Although no Neanderthal fossils were ever discovered, stone tools found at Byzovaya, that date to 33,000 years ago are attributed to the Mousterian culture.

The exact location of the area or Urheimat is not known and various strongly differing proposals have been advocated, but the vicinity of the Ural Mountains is usually assumed.

Upper Paleolithic rock paintings and drawings of the Kapova Cave, Burzyansky District of Bashkortostan in the southern Ural Mountains are 16,000 years old.

[clarification needed] By the early Common Era, great Migrations of nomads from the east – Huns, Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars.

Complex archaeological cultures appeared in the Urals during the Middle Ages, characterized by ethnic descendants as the Sarmatians and Huns.

[10] The Southern Ural was the legendary birthplace of Great Hungary (Magna Hungaria) and the country of the Bashkirs – the Badzhgard (Bashkurd).

[12] The Northern and Middle Ural maintains a continuous population and economy – Khants, Udmurts, Komi, Nenets, Mansi, Fins, etc.

Known to medieval Russians as the Stone Belt, the Urals were reached in the early 12th century by colonists and fur traders from Novgorod.

Industrial centers are found at Yekaterinburg, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Berezniki, Nizhni Tagil, Orsk, Orenburg, Ufa, and Zlatoust.

Boris Yeltsin is quoted as saying, "History decreed that on the threshold of the third millennium, in spite of the significantly depleted natural resources, Ural continues to play an important role in the fate of the Russian Federation.