People began to settle in the Southern Urals in the Paleolithic era. Bogdanovka site on the Ural River (Kizilsky district) is the most ancient archaeological site found on the territory of the region (about 70 thousand years). The age of Paleolithic layers in Ignatievka cave (Katav-Ivanovsky district), famous for its wall paintings, is about 15 thousand years. There are numerous archaeological sites of the Stone Age, settlements of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
