Denisova Cave

The cave is an unremarkable opening in limestone above the Anuy, occupied on and off for a few hundred thousand years, and it produced one of the more consequential finds in human origins: a fragment of finger bone excavated in 2008, whose DNA in 2010 turned out to belong to a population related to but distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans, now called Denisovans - the first hominin group identified from genetics rather than from anatomy. Later work showed Neanderthals used the cave too, and one individual, known as Denny, had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father, a first-generation hybrid. Denisovan ancestry survives in living populations in Melanesia, Australia and parts of Asia. Ornaments and a bracelet of worked stone from the deposits are argued over for their dating. On the ground it is a cave with excavation trenches; a small museum in a nearby village holds the context.

What you actually see

• The cave itself - a limestone opening above the river with excavation trenches inside.
• The finger bone find - the fragment that identified a human population from DNA alone.
• Denny - the individual with a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.
• The village museum - the interpretation, since the cave shows little.

When to go

June to September. Two hours. The road in is rough and poor after rain.

Honest expectations

Excavation areas are fenced and often closed during the digging season. The cave is visually ordinary; the importance is entirely in what came out of it. There are no facilities at the site and the nearest village is small. The approach road needs a high-clearance vehicle in wet weather.

Nearby

The Anuy valley runs below; the Chuysky tract is east across the mountains.