The ancient human world was more densely connected, more socially complex, and more biologically integrated than the old model of discrete, competing species suggested.

The Altai As Ancient Crossroads

Denisova Cave’s location in the Altai Mountains is significant beyond the coincidence of preservation.

The Altai represents a geographic crossroads where the ranges of different ancient human groups could have overlapped, making it exactly the kind of place where encounters between Neanderthals and Denisovans were most likely to occur.

The genetic evidence from modern populations provides additional insight into the Denisovan range.

The high levels of Denisovan ancestry in populations from Papua New Guinea, Australia, and other parts of Island Southeast Asia suggest that the Denisovans were present not just in the Altai but throughout a vast swath of Asia — from the cold forests of Siberia southward through Southeast Asia to the islands of the Pacific margin.