It is known for its high concentration of cultural remains of anatomically modern humans from the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era, before 40,000 years ago.

[2][3] Finds are on exhibit in situ, at the State Archaeological Museum–Reserve Kostyonki built atop the mammoth bone circle Kostenki 11.

A 25,000-year-old bone circle structure of at least 60 mammoths, measuring over 12.5 metres (41 ft) in diameter, was discovered at Kostenki in 2020.

[12] In 2009, DNA was extracted from the remains of a male hunter-gatherer from Kostenki-12 who lived circa 30,000 BP and died aged 20–25.

[14] A male from Kostenki-14 (Markina Gora), who lived approximately 38,700–36,200 year ago,[15] was also found to belong to mtDNA haplogroup U2.

He was found to have a close relationship to both Paleolithic European and Siberian hunter-gatherers, such as the Sungir specimens from western Russia, the Peștera Muierii woman (34 kya) in Romania, or the "Mal'ta boy" (24 kya) of south-east Siberia (Ancient North Eurasian) and to the later Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Europe (Western Hunter-Gatherer) and western Siberia, as well as with a basal population ancestral to Early European Farmers, but not to East Asians.

[15] A layer of Campanian volcanic ash, earlier dated to about 45,000 years ago, has been found above some of the finds, showing that humans inhabited the site before this.