The document discusses several archaeological findings in Spain. It describes how human remains from hominids over 500,000 years old have been discovered at the Bones Pit site in Atapuerca. It also discusses the discovery of an engraved design made intentionally by Neanderthals on rock in a cave in Gibraltar, providing evidence of symbolic thinking. Additionally, it summarizes the finding of a large intact vessel from the early Bronze Age during an excavation in Toledo that was still in the location it was used over 4,000 years ago.

1. Pilar Quirós Iniesta

2.  In the last campaign in 2014, Arsuaga and his team have
found some human remains in the Bones Pit, and they seem
to be from hominids.
 These sediments have been dripping from the bottom of the
pit, a deep subsidence of fourteen metres deep. These
remains fossilized more than half million years ago. With
exquisite care, each fragment of bone is removed. The
fossils are in a very fragile estate.
Arsuaga woriking
Skull number 5.
A complete skull with vertebrae. He was
called “Miguelón”

3.  Only in 2014 the team has retired near to two hundred hominid
fossils belonging to ribs, vertebrae, parts of the skull and bones
of the hands and feet.
 In the campaign this year they have found the double of human
remains with respect to the remains found in other sites around
the world.
 These skulls have been remade piece by piece, some of them
collected for over twenty years.
Excavation in Gran Dolina
Arsuaga analyzing a part of bone found in 2014 Atapuerca’s
campaign

4.  But, who were those hominids? We could consider them as
Neanderthals’ grandparents. They could be Homo
Heidelbergensis.
 Those hominids lived in a warmer later period, but those
previous circumstances so hard conditioned their evolution.
They look like Neanderthals, with teeth (particularly the front)
and robust jaws, nose projected forward, the familiar ring
above the eyes, lack of chin ... but with smaller brains.
 The site promises to shed new fossils in the coming years.
Skull 17. Reconstruction of fragments found
in Atapuerca.
frontal and maxilla of Homo antecessor

5.  A cave in Gibraltar has the first
abstract design done intentionally
by Neanderthals that has been
found until now.
 It is a simple engraving carved into
the rock of small size, about
300cm2: several cross and parallel
lines at right angles drawn on the
floor of a cave that was inhabited by
Neanderthals, an extinct species of
hominid that lived with the Homo
sapiens.
 Archaeologists found fossil remains
from hominids and manufactured
instruments.
Engraving carved into the rock made by
Neanderthals.

6.  The strokes of the Gorham’s cave in Gibraltar would show that
the capacity for the symbolic thinking was not unique to Homo
sapiens. "It was an intentional and symbolic engraving, but we
will never understand its meaning," explains Juan José Negro,
an ecologist at Doñana’s Biological Station (CSIC) and co-author
of the study.
Juan José Negro Gorham’s cave (outside)

7.  Experts are convinced of this because they have ruled out the
possibility that the marks, which are six millimetres deep,
were made by accident, for example, while cutting meat or
leather with stone tools.
Gorham’s Cave
entrance
Engraving carved
into the rock from
different views.

8.  A group of archaeologists
have found a big and well
preserved vessel from the
beginning of the Bronze
Age (3300 BC- 1200BC) in
an excavation in Toledo
‣It has been found in the
same place it was situated
4,000 years ago with the
purpose of using it like a
container.

9.  Archaeologists Juan Manuel Rojas, Alejandro Vicente and their team
found that vessel last spring during an excavation in one neighbourhood
in Toledo.
 The piece was buried at a depth of 25cm. It was standing and full of soil
that the archaeologists have saved to find remains of seeds and pollen
(60 kg of soil to be analyzed).
 The vessel is around 75cm high and 1.5cm thick. It doesn’t have low
part, so water could seep into the earth and in that way the product that
was stored in the vessel wasn’t damaged. It doesn’t have any handles,
but it has a structure in the high part that seems to be to cover the
content.
Juan Manuel Rojas, one of the archaeologists. The vessel in the place where it was found

10.  Sites from the beginning of the Bronze Age are not very
common in Toledo.
 In the same excavation archaeologist found other smaller
objects, like a cooking pot and a stewpot, that were
kitchenware in that period.
 Nowadays the vessel has been taken into the Centre of
Restoration and Conservation of Castilla- La Mancha to clean
it, and after that it would be brought to the Museum of Santa
Cruz.
Stewpot from the Museum of Santa Cruz, Toledo.
Bronze Age.

11.  With this discovery archaeologists think that we are
nearer to know more about the Bronze Age in our
country, and in the same way we can also know
more about the social relationships, hierarchies
and division of works that the people from that
time used to have.
Remains from the Bronze Age

12.  http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/08/20/eps/1408535436_57079
3.html
 http://www.abc.es/toledo/ciudad/20140914/abci-hallan-vasija-
edad-bronce-201409142037.html
 http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia/2014/09/01/5404ad8de2704e
490f8b458e.html
 http://www.diariocero.com.ar/info/arte-y-cultura/atribuyen-los-
neandertales-expresion-abstracta-por-rastros-en-roca
 http://www.efe.com/efe/noticias/espana/cultura/hallan-toledo-una-
gran-vasija-almacenaje-primera-edad-bronce/
1/7/2413758