The archaeological site of Atapuerca is located on Atapuerca Mountains in the north of Spain. The archaeological significance of the area became increasingly apparent during the construction of a railway line as deep trenches were cut through the rocks and sediments of the Gran Dolina site, the Galería Elefante and at Sima de los Huesos. The subsequent excavation of 1964 under the direction of Francisco Jordá Cerdá succeeded with the discovery of anthropogenic artifacts and human fossils from a broad time range of early humans, hunter-gatherer groups to Bronze Age occupants and modern human settlers. Further campaigns expanded and interdisciplinary work has been undertaken by several teams, led by Emiliano Aguirre from 1978 to 1990 and later jointly by Eudald Carbonell, José María Bermúdez de Castro and Juan Luis Arsuaga. The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, under the name, Archaeological Site of Atapuerca. The government of Castile and León has designated the site an Espacio cultural and under the title Zona Arqueológica sierra de Atapuerca the site is protected under Spanish law as it was induced into the Bien de Interés Cultural heritage register. Cranium 5'', one of the most important discoveries; its nearly complete mandible was only found years later On 22 July 2020 it was discovered two quartzite stones dated 600.000 years ago. It completes the timeline.
Portalón (1910 to present)
The combined work of archaeologists Jesús Carballo, Geoffrey Clark, José María Apellániz and the current team of Juan Luis Arsuaga account for the documentation of the excavation sequence of ceramic objects from all relevant sediment layers since the Neolithic.
Galería de la Eduarda y el Kolora (1972)
The Galería de la Eduarda y el Kolora is a local cave that contains parietal rock paintings, only discovered in 1972 by a group of local speleologists.
Galería (1978 to present)
Among numerous faunal and floral fossils a jaw fragment was found during the 1970s and a skull fragment in 1995, which both belong to Homo heidelbergensis. They date to between 600,000 and 400,000 years BP.
Trinchera Dolina (1981 to present)
The Gran Dolina site is a huge cavern, which has been excavated since September 1981. Its sediments were divided into eleven stratae
Level TD-10 presumed to have been a Homo heidelbergensis camp with tools and bison fossils.
Level TD-8, accessible since 1994, it contained remarkable carnivore fossils.
In level TD-7, a bovine leg in anatomical position was recovered in 1994
TD-6 : In 1994 and 1995, over 80 bone fragments of five or six hominids found, between 850,000 and 780,000 years old, being at least 250,000 years older than any other hominid yet discovered in western Europe. About 25% of the bones have manipulation marks that suggest cannibalism. Classification of these remains is still being debated, suggestions range from Homo erectus to Homo heidelbergensis and Homo antecessor. Some researchers, who are familiar with the stratigraphic material of Gran Dolina argue that Homo antecessor may be the ancestor of Homo heidelbergensis, who in turn gave rise to Homo neandertalensis. The Homo erectus-like fossils were also found with retouched flake and core stone tools.
Level TD-5 is assumed to have been a carnivore den.
In TD-4, four lithic pieces were found during the 1991 excavation and several remnants of Ursus dolinensis, a sparsely described bear species.
At the lowest levels no fossils
Sima de los Huesos (1983 to present)
Sima de los Huesos accounts for the greatest number of valuable scientific discoveries and knowledge acquired with far-reaching implications. This site is located at the bottom of a deep shaft, or "chimney" accessible via the narrow corridors of the Cueva Mayor. Since 1997 the excavators have located more than 5,500 human skeletal remains deposited during the MiddlePleistocene period, at least 350,000 years old, which represent 28 individuals of Homo heidelbergensis. Associated finds include Ursus deningeri fossils and a hand axe called Excalibur. Having received a surprisingly high degree of attention, a number of experts support the hypothesis that this particular Acheuleantool made of red quartzite seems to have served as a ritual offering, most likely for a funeral. The idea sparked a renewal of the disputed evolutionary progress and the stages of human cognitive, intellectual and conceptual development. Ninety percent of the known Homo heidelbergensis fossil record have been obtained at the site. The fossil bone pit includes:
The complete cranium, Skull 5, nicknamed Miguelón, the fragmented cranial remains of Skull 4, nicknamed Agamenón and Skull 6, nicknamed Rui.
Remains of a child with craniosynostosis were found and dated to 530,000 BP. The find was considered to provide evidence for food sharing in early human populations.
Mitochondrial DNA from a 400,000 year old femur has been sequenced, the oldest hominin mtDNA recovered as of 2013. The mtDNA was found to be closer to the mtDNA of Denisova hominins than to the mtDNA of Neanderthals.
In 2016, nuclear DNA analysis results determined the Sima hominins to be Neanderthals and not Denisova hominins, and the divergence between Neanderthals and Denisovans predates 430,000 years.
In 2019, analysis of Neanderthal teeth found at Sima de los Huesos indicates that modern humans and Neanderthals separated from a common ancestor more than 800,000 years ago.
In 2020, analysis of tooth enamel of hominids found at the sites of Sima del Elefante, Gran Dolina-TD6 and Sima de los Huesos concluded that Atapuerca hominids grew faster than modern humans.
Some excavators have stated that the concentration of bones in the pit allows the suggestion of a traditional burial culture among the cave's inhabitants. A competing theory cites the lack of small bones in the assemblage and suggests that the fossils were washed into the pit by non-human agents.
Sima del Elefante (1996 to present)
According to José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of research at Atapuerca, the Sima del Elefante findings support "anatomical evidence of the hominids that fabricated tools more than one million years ago", which may have been the earliest among Western European hominids. The first discovery in June 2007 was a tooth followed by a fragment of a jawbone and a proximal phalanx in 2008.
Cueva del Mirador (1999 to present)
This site provides information on earliest local farmers and herders of the late Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Orchids Valley (2000 to 2001) and Hundidero (2004 to 2005)
