Atapuerca

By Victoria Englert

The fossils found in Atapuerca have altered our ideas about human evolution. The investigations conducted in Atapuerca have changed our genealogical tree: it has been discovered that we have new ancestors and we now know more than we did before. At the same time, these findings have motivated other countries, such as Israel and France, to continue researching.

The team of scientists and researchers who worked on this site received the "Príncipe de Asturias de Investigación Científica y Técnica" Prize in 1997 and, thanks to their discoveries, Atapuerca has been listed as a World Heritage Site.

The Atapuerca Mountains are located in Burgos, and they contain several caves where fossils and tools of the early hominians have been found.

These sites were discovered during the construction of a railway line in the cave of Sima de los Huesos in 1992. Two years later, Francisco Jordá Cerdá led an expedition there, which so far has found approximately 2,500 human remains dating from the Bronze Age to the modern era.

There are several sites in Atapuerca. One of these is the Gran Dolina, home to the most ancient European human remains found to date, a total of 80 pieces from six individuals who lived over 780,000 years ago. The fossils found here provide clear evidence of cannibalism. The bones have several marks made for the purpose of extracting flesh and membranes. They also have marks made from blows to the bone to extract the spinal cord, as well as fractures caused by breaking bones with bare hands. Trinchera del Elefante contains the oldest elements found in Atapuerca, probably dating from one million years ago, while Galería's sediments contain fossils dating from between 200,000 and 400,000 years. And, last but not least, there is Sima del Elefante, where 3,000 human fossil remains aged from 50,000 and 300,000 years have been found.

Two types of species have been found on the Atapuerca archeological site:

-Homo Antecessor: This was the first set of remains found in 1997. He lived 80,000 years ago and was the ancestor of Homo Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens. The remains of this species, found in the cave of Sima del Elefante, have been decisive in proving that this was the first species that appeared in Europe and that it did not originate in Africa, as was previously believed.

-Homo Hedilbergensis: He lived in Atapuerca 300,000 years ago. The bones of at least 32 of these people have been found in the Sima de los Huesos.

How did they die?

Anthropologists have been able to figure out the date of their death by studying the evolution of their teeth and the development of their skeleton. The teeth of the hominids can be compared to those of today’s population. It is believed that these hominids placed the bones of those who died in the Atapuerca area.

Eudald Carbonell: the current leader of the expedition

Eudald Carbonell i Roure was born in Girona on 17th February 1953. He is a Spanish archaeologist, anthropologist and palaeontologist who studied in Barcelona, Girona and Paris. He received one doctorate in geology from the Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris (1986), and another in history from the University of Barcelona (1988). He is now head of the Autoecología Humana del Cuaternario group and the director of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES). He has made research trips to France, Italy, Georgia, Tajikistan, Argelia, Morocco, Slovenia, Croatia, Tanzania, Kenya, the USA, Mexico, Cuba, China, Australia and many other countries.

At an early age he started investigating the early colonies in the valley of the Ter and Freser River and joined the Archaeological Association of Girona.

Eudald Carbonell has made several appearances on TV shows; TV3 even has a website for the show called Sota terra (Underground). This link provides more information about the show: http://www.tv3.cat/sotaterra/equip/eudaldcarbonell

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