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## How the Cave Became a Document
Denisova Cave is, at this point, the most genetically rich Paleolithic site in the world. More ancient hominin genomes have been sequenced from this single location than from any other, and the site continues to yield new material as researchers use ZooMS and other methods to screen collections that were excavated decades ago.
The cave has produced Denisovan genomes from multiple individuals: the original finger bone (Denisova 3), several teeth (Denisova 4, Denisova 8), and smaller fragments. It has produced Neanderthal remains—the Altai Neanderthal genome, published in 2013, came from a toe bone found in the cave. It has produced Denisova 11. And following the ZooMS screening, researchers have identified additional hominin fragments that are awaiting or undergoing DNA analysis.
The interpretation of these genomes requires careful attention to chronology. The Denisovans and Neanderthals known from Denisova Cave did not all live simultaneously. The site was occupied at different times by different populations, with the cave serving as a periodic shelter across hundreds of thousands of years rather than as a permanent settlement for any group. The presence of both Neanderthal and Denisovan remains in the same cave does not mean they lived there together—it means they were each there at some point, in some sequence, in a stratigraphic record that researchers are working to disentangle with increasing precision.
The 2019 studies published in Nature on the cave’s chronology used optical dating and radiocarbon dating to establish the ages of different layers and the material within them. These studies showed that Denisovans occupied the cave from at least 195,000 years ago and possibly from as early as 287,000 years ago. Neanderthals were present from approximately 193,000 to 97,000 years ago. The two groups’ occupation periods overlapped substantially, at least in terms of the broad range of dates. Whether individuals from the two groups were simultaneously present at the cave—rather than using it at different times within an overlapping broad period—cannot be determined from the current dating.