Why go
Kostenki and Denisova Cave show why prehistoric Russia belongs within a wider human story, while the southern steppe introduces mobile pastoral societies. These examples give archaeological objects a geographic setting rather than treating every early culture as a stage towards one modern nation.
The full story
Early human evidence comes from widely separated parts of the territory now called Russia. Stone tools from Dagestan in the northern Caucasus point to a very deep human past. Kostenki, near the Don River, is important for evidence of early modern humans in Europe, while Mezmaiskaya Cave in the Caucasus preserves Neanderthal remains. Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains adds another strand. A small finger-bone fragment discovered in 2008 led to genetic identification of the human group known as Denisovans. The find illustrates how a tiny archaeological object can change an account built around much larger landscapes. Later, pastoral societies occupied the southern grasslands. The Pontic steppe was associated with Scythia in classical antiquity, and sites including Sintashta, Arkaim and Pazyryk preserve evidence of other steppe cultures. Their different locations and periods matter: these were varied societies, not a single prehistoric population.