradual process

that ended between 28,000 and 27,000 years ago.

Fossilized remains of these animals weigh anywhere from 800

to 2,200 pounds, and they've been discovered all across Russia,

so it is definitely possible that our bear is a cave bear specimen.

Additional research triggers a re-evaluation

of the original theory about the bear's age.

Radiocarbon dating and genetic studies

suggest the bear is only about 3,000 years old.

It's not an extinct cave bear after all,

but rather a species of brown bear.

But how did it die and end up in the ice?

Testing on the mammoth found on the Yamal Peninsula

revealed mud in her lungs,

suggesting she likely drowned in the riverbed,

sinking into the mud as her herd attempted to cross.

Maybe something similar happened to the bear.

The time of its death was a period of climatic instability

when permafrost was beginning to thaw.

It could be that a sudden large-scale landslide occurred,

sweeping the bear away in a flood of mud and debris,

and burying its body instantly and deeply.

Almost 250 miles northwest of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island

is Zhokhov Island.

The site serves as a crucial regional precedent of humans

living in the new Siberian archipelago.

Excavations into the permafrost have uncovered several artifacts,

including stools crafted from stone, bone,

and tusks, evidence of a small settlement of 25-50 people

that existed roughly 9,000 years ago on the island.

The other animal remains found at the site suggest that

the inhabitants were hunters, mainly feeding on reindeer,

but in the winter, it looks like they also

killed bears in their dens.

For indigenous people of the region,

bears were regarded as powerful and spiritual beings.

Bear hunting, when undertaken, was governed by

strict ceremonial protocols designed to honour the animal spirit.

There was specific butchering of the animal,

and the remains were given a ritual burial.

Is it possible that the Etherican bear was hunted

by the inhabitants of the island and given a ceremonial burial?

That's not very likely because if the bear was killed by hunters,

it stands to reason that they would have eaten some or all of it.

But the body is actually largely intact,

and there were no butchering marks or projectile points

from weapons reported from the necropsy.

So, what else could have killed it?

About 400 miles south in mainland Siberia,

a prehistoric puppy was discovered in the permafrost

by tusk hunters in 2018.

Like the Etherican bear, it was in very good shape, with its head,

nose, whiskers, mouth, and even eyelashes all intact.

It was male, only two or three months old at the time of death,

and testing revealed that it was around 18,000 years old.

Researchers dubbed the pup "Dogor,"

which means "friend" in the local Yukushin language.

It's also a play on words, because at first they couldn't tell

if it was a dog or a wolf, even after DNA testing.

And they began to suspect that it was a kind of hybrid

from a time in canine evolution

when wolf species were dying out and early dogs were beginning to emerge.

Later, they did a genomic sequencing study,

and they were able to show that Dogor was in fact a wolf.

And the prevailing theory is that he died during the last Ice Age.

We know the Etherican bear lived much later than Dogor,

and that the climate during that time was more benign,

so the bear's death couldn't have been the result

of an Ice Age environment.

There must be another explanation.

Further investigation of the bear's necropsy report

may just provide an answer.

There was evidence of significant trauma to the bear's spine,

suggesting she probably suffered from a fall.

Now it's unclear whether she fell from a high cliff

or maybe fell down into a crevasse, but either way,

whatever happened to her back is almost certainly what killed her.

But there's still this one other question,

which is how did bears get to this isolated island?

I mean, they're pretty good swimmers, but this is just too far.

During the last Ice Age, lower sea levels exposed the Siberian shelf,

connecting the islands with the mainland.

As the Ice Age came to an end about 12,000 years ago,

the ice sheets started to melt, causing sea levels to rise

and creating the new Siberian islands.

So any bears that once roamed the icy plain

became genetically isolated on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island

as the water rose around them.

This bear's death could have even greater significance,

marking the extinction of a unique isolated group.

The Etherican bear's chance preservation

in a geological trap created an invaluable time capsule...

...offering a rare glimpse into a long-lost animal population

and the world they once inhabited.

A relic of the Ice Age,

the Greenland Ice Sheet covers about 80% of Greenland,

making it the second largest mass of ice on the planet after Antarctica.

On average, the ice is a mile thick and stretches 1,800 miles long

and almost 700 miles wide.

The environment here is unforgiving,

with extreme cold temperatures

plummeting to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

About 50 miles inland from any signs of civilisation is Swiss Camp,

which is a remote scientific outpost established by renowned

glaciologist Konrad Steffen in 1990.

It consists of red semi-cylindrical tents built on a wooden platform

to account for the massive amounts of snow in the area.

It's not a fancy place by any stretch of the imagination,

but the scientists at this camp are doing groundbreaking research.

The big unanswered question of the day

is whether the Greenland Ice Sheet is growing or shrinking.

So in the early '90s, Steffen set out to get a definitive answer.

This whole camp was outfitted to answer it.

It had state-of-the-art weather stations

equipped with solar-powered sensors that were recording temperature,

solar radiation, wind speed, and snowfall.

On August 8th, 2020,

the veteran scientist separates from his team to collect a data card

from one of the weather towers just over 300 feet from camp.

Steffen's three apprentices, which includes his son Simon,

are installing new equipment.

When Stefan returns from the weather station

and he tells the team that he's going to look at his data,

and then he goes off walking toward the main camp area.

Hours later, Simon returned to the camp.

He hadn't seen Konrad since he set off to study his data.

But they weren't concerned

because they assumed he had gone to his tent to take a nap.

But when they returned, they realised Konrad

wasn't in his cot sleeping.

That's when panic set in.

Steffen's colleagues and Simon scoured the immediate area

around camp, probing the snow for any signs of him,

but their efforts were fruitless.

A search of the camp storage tent revealed Steffen's personal

safety harness was still inside, which confused the team

because he had mandated the use of them

outside of the camp's small perimeter.

They found no trace of Steffen, he simply disappeared into thin air.

So what could have happened to the world-renowned scientist

who had spent decades at this very site?

The disappearance of a veteran explorer

due to a lapse in judgment isn't unheard of.

Timothy Treadwell is better known as the Grizzly Man.

He was a documentary filmmaker and conservationist

who spent 13 summers living among the massive grizzly bears

in Katmai National Park in Alaska.

He would get extremely close to the bears while he observed them,

sometimes even making physical contact with them.

In October 2003, he started breaking basic safety rules.

He stayed in the park too late in the season,

stretching his trip into October.

Bears have an increased appetite this time of the year

as they fatten up ahead of hibernation.

Then on the last night of his trip,

he wanted a front row view of the animals,

so he set up his tent close to the highly populated bear trail

and salmon stream.

The next day, when his air taxi pilot arrived to take him home,

Timothy and his girlfriend were nowhere to be seen.

His error in judgment turned out to be fatal.

Timothy and Amy were both killed and partially eaten by a brown bear.

So, is that what happened to Steffen Konrad in Greenland?

Steffen's colleagues recall a haunting story,

underscoring the risks they faced in an isolated environment.

A couple of nights before Konrad's disappearance,

the team was woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds

of footsteps and scuffling just outside their tent.

Now, as far as they could tell,

it was most likely a polar bear.

Steffen had survived an encounter with a polar bear before,

so this was something he worried about a lot.

But the morning after the disturbance,

the team investigated the area around the tent

and didn't find any evidence of a polar bear.

No footprints, scratch marks, or anything else

to suggest an animal was present.

In the stillness of a remote polar desert

where silence stretches for miles,

the mind can begin to play tricks.

And if Konrad was in fact attacked,

there would likely be gruesome physical evidence left behind,

like blood and drag marks,

but Konrad's team saw nothing of the sort.

Seeking answers, Konrad's son begins to wonder

if his father's disappearance was linked to age-related health issues.

At 68, this was Konrad's final mission before retirement.

Given his age, it's not unreasonable to consider

the possibility of physical or cognitive decline.

Simon even questioned whether his father

was having issues with his vision.

The low visibility on the day he disappeared

could have only made things worse.

Maybe he simply wandered off and got lost.

But here's the thing - Konrad was legendary in the field.

He had a reputation for being extremely sharp and hard-nosed.

He survived polar bear encounters, falls into the frigid sea,

and even an avalanche.

His reputation earned him the nickname the "Arctic Cowboy".

And there's no concrete evidence that Steffen had any vision problems

or cognitive impairments.

A careless mistake would have been totally out of character

for a guy with decades of experience in environments just like this one.

So, what really happened on that ice sheet?

In times of grief, the mind can reach for explanations

that go beyond rational thought,

sometimes turning to folklore and myth.

Konrad's son has admitted to wondering if there's any truth

to the Greenlandic folklore that tells of the "Qivittoq".

This is one of many ancient tales that are fundamental pieces

of Inuit culture.

This particular legend serves as a cautionary tale

about living in isolation.

It's a stark reminder of the harshness of the Arctic environment.

A "Qivittoq" or "Mountain Walker" is a person in Inuit tradition

who, because of shame or insult, leaves their community

to live a life of solitude in the frigid wilderness.

According to legend, these people lose their human qualities

over time to gain supernatural powers,

sometimes becoming malevolent, ghost-like spirits

that stalk the ice sheet and attack people.

This is a legend, not a scientific theory.

Konrad's son was grappling with an unimaginable loss,

and it's understandable that he'd seek answers in the mystical

because the Greenlandic landscape

really can seem supernaturally powerful.

While out on a routine snowmobile ride near camp in 2019,

the research team makes a startling discovery.

Steffen's son's snowmobile tipped backwards into a crevasse.

Now, crevasses are bad news. They can be anywhere

from a few inches wide to several feet,

and they can be hundreds of feet deep.

In some cases, they reach the bottom of the ice sheet.

That can be a mile down.

The team was totally unaware

of the presence of crevices in the area.

Steffen's son is rightfully rattled.

It's such a surprising discovery.

At first, his colleague Derek Houltz laughs it off

until they examine the crevasse themselves.

With a shovel in hand, Steffen and Houltz hike back to the crack

in the ice, and when they reach the location, the unthinkable happens.

Houltz falls in.

Thankfully, his shovel lands flat,

and he's able to cling to it and pull himself out.

But it's a very close call.

After some investigation, they found a massive crack

in the ice running right underneath one of the tents.

The discovery led the National Science Foundation

to undertake an emergency evacuation.

When Steffen and his team first established Swiss Camp,

it was strategically positioned on what was then the ice sheet's

equilibrium line, which is the point where annual snowfall accumulation

equals the amount of ice lost to melting.

But because the ice sheet melts and shifts,

the camp's coordinates were never truly fixed.

It steadily moved westward by about a foot per day.

So the camp went from being in the safe equilibrium line

deep into the rapidly melting zone.

By the spring of 2020, the beginning of the melt season,

the ice had shifted so much that the structure that supported

the tents had fully collapsed.

And if you look at satellite imagery,

you can see three massive crevasses surrounding the camp.

Five hours after the team notices Steffen missing,

a search and rescue team arrives by helicopter.

An ice climbing expert repels deep into the icy depths

and makes a chilling discovery.

65 feet below the surface, at the bottom of the crevasse,

they discovered a hole in the thin, delicate ice floor.

It was described as being about the size of a person,

so this is a sobering discovery.

And what's curious is that there are no signs of a fall.

There aren't any scrapes on the walls, broken icicles,

or disturbed snow.

Visibility was too poor to lower a camera into the meltwater

below the broken ice.

With conditions too unstable for a diver,

investigators were left without clear answers

about what happened at the bottom of the crevice.

While there's no definitive proof of what happened to Steffen,

the hole in the ice at the bottom of the crevasse

is the strongest and really only piece of evidence

supporting the primary theory of his death.

It is possible that someone as experienced as he was

made a fatal misstep in the treacherous ice field.

In a tragic twist of irony, Konrad Steffen was claimed

by the very forces of climate change

that he spent his career documenting.

Though we may never know exactly what happened that day,

it was a heartbreaking end to a life lived in the service

of Greenland's ice sheet.

Northeastern Austria is a landscape of rolling hills

and broad river valleys carved by ancient glacial movement.

The Waldviertel region sits at almost 870 feet above sea level

in the Danube Basin,

where the terrain descends southward to the Kamp River.

It's an area known for its vineyards and open fields,

with rich soil supporting agricultural communities

across the valleys.

But winters here can be brutal,

with January temperatures averaging just above 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Frost grips the ground for months,

and snowfall typically ranges from 12 to 20 inches during the season.

Beneath this expansive landscape lies some of the oldest

bedrock in Europe, shaped over hundreds of millions of years.

Early glacial activity and river systems left behind

deposits of loess, fine silt and clay,

which creates uniquely fertile soil.

This composition supports the region's crops

and has also proven crucial for preserving artifacts.

The fine particles create ideal conditions for protecting

ancient materials that would otherwise be lost to time.

In 2015, a team of researchers set up camp

near the village of Hadersdorf-Kammern.

They're investigating an area that has puzzled archaeologists

for over a century.

Using cutting-edge technology,

they begin re-examining what earlier teams left behind.

And what they uncover is astonishing.

The site, known as Kammern-Grubgraben,

is much larger than initially thought - almost twice as large.

Earlier digs in the 1980s and '90s found thousands of stone tools,

bone fragments, and carved items at this open-air location.

These remains date back about 20,000 years

to the last glacial millennium.

The new team discovers additional hearths

and large stone slabs arranged on the ground,

which could be dwelling foundations.

They also find additional ornaments

and some tool fragments spread across the site.

The community traced to this location

belongs to the Epigravettian culture -

descendants of the Gravettians who roamed Europe during the Ice Age.

They were skilled hunter gatherers who used distinctive stone

spear points, wore shell and ivory jewellery,

and crafted a variety of carved ornaments.

But what exactly was this place used for?

And were these ancient hunters living here permanently?

Or just passing through?

Searching for answers, the team turns to some of the more

unusual artifacts found in earlier excavations.

There's what appears to be a flute

carved from the tibia of a reindeer.

Finding something like this intact after so many years

is both extraordinary and incredibly rare.

There are also polished and pierced antler fragments,

plus decorative beads and pendants.

These objects and ornaments with large deposits of animal bones

can suggest some kind of ritual activity, and there is evidence

that Ice Age communities did have sacred ceremonial locations.

Over 250 miles west in the Swabian Jura cave in Germany

is the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave.

It was first discovered in the 19th century.

Decades of excavations at this site

have revealed some incredible finds, including carved ivory pieces

and bone fragments dating back over 40,000 years.

Among the discoveries was the famous Lion Man -

a half-human, half-lion sculpture carved from mammoth ivory.

Alongside the figurines, they also found animal tooth beads

and stone pendants.

Making something like Lion Man with the tools of the time

would have taken hundreds of hours.

The wear-pattern on it shows that it was handled by many people,

most likely during important ceremonies.

That kind of effort suggests that it held strong ritual significance.

Everything found in this site points to it

being a special place used for ceremonies.

So, could Kammern-Grubgraben have served a similar purpose?

But at Hohlenstein-Stadel, artifacts like the Lion Man

were located deep inside the cave, separated from everyday activities,

suggesting they held spiritual importance.

At Kammern-Grubgraben, things are different.

The flute-like object and various ornaments were uncovered

near butchered animal bones, stone tools, and hearth debris.

So, more connected to daily life.

It seems more like a place where people lived and worked,

not a designated ritual space or ceremonial site.

But if it wasn't a sacred site, what was actually happening here?

Researchers use 3D modelling and spatial analysis

to dig deeper into the site.

At the highest and driest part of the site,

they spot a cluster of animal bones grouped in shallow pits.

These are meat caches, or outdoor freezers.

Hunters packed meat into the pits,

which were dug into the permafrost and lined with stone slabs.

Built to lock in the cold and keep predators out,

this method could preserve the meat for up to half a year.

Storing meat was crucial for surviving the long winters

when hunting was difficult and fresh food was scarce.

But having surplus meat to store also tells us something important.

It means the hunters had access to an abundant

and reliable food source.

During the Ice Age in this region,

woolly mammoths were typically the top choice for game.

These animals provided massive amounts of meat,

durable bones for tools, and had predictable herd behaviour.

And so, many sites in Central Europe focused on this valuable resource.

Just 15 miles to the south is the Perschling Valley.

The Langmannersdorf site dates back 25,000 years.

Mammoth herds used this valley as a migration route

and grazing area, and hunters knew their habits well.

Excavations dating back to the early 20th-century unearthed

the remains of at least five mammoths.

They were found in two separate zones just 50 feet apart.

The bones were densely packed in layers

with stone tools scattered among them.

One zone showed clear evidence of butchering.

The second zone contained bones,

along with complete and fragmented tusks.

This was where ivory was processed,

likely for making spear points and tools.

This site was clearly an organised operation,

with distinct activity areas suggesting people lived

and worked here for extended periods of time.

And everything centred around mammoths.

So, could Khmer and Group Graben have also been a mammoth hunting

and processing camp?

Further analysis of the animal bones and teeth

shifts the investigation in a surprising direction.

The overwhelming majority of the remains here aren't mammoths.

They're reindeer, 191 in total.

53 were calves, 35 were yearlings, and 103 were adults.

There were slightly more females, but the mix of ages

and sexes matches a cross section of a natural winter herd.

Typically, hunters target the largest or fattest animals

for maximum yield, but here, the hunters weren't being selective.

This approach to hunting is odd.

It seems that maximizing meat or fat wasn't the primary goal.

They were hunting for something else. But what?

Re-evaluating all the recovered artifacts,

one type of tool now stands out.

Among the bone and stone tools are a large number of

eye needles, like sewing needles.

These are specialised tools to make threading

easier for use on tough materials like hides.

Reindeer are exceptionally adapted to the cold.

Their fur has two layers, a dense undercoat and an outer layer

of hollow tube-like hairs, which trap air for excellent insulation.

The large quantity of eye needles suggests garment production

was a major activity here.

These hunters were creating wind-resistant clothing

essential for living through the extreme cold of the Ice Age.

Soil analysis at the site shows repeated cycles

of occupation and abandonment.

So people didn't live here continuously,

but they kept returning to the site over thousands of years.

You see, reindeer fur, for all its warmth, isn't durable.

It wears out quickly, and that would explain

the repeated returns over generations.

So with all the evidence, we can conclude

Kammern-Grubgraben was more than a hunting camp.

It was a specialised site for one of humanity's most important

survival technologies, clothing.

What's remarkable is the shift in strategy.

Earlier sites in the region focused on mammoths for maximum calories,

but here they targeted reindeer not primarily for meat and fat,

but for their winter fur.

Staying warm became just as vital as staying fed.

In this frozen world,

survival demanded more than strength.

It required innovation, skill, and the knowledge that sometimes

the most powerful tool wasn't a spear, it was a needle.

The ongoing study of Kammern-Grubgraben

continues to reveal how these early humans thrived against the odds.

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