It is exactly the kind of place where things meet.

The Altai Mountains sit at the intersection of ecological zones — steppe to the north and west, forest-steppe in the valleys, and the high-altitude environments of the peaks themselves.

For ancient animals and ancient humans alike, the region offered a rich variety of resources and an important geographic position between major continental regions.

Denisova Cave was first excavated by Soviet archaeologists in the 1970s, though humans had known about and used the cave for much of the modern era — it takes its name from Denis, an 18th-century Russian hermit who reportedly lived in it.

The cave has three main chambers, the largest of which has been the primary focus of excavation, and its archaeological layers extend to depths of several meters, preserving materials from hundreds of thousands of years of periodic human occupation.