Anthropology in antarctica

Antarctica is a bit far off the beaten path for anyone to have gotten even close to the continent prior to relatively modern times (18nth Century). It is simply too far from anywhere, and surrounded by a dangerous ocean. No permanent settlements other than science stations have ever been set up even in modern times as far as I am aware.

Hello Britalian

Some 200 M years ago the Pangaea land mass around the equator broke apart, and from the southern part (Gwondanaland) resulted South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antartica.

Around 1 G years ago the first multicellular life evolved worldwide, and around 500 M years the first animals occurred. The Cambrian explosion was the start of a wealth of all kinds of animals, and mammals appeared around the time of the break up of Pangaea.

When the predecessor of humanity appeared only around a couple of million years ago, Gwondwanaland had already been broken up a long time ago and was covered by ice, so humans never lived permanently on Antartica.

As to ice coverage : at places the depth of the ice sheet is around 3 Km, while at the borders it thins to several hundred meters.