Cave Palaeolithic of the Ural Mountains – a review

The Ural Mountains are of fundamental importance for studying early human migrations along the geographical limits between Europe and Asia. Geological processes and past climates gave rise to numerous caves, mostly in Palaeozoic carbonate formations. Thirty‐two caves, among the ~120 investigated sites (karst overhangs, grottos and large caverns), provided evidence of a Late Pleistocene occupation mostly as temporary habitation places or refuge shelters. Sikiyaz‐Tamak 7 Cave demonstrates so far the earliest (>57 300 cal. a BP) occupancy by pre‐modern (Neanderthal) people. The initial Upper Palaeolithic is recorded just at one site (Smelovskaya II/4; 49 223–42 137 cal. a BP) with formally indistinct cultural inventories. The later mid‐last glacial (MIS 3) occupation (35 000–24 000 years ago) mirrors a progressing cultural development all through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), culminating in the major cave complexes (20 000–16 000 cal. a BP) – Shulgan‐Tash, Kul'yurt‐Tamak in the Southern Ural, and Medvezhya Cave in the Northern Ural. Spectacular parietal art galleries and utilitarian art objects point to religious practices. A marked increase in the number of occupied cave sites along with casual shelters and campsites suggests a post‐LGM demography rise within the mountain taiga and foothill parkland habitats. The final phase of the Ice Age peopling (14 500–12 000 years ago) is less distinct, following a presumed settlement drop ~15 000 years ago. Chronostratigraphical records and palaeoecological proxies stored in the caves' geoarchaeological contexts enable reconstructions of environs and adaptations of the Urals Pleistocene hunter‐gatherers.