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Denisova Cave

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cave

Key facts

Type
limestone , karst
Periods
Paleolithic 30,000 to 48,000 years ago
Cultures
Denisovans , Neanderthals , Homo sapiens sapiens
Location
Soloneshensky District , Altai Krai
Region
Siberian Federal District , Russia
Elevation
700 m (2,300 ft)
Area
270 m (2,900 sq ft)

via Wikipedia infobox

~12 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Denisova Cave (Russian: Денисова пещера, romanized: Denísova peshchéra, lit. 'the cave of Denis') is a cave in the Bashelaksky Range of the Altai Mountains in Siberia, Russia.

It is widely known for having provided items of great paleoarchaeological and paleontological interest. In particular, the 2008 discovery of bone fragments that in 2010 have been conclusively established to have belonged to a separate early human species – the Denisova hominin – which is named after the cave. Other items including artifacts dated to around 40,000 BP. Remains of a 32,000-year-old prehistoric species of horse have also been found in the cave.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Denisova Cave” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map