Useful Information

The Atapuerca Mountains are located within the towns of Atapuerca and Ibeas de Juarros, in Castile and León, northern Spain, some 15 kilometres from the city of Burgos.

UNESCO added the Pleistocene Sites of the Atapuerca Mountains to its list of World Heritage Sites in December 2000.

Professor Juan Luis Arsuaga, Professor Eudald Carbonell and Professor José María Bermúdez de Castro lead the Atapuerca Research Team. This multidisciplinary team includes scientists from the following research centres and universities:

• National Research Centre on Human Evolution (CNIEH). Burgos (Spain)
• Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), Department of Prehistory, Rovira i Virgili University. Tarragona (Spain)
• Complutense University of Madrid – Carlos III Institute of Health Mixed Centre on Research into Human Evolution and Behaviour. Madrid (Spain)
• Human Evolution Laboratory and Prehistory Laboratory, University of Burgos, R&D&i building, Burgos (Spain)
• Complutense University of Madrid. Geodynamics Department. Madrid
• University of Zaragoza. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science. Zaragoza (Spain)
• University of the Basque Country, Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. Bilbao (Spain)
• Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. New York (USA)
• National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS), Department of Prehistory, Paris National History Museum (France).
• U.S. Geological Survey. Menlo Park, California (USA)

The Atapuerca Research Team was the recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research in 1997.

The human fossils recovered from Atapuerca so far constitute 85% of all the world's fossils from the period known as the Middle Pleistocene . Each new excavation confirms the status of this set of sites as one of the most significant settlements of the first Europeans.

At the Atapuerca archaeological and palaeontological site three periods are represented, from which ancient human remains and cultural materials of great antiquity have been recovered:

• In the period from 350,000 to 500,000 years ago, the species Homo heidelbergensis is represented in the sites of the Sima de los Huesos, the Galería – Cueva de los Zarpazos and the upper levels of the Gran Dolina.
• In the period from 780,000 to 1,000,000 years ago, the species Homo antecessor is represented on level TD-6 of the Gran Dolina.
• In the period from 1,000,000 to 1,300,000 million years ago, the species Homo antecessor is represented on level TE-9 of the Sima del Elefante.

The Sima de los Huesos, the Cueva de los Zarpazos, level TD-6 of the Gran Dolina and level TE-9 of the Sima del Elefante are sites that are characterised by containing human fossil remains of two of the types of humans that have populated Europe for the last million and a half years: Homo heidelbergensis and Homo antecessor.

In the Sima de los Huesos, in the upper levels of the Gran Dolina, and in the Galería and Cueva de los Zarpazos sites, there are remains of fauna, which in some cases were consumed by humans. Remains of cultural materials (stone tool industry) have also been found. They are defined as “Mode 2” or Acheulean and attributed to the species Homo heidelbergensis .

On levels TD-6 and TD-4 of the Gran Dolina, and on level TE-9 of the Sima del Elefante, there are remains of fauna consumed by humans and of cultural materials (stone tool industry) defined as “Mode 1” or Oldowan.

The fossil remains attributed to the species Homo antecessor , recovered on level TD-6 of the Gran Dolina, present cuts made by sharpened stone stools and also fractures associated with their consumption, which shows that they were eaten in an act of cannibalism by other humans.

The cave system through the interior of the Atapuerca Mountain has been well known and visited since ancient times. However, the first sites were discovered in the exterior, when work on a civil engineering project cut through the mountain. The construction of a mining railway (not in use nowadays) to transport minerals to the city of Burgos in the late 19 th century left a ditch or gorge through caves that until that time had not been discovered. Now, several of these caves are magnificent sites of global importance.

So far 40 caves have been found in the karst site of the Atapuerca Mountains and many of them have great archaeological or palaeontological potential. Currently, the Research Team is working intensively on the caves of the Gran Dolina, the Sima de los Huesos, the Cueva de los Zarpazos, the Cueva Mayor, the Cueva del Mirador and the Sima del Elefante.

In the city of Burgos the Museum of Human Evolution is being built. Undoubtedly it will be a global reference point for prehistory, both on a scientific level and in terms of education and dissemination. The city of Burgos will generate a high quality range of leisure and prehistory facilities and services, which will also include the possibility of visiting the sites of the Atapuerca Mountains just 15 kilometres away.

The towns closest to the sites, Ibeas de Juarros and Atapuerca, will also provide magnificent educational services focussed on “live prehistory”, at the site, for visitors that want to learn in person about the sites where Europe's oldest fossils of hominids are being excavated.