Editing History of Russia (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Further|Steppe nomads|Scythians|Scythia|Proto-Uralic|Paleo-Siberian|Pontic–Caspian steppe|Domestication of the horse|Kama culture|Pit–Comb Ware culture}}
[[File:IE expansion.png|thumb|300px|The [[Kurgan hypothesis]]: South Russia as the [[urheimat]] of [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European peoples]]]]
The first human settlement on the territory of Russia dates back to the [[Oldowan]] period in the early [[Lower Paleolithic]]. About 2 million years ago, representatives of ''[[Homo erectus]]'' migrated from Western Asia to the North Caucasus (archaeological site of {{ill|Kermek|ru|Кермек (стоянка)}} on the [[Taman Peninsula]]<ref>''Щелинский В. Е.'' и др. [http://www.archaeolog.ru/media/ksia/ksia-239.pdf Раннеплейстоценовая стоянка Кермек в Западном Предкавказье (предварительные результаты комплексных исследований)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321163415/https://www.archaeolog.ru/media/ksia/ksia-239.pdf |date=21 March 2021 }} // Краткие сообщения ИА РАН. Вып. 239, 2015.</ref>). At {{ill|Bogatyri/Sinyaya balka|ru|Богатыри/Синяя балка}}, in a skull of ''[[Elasmotherium|Elasmotherium caucasicum]]'', which lived 1.5–1.2 million years ago, a stone tool was found.<ref>''Щелинский В. Е.'' {{cite web | url = https://www.archaeolog.ru/media/ksia/ksia-254-redu.pdf#page=34 | title = Об охоте на крупных млекопитающих и использовании водных пищевых ресурсов в раннем палеолите (по материалам раннеашельских стоянок Южного Приазовья) | language = ru | website = www.archaeolog.ru | access-date = 17 December 2019 | archive-date = 7 June 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230607214948/https://www.archaeolog.ru/media/ksia/ksia-254-redu.pdf#page=34 | url-status = live }} // Краткие сообщения Института археологии. Вып. 254. 2019</ref> 1.5-million-year-old [[Oldowan]] flint tools have been discovered in the [[Dagestan]] Akusha region of the north Caucasus, demonstrating the presence of early humans in the territory of present-day Russia.<ref>{{cite web |last1= Chepalyga |first1= A.L. |last2= Amirkhanov |first2= Kh.A. |last3= Trubikhin |first3= V.M. |last4= Sadchikova |first4= T.A. |last5= Pirogov |first5= A.N. |last6= Taimazov |first6= A.I. |year= 2011 |title= Geoarchaeology of the earliest paleolithic sites (Oldowan) in the North Caucasus and the East Europe |url= http://paleogeo.org/article3.html |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130520090413/http://paleogeo.org/article3.html |archive-date= 20 May 2013 |access-date= 18 December 2013 |quote= Early Paleolithic cultural layers with tools of oldowan type was discovered in East Caucasus (Dagestan, Russia) by Kh. Amirkhanov (2006) [...]}}</ref>

Fossils of [[Denisova hominin|Denisovans]] in Russia date to about 110,000 years ago.<ref>[https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700186 A fourth Denisovan individual] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815123645/https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700186 |date=15 August 2022 }}, 2017.</ref> DNA from a bone fragment found in [[Denisova Cave]], belonging to a female who died about 90,000 years ago, shows that she was a [[Denny (hybrid hominin)|hybrid of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father]].<ref>Matthew Warren, «Mum's a Neanderthal, Dad's a Denisovan: First discovery of an ancient-human hybrid - Genetic analysis uncovers a direct descendant of two different groups of early humans», ''Nature'', vol. 560, 23 August 2018, pp. 417-418.</ref> Russia was also home to some of the last surviving [[Neanderthal]]s - the partial skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in [[Mezmaiskaya cave]] in [[Adygea]] showed a carbon-dated age of only 45,000 years.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Igor V. Ovchinnikov |last2= Anders Götherström |last3= Galina P. Romanova |last4= Vitaliy M. Kharitonov |last5= Kerstin Lidén |last6= William Goodwin |date= 30 March 2000 |title= Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus |journal= [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume= 404 |issue= 6777 |pages= 490–493 |bibcode= 2000Natur.404..490O |doi= 10.1038/35006625 |pmid= 10761915 |s2cid= 3101375}}</ref> In 2008, Russian [[Archaeology|archaeologists]] from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of [[Novosibirsk]], working at the site of [[Denisova Cave]] in the [[Altai Mountains]] of [[Siberia]], uncovered a 40,000-year-old small bone fragment from the fifth finger of a juvenile [[hominin]], which DNA analysis revealed to be a previously unknown species of human, which was named the [[Denisova hominin]].<ref>{{Cite news |last= Mitchell |first= Alanna |date= 30 January 2012 |title= Gains in DNA Are Speeding Research into Human Origins |work= The New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210/& |access-date= 27 February 2017 |archive-date= 12 September 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170912024249/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/gains-in-dna-are-speeding-research-into-human-origins.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210/& |url-status= live }}</ref>

The first trace of ''Homo sapiens'' on the large expanse of Russian territory dates back to 45,000 years, in central Siberia ([[Ust'-Ishim man]]). The discovery of some of the earliest evidence for the presence of [[anatomically-modern human|anatomically modern human]]s found anywhere in Europe was reported in 2007 from the [[Kostyonki–Borshchyovo archaeological complex|Kostenki archaeological site]] near the [[Don (river)|Don River]] in Russia (dated to at least 40,000 years ago<ref>{{cite web |last= K. Kris Hirst Archaeology Expert |title= Pre-Aurignacian Levels Discovered at the Kostenki Site |url= http://archaeology.about.com/od/earlymansites/a/kostenki.htm |access-date= 18 May 2016 |publisher= Archaeology.about.com |archive-date= 21 March 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210321163447/https://www.thoughtco.com/kostenki-human-migrations-into-europe-171471 |url-status= dead }}</ref>) and at [[Sungir]] (34,600 years ago). Humans reached Arctic Russia ([[Mamontovaya Kurya]]) by 40,000 years ago.

During the prehistoric eras the vast [[steppe]]s of Southern Russia were home to [[tribe]]s of [[nomadic pastoralists]]. (In classical antiquity, the [[Pontic Steppe]] was known as "[[Scythia]]".<ref name=Belinskij>{{cite journal |last1= Belinskij |first1= Andrej |last2= H. Härke |date= March–April 1999 |title= The 'Princess' of Ipatovo |url= http://cat.he.net/~archaeol/9903/newsbriefs/ipatovo.html |url-status= dead |journal= Archeology |volume= 52 |issue= 2 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080610043326/http://cat.he.net/~archaeol/9903/newsbriefs/ipatovo.html |archive-date= 10 June 2008 |access-date= 26 December 2007}}</ref>) Remnants of these long-gone steppe cultures were discovered in the course of the 20th century in such places as [[Ipatovo kurgan|Ipatovo]],<ref name=Belinskij/> [[Sintashta]],<ref>{{cite book |last= Drews |first= Robert |title= Early Riders: The beginnings of mounted warfare in Asia and Europe |publisher= Routledge |year= 2004 |isbn= 0-415-32624-9 |location= New York |page= 50 |author-link= Robert Drews}}</ref> [[Arkaim]],<ref>Dr. Ludmila Koryakova, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190228104055/http://www.csen.org/koryakova2/Korya.Sin.Ark.html "Sintashta-Arkaim Culture"]}} - The Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads (CSEN). Retrieved 20 July 2007.</ref> and [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]].<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html 1998 NOVA documentary: "Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513234433/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html |date=13 May 2011 }} Transcript.</ref>