Atapuerca is an archaeological site in Spain that has yielded significant human fossil and artifact finds dating back up to 1.2 million years. It contains several caves and sites that have revealed evidence of early human species such as Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens. The Atapuerca sites provide important insights into human evolution in Europe over the past million years and were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to their paleoanthropological importance. A museum was created to display artifacts and fossils from the Atapuerca excavations.

1. Alba
ATAPUERCA

2. ATAPUERCA:
• It is an archaeological complex located in
the Atapuerca mountains, near the city of
Burgos.
• The oldest human fossils in Europe have
been found here (800,000 years old).
• There is a large paleoanthropological
collection (300,000 years) which allows a
detailed study of the European
populations of the Palaeolithic.

3. LOCATION:
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY:
90 million years ago it was a shallow sea. The
sea disappeared and limestone was formed,
which later became a basin. The Duero river
covered it and nowadays the mountain range
is still full of limestone that was formed
during the Miocene.
GEOGRAPHICAL DETAILS:
The Sierra de Atapuerca is a small hill that
goes Northwest to Southwest of the valley of
the Almanzon River, in Northern Spain. The
sites are 15 km east of Burgos city.

4. MAIN SITES:
• Atapuerca includes one of the largest
paleontological/ archeological records in the
world, and that is the reason it was declared
a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
• The earliest and most abundant
evidence of humankind in Europe has
been found in these sites:
(1) Entrada a la trinchera.
(2) Sima del Elefante.
(3) Galería.
(4) Gran Dolina.

5. THESE SITES GATHER EVIDENCE OF:
And others that suggest the existence of a symbolic way of thinking.
• Homo antecessor.
THE PRESSENCE OF:
• Homo heidelbergensis.
• Homo neanderthalensis.
CANNIBALISM:
FUNERAL RITUALS:
AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE!!
HUNTING:
TOOLS USED:
(Homo antecessor)

6. LA SIMA DE LOS HUESOS:
• It is a small chamber located in the deepest part of the
Cueva Mayor, where the first human fossil was found by
Trinidad Torres in 1976.
• t is the richest deposit in the world due to the discovery of
more than 5,000 human fossils belonging to the Homo
Heidelbergensis of the Middle Pleistocene. Utensils were
also found.
• Carbonell and Mosquera (2006) argued that La Sima de los
Huesos represents a purposeful burial. If they are correct,
this would be the earliest example of purposeful human
burials known to date, by 200,000 years or so.
Illustration by: Mauricio Antón

7. LA GRAN DOLINA:
• It is the most famous deposit.
• It has 18 meters of sediments made up of different
geological levels that go from a million years ago to
200,000 years ago.
• Carved stone tools and 86 human remains have been found.
They correspond to six individuals (four children and two
adults) who lived almost 800,000 years ago.
• From these human fossils, the new
species was named, Homo Antecessor.

8. LA TRINCHERA:
• There are three different sites you can visit: La
Sima del Elefante, Galería and La Gran Dolina,
all concentrated along La Trinchera.
• La Sima del Elefante was named after the
remains of a rhinoceros that was mistakenly
identified as an elephant. It is the oldest known
in Atapuerca, over 1M years old, and contains
truly spectacular fauna.
• La Galeria is an underground gallery with an
opening to the outside in the form of a chimney.
The chasm (sima) worked as a natural trap
where animals would fall to be later eaten.
• La Gran Dolina (previously explained) gave name
to the Homo Antecessor.

9. IMPORTANT MILESTONES:
1978: Systematic excavation begun at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites. The (now) Atapuerca Research Team was designe
d
1991: Of
fi
cial Cultural Heritage listing of the sites by the Government of Castilla and León
.
1992: Skull parts from several 430,000 year-old humans discovered at the Sima de los Huesos site.
1994: Remains of a new hominid species, named Homo antecessor, the oldest in Western Europe to date, discovered at the Gran Dolina site.
1997: Science reports the new species discovered in Atapuerca, Homo antecessor
.
The Prince of Asturias Prize for Scienti
fi
c and Technical Research awarded to the ART with just 50 members at the time. Emiliano Aguirre, Juan Luis Arsuaga, José
María Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell receive the award in the team’s name. The latter three members set up the Atapuerca Foundation 2 years later
.
The Atapuerca Archaeological complex declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
.
2003: L’Anthropologie reports first evidence of possible funerary behaviour in history, found in Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca.
2004: Article on the hearing ability of the Sima de los Huesos hominids, published in PNAS
.
2007: 1.2 million year old hominid premolar and jawbone discovered in Sima del Elefante
.
2010: Of
fi
cial opening of the Human Evolution Museum in Burgos
.
2013: The Ancestros Foundation, led by Juan Luis Arsuaga, merges with the Atapuerca Foundation
.
2014: Nature reports on the oldest human DNA, identi
fi
ed using material discovered by ART researchers in Sima de los Huesos
.
2019: Commemoration of the Atapuerca Foundation’s 20th anniversary
.
Sierra de Atapuerca sites awarded the Trip Advisor Certi
fi
cate of Excellence for the
fi
fth consecutive year.
Juan Luis Arsuaga

10. WHY ARE THERE CAVES?
• Because of a railway built in 1901 that
transported carbon and iron, which
vertically cut a trench in the western slope
of the mountain that now exposes the
limestone sediments and different caves.
The original train.

11. WHO INHABITED THESE CAVES?
The sites of Atapuerca have documented the evolutionary lines
from the African ancestors of modern humankind, consisting on:
• Fossil remains:
• Evidence of the presence of five hominid species:
Homo sp. (unde
fi
ned, 1,300,000 years).
Homo antecessor (850,000 years).
preneanderthalensis (500,000 years)
Homo neanderthalensis
(50,000 years).
“Miguelón”.
Homo sapiens.
500,000 year old quartzite biface. • Faunas of small mammals (Middle Pleistocene):
Microtus brecciensis was believed
to look similar to this animal.

12. IMPORTANCE FOR HUMAN EVOLUTION:
.
The contribution of Atapuerca to the biological and cultural knowledge of our genus is fundamental.
The archaeopaleontological sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca have provided rich information on
human evolution over the last million years, including several aspects related to:
• Geology.
• Prehistoric archaeology.
• Paleoanthropology.
• Paleontology.
• Paleoecology.

13. MUSEUM OF HUMAN EVOLUTION:
It was created to display the results of the discoveries in the Sierra de Atapuerca.
Venus de Willendorf.
Site: “twelve artists, twelve visions”.
reconstruction of Ursus deningeri, an
ancestor of the current brown bear
(Ursus arctos) from 400,000 years ago.
It’s a right foot nicknamed
Prometheus (500,000 years).
400,000 y.o. femur and kneecap.

14. WEBSITES:
• http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/centros-tic/14002996/helvia/aula/archivos/repositorio/250/274/html/huellas/origenes/
hominizacion/041atapuerca.htm
• https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/989/
• https://www.atapuerca.org
• https://www.inclusion.gob.es/cartaespana/es/noticias/Noticia_0440.htm
• https://www.donsmaps.com/atapuerca.html
• https://www.atapuerca.org/en/apartado/1990/atapuerca-project
• https://www.atapuerca.org/en/atapuerca/Yacimientos-de-Atapuerca
• https://www.atapuerca.org/en/apartado/1989/sierra-de-atapuerca-sites
• https://zaguan.unizar.es/record/16209/files/TAZ-TFG-2014-1594.pdf
• https://www.rutasporespana.es/blog/2014/11/guia-visitar-yacimiento-atapuerca/