Una (Dagestan)

It is located in the Shinazchay river valley on the southern slope of the Samur Range , 15 km north-west of the district center of the village of Rutul .

The village was abandoned in the 90s. Former Rutul village.

In 2013, specialists from the Institute of Archeology of the DSC RAS ​​conducted a survey of the abandoned settlement of Una in the Shinaz valley.

The main purpose of the survey was to establish the fact of the adit (popularly called "unad cave"), where copper containing ore was mined in the Bronze Age.

The results of the quantitative chemical analysis of the samples taken from the adits carried out in a certified laboratory showed a high content of copper, as well as iron, chromium, and nickel. Along the way, the ruins of the settlement, the ruins of the fortress located on the top of the hill, the ruins of the fortifications of the fortress and the spiral staircase laid to the fortress, old cemeteries in two sections, different gravestones, and holy places with various structures were also examined in Una.

The age of the Una settlement, established by archaeologists on the basis of lifting material, is 5,000 years BC.

Today it is the only adit known in Dagestan from where ore containing copper was mined. Until now, Dagestan has found bronze products of local production of the Bronze Age, the remains of furnaces where ore was smelted, and individual parts of furnaces that contributed to the intensification of the smelting process, but the question of where the ore was mined remained open. ^[4] .