 In 1991 the country declared independence as the Republic of Moldova.In 2010 Oldowan flint tools were discovered at Dubasari on the lower Dniester that are 800,000-1.2 million years old demonstrating that early humans were present in Moldova during the early paleolithic.During prehistoric times there was a succession of cultures that flourished in the land of present-day Moldova from the end of the ice age up through the Neolithic Age, the Copper Age, the Bronze Age, and the beginning of the Iron Age, when historical records begin to be made about the people who lived in these lands.