Neanderthals lived in the Caucasus in the Middle Paleolithic period, 200-40 thousand years ago. They left behind many artifacts, thanks to which scientists can reconstruct a picture of their life and everyday life. First of all, these people hunted ungulates with stone-tipped spears and other metatarsal weapons. However, the findings indicated that in a certain period the presence of Neanderthals in the region was reduced to a minimum, probably due to climatic factors.

The specialists of the ANO Laboratory of Prehistory and their colleagues from other scientific organizations were able to accurately date this period and determine its climatic conditions. To do this, they determined when the soil layers at the Neanderthal camps sank into the earth's strata. It turned out that the paleontological monument Khadzhokh-2 can be divided into 10 layers, which replaced each other for more than a hundred thousand years. In addition, scientists analyzed the pollen content in each of them.

The study showed that in the most ancient period of human occupancy - about 120-100 thousand years ago - the river valley was developed walnut-oak forests with an admixture of beech, elm, hornbeam and relict hickory. So the climate during this period was warm and humid. In sediments of age 70-60 thousand years pollen grains were practically absent, while in the layers of other ages it is quite a lot. Thus, in the youngest of them, scientists found up to 130 pollen grains belonging to coniferous plants, as well as oak, elm and linden. This suggests that 70-60 thousand years ago there was a cooling in the Northwest Caucasus, which was later replaced by a warmer and wetter climate, promoting the spread of deciduous trees.

It turns out that there are no stone tools in the layer corresponding to the cooling period. This implies that unfavorable climatic conditions strongly reduced the Neanderthal habitat in the Northwest Caucasus, especially in the mountainous areas.