Neanderthal Sites in Spain

Gorham's Cave

There are around 15 Neanderthal sites in Spain in mostly three main areas: 1) in the Cantabrian mountain range, 2) along the eastern Mediterranean coast and 3) in Andalusia. There are few on Spain’s main plateau, where there are no limestone formations and no adequate caves to preserve human remains for thousands of years. But Pinilla del Valle (See Below) is an exception to the rule. “There is limestone here. It was like a cap made of stone under which the Neanderthal presumably took refuge to prepare for the hunt, to craft their tools, to eat… It’s not that they lived inside in the sense of a home; they wandered in the fields, and this was probably more like a base camp to take refuge when they needed to,” paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga told El Pais. [Source: El Pais, October 8, 2012]

“The Neanderthal lived both in the interglacial and the glacial periods,” explains Arsuaga. After an ice age that made half of Europe look like Greenland does today, the interglacial period began around 130,000 years ago with a climate that was actually warmer than today’s; then, 85,000 years ago the last ice age began, ending 11,500 years ago. The excavations at Pinilla corresponding to the interglacial period produced many remains of fallow deer (a Mediterranean species), tortoises, porcupines and brown bears, as opposed to the cave bears of the glacial period.

Neanderthal Valley in Spain?

The Lozoya River Valley, where the Pinilla del Valle is located, in the Madrid mountain range of Guadarrama, could easily be called “Neanderthal Valley,” says the paleontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga. El Pais reported: “It is protected by two strings of mountains, it is rich in fauna, it is a privileged spot from an environmental viewpoint, and it is ideal for the Neanderthal, given that it provided the with good hunting grounds.”This is not just a hypothesis: scientists working on site in Pinilla del Valle, near the reservoir, have already found nine Neanderthal teeth, remains of bonfires and thousands of animal fossils, including some from enormous aurochs (the ancestor of cattle, each the length of two bulls), rhinoceros and fallow deer. [Source: El Pais, October 8, 2012]

“The site, which has great potential, extends some 150 meters and we are now working in three areas: the cave of Camino, the refuge of Navalmaillo and the cave of Des-Cubierta, which cover three different time frames,” says Enrique Baquedano, director of the Regional Archeology Museum in Madrid.

The nine Neanderthal teeth discovered so far are between 60,000 and 90,000 years old, and several of them appeared in what must have been hyena dens, where the animals probably devoured and destroyed the bodies. “Teeth are the most resistant of all organic tissue; they keep better than the rest of the skeleton, and they provide lots of information about the diet, the diseases, and the passage from childhood to adulthood,” continues Laplana.

Thousands of stone tools have already been found. “The best stone for sculpting is flint, but there’s none in this area, so they had to make do with what they had handy. So they adapted their technique to quartz. “It’s worse, but it works and it represents an admirable technological adaptation.” And what about hunting? “They used wooden lances with fire-hardened tips.”

Archaeologists found a from that bonfire, perhaps used a ritual of some sort.“We are convinced that it was an intentional deposition of the girl’s body; perhaps there were more burials at Neanderthal sites but they were not recognized as such,” says the museum director.

Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibralter

Gorham's Cave View

Discovered in 1907, Gorham’s Cave is a natural sea cave located on the southeastern face of the Rock of Gibraltar. It is the last known place of Neanderthal occupation in the world. Of the total 18 meters of archaeological deposits in the cave, the top 2 meters include Phoenician-Carthaginian (800-300 B.C.) and Neolithic occupations. The remaining 16 meters include Solutrean and Magdalenian deposits and a level of Mousterian stone tools, representing a Neanderthal occupation between 38,000-30,000 years ago. Beneath is a layer of a much earlier occupation dating to 47,000 years ago. [Source: Sci-News.com, Sep 24, 2014]

According to UNESCO: “Located on the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar, steep limestone cliffs contain four caves with extensive archaeological and palaeontological deposits that provide evidence of Neanderthal occupation over a span of 100,000 years. These caves have provided extensive evidence of Neanderthal life, including rare evidence of exploitation of birds and marine animals for food; and use of bird feathers and abstract rock engravings, both indicating new evidence of the cognitive abilities of the Neanderthals. The sites are complemented by their steep limestone cliff settings, and the present-day flora and fauna of Gibraltar, much of which can be also identified in the rich palaeo-environmental evidence from the excavations. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage sites website =]

“While long-term scientific research is continuing, these sites have contributed substantially to the debates about the Neanderthal and human evolution. The attributes that express this value are the striking cluster of caves containing intact archaeological deposits that provide evidence of Neanderthal and early modern human occupation of Gibraltar and the landscape setting which assists in presenting the natural resources and environmental context of Neanderthal life.” =

Gorham's Cave Complex provides an exceptional testimony to the occupation, cultural traditions and material culture of Neanderthal and early modern human populations through a period spanning approximately 120,000 years. This is expressed by the rich archaeological evidence in the caves, the rare rock engravings at Gorham’s Caves (dated to more than 39,000 years ago), rare evidence of Neanderthal exploitation of birds and marine animals for food, and the ability of the deposits to depict the climatic and environmental conditions of the peninsula over this vast span of time. The archaeological and scientific potential of the caves continues to be explored through archaeological research and scientific debates, providing continuing opportunities for understanding Neanderthal life, including their capacity for abstract thinking.” =

Neanderthal sites

Neanderthal Life in Gorham’s Cave

Jon Mooallemjan wrote in the New York Times magazine: “Gorham’s Cave is on Gibraltar’s rough-hewed eastern coast: a tremendous opening at the bottom of the sheer face of the Rock, shadowy and hallowed-seeming, like a cathedral. Its mouth is 200 feet across at the base and 120 feet tall. It tapers asymmetrically like a crumpled wizard’s hat. |[Source: Jon Mooallemjan, New York Times magazine, January 11, 2017 ||*||]

“Neanderthals inhabited Gorham’s Cave on and off for 100,000 years, as well as a second cave next to it, called Vanguard Cave. The artifacts they left behind were buried as wind pushed sand into the cave. This created a high sloping dune, composed of hundreds of distinct layers of sand, each of which was once the surface of the dune, the floor of the cave. The dune is enormous. It reaches about two-thirds of the way up Gorham’s walls, spilling out of the cave’s mouth and onto the rocky beach, like a colossal cat’s tongue lapping at the Mediterranean. ||*||

“The Neanderthals did their butchering and cooking at the front of Gorham’s, then retired here at night. Lighting a fire at this hearth would block the narrowest point in the cave, sealing off this chamber from predators. You could hang out here, Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, said, “have a late-night snack or something,” then head to bed. “See there?” he said, motioning to a smaller opening to our right. It led to a second room, similar to this one. “This,” Finlayson said, “is the bedroom.”“ ||*||

Inside Gorham’s Cave

Jonathan Vigliotti of CBS News wrote: On the southern tip of Gibraltar's famous rock, a place called Gorham's Cave is where Neanderthals are believed to have lived out their final days on earth before mysteriously vanishing. "I often think that they were so like us they probably sat in the same places and looked out at the same view and really, all that's separating us is time," said archaeologist Geraldine Finlayson. Finlayson and her team have been excavating the site since 1989 after Neanderthal skulls of a child and an adult were found there. "It gives up a little bit of its secrets every time," Finlayson said. [Source: Jonathan Vigliotti, CBS News July 6, 2017]

skull from Gibralter

Back when Neanderthals lived there, the rock was surrounded by a beach. Over tens of thousands of years, wind blowing sand into the caves, and rising sea levels, trapped the artifacts inside—until now. The findings have revealed a life remarkably similar to ours in certain ways. "Those black flakes are little bits of charcoal — you know when you have a barbecue and it spits," Finlayson said.

In 2014, her team's discovery — now sealed off to protect it — proved Neanderthals were capable of abstract thinking. This was once thought impossible. It's called "The Hashtag," a series of lines deliberately carved into stone. "Deliberately, as in a conscious decision to make an impression on the rock. Whether they were trying to communicate a message as art or a message as, I don't know, a rudimentary map, we will never really know, not scientifically. So I always stop short of saying it's art. We're looking at the beginning of expression of the human race," Finlayson explained.

"We've cataloged over 200 caves in Gibraltar," Finlayson said. "Now, 10 of those have direct evidence to Neanderthal presence. You could say this is a bit like Neanderthal City." A lost city, slowly unearthed. It's almost like a time capsule. "Well, yes, I've never thought of it that way, but absolutely. This is exactly what it is. You're walking on exactly the same place that the Neanderthals were walking and you're finding the little bits of evidence that have left — that have survived the ages," Finlayson said.”

El Sidrón Cave in Spain

El Sidrón Cave is a limestone karst cave system located in the Piloña municipality of Asturias, northwestern Spain, where Paleolithic rock art and the fossils of more than a dozen Neanderthals have been found. In the Tunnel of Bones cave 12 Neanderthal specimens dating around 49,000 years ago have been recovered.

In 1994, one hundred forty 43,000-year-old Neanderthal bones were found in El Sidorn cave, in an area of upland forests in the Spanish province of Asturias, just south of the Bay of Biscay after some spelunkers noticed two human mandibles jutting out of the soil in a gallery of the cave. After entering the cave by lowering oneself on a rope it takes about 10 minutes to reach “Gallery of Bones." As of 2008. 1,500 bone fragments had been recovered from at least nine Neanderthals — including five young adults, two adolescents and a three-year-old child. Shortly after the nine died the ground below them collapsed, depositing their remain in limestone hollow where a flood covered them with sediment, allowing some of their DNA to be preserved.

According to the University of Adelaide: “The El Sidrón cave, situated in Piloña, in Asturias in northern Spain, has provided the finest Neanderthal collection in the Iberian Peninsula and is one of the most active archaeological dig sites in the world. Discovered in 1994, around 2,500 skeletal remains from at least 13 individuals of both sexes and of varying ages who lived there around 49,000 years ago have been recovered. */ [Source: University of Adelaide and the Spanish National Research Council, March 9, 2017 */]

Sima de los Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) in Spain

The Sima de los Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) site is northern Spain about 100 feet (30 meters) below the surface at the bottom of a 42-foot (13-meter) vertical shaft. This “Pit of Bones” has yielded fossils of at least 28 individuals, the world's largest collection of human fossils dating from the Middle Pleistocene, about 125,000 to 780,000 years ago, along with remains of cave bears and other animals. The oldest fossils of modern humans found yet date back to about 200,000 years ago. Archaeologists suggest the bones may have been washed down it by rain or floods, or that the bones were even intentionally buried there.

Atapuerca

Henry McHenry wrote in Encyclopædia Britannica: “More than 1,600 human fossils, including several nearly complete skulls, have been found. The age of this material is at least 300,000 years and may be as old as 600,000 years. Brain sizes are within the range of both Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) and modern humans. The skeletons possess several traits unique to Neanderthals, including a projecting midface, long and narrow pubic bones, and thick finger bones. Unlike later Neanderthals, however, they do not fully express the characteristic Neanderthal form. The site also harboured a 430,000-year-old fractured skull, which is the earliest evidence of interpersonal violence in Homo. [Source: Henry McHenry, Encyclopædia Britannica]

Fossils from The Sima de los Huesos Spain, dated to be 400,000 years old, provide earliest genetic evidence of Neanderthals. It is possible or likely that the fossils are from a pre-Neanderthal hominin. Ewen Callaway wrote in Nature: “The remains are known as the Sima hominins because they were found in Sima de los Huesos (Spanish for ‘pit of bones’), a 13-metre-deep shaft in Spain’s Atapuerca mountains. Few ancient sites are as important or intriguing as Sima, which holds the remains of at least 28 individuals, along with those of dozens of cave bears and other animals. The hominins might have plummeted to their death, but some researchers think they were deliberately buried there. [Source: Ewen Callaway, Nature, March 14, 2016]

“The Sima hominin skulls have the beginnings of a prominent brow ridge, as well as other traits typical of Neanderthals. But other features, and uncertainties around their age — some studies put them at 600,000 years old, others closer to 400,000 — convinced many researchers that they might instead belong to an older species known as Homo heidelbergensis. Confusion peaked when Meyer, his colleague Svante Pääbo and their team revealed the mitochondrial connection to the Denisovans. But they hoped that retrieving the skeletons’ nuclear DNA — which represents many more lines of ancestry than does mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited solely from the maternal line — would clear things up.”

Bridget Alex wrote in The Guardian: “ The Sima hominins looked like early members of the Neanderthal lineage based on morphological similarities. This hypothesis fit the timing of the split between Neanderthals and modern humans based on pedigree analysis (765,000-550,000 years ago), but did not work with the phylogenetic estimate (383,000-275,000 years ago). [Source: Bridget Alex, The Guardian, December 22, 2016|=|]

“Where do the Sima hominins belong on our family tree? Were they ancestors of both Neanderthals and modern humans, just Neanderthals, or neither? DNA answered this definitively. The Sima hominins belong to the Neanderthal branch after it split with modern humans. Moreover, the result provides a firm time point in our family tree, suggesting that the pedigree rate works for this period of human evolution.” |=|

Atapuerca in Spain

Atapuerca

Sima de los Huesos is part of Atapuerca, an anthropological and archaeological in Spain designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. According to UNESCO: “The caves of the Sierra de Atapuerca contain a rich fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe, from nearly one million years ago and extending up to the Common Era. They represent an exceptional reserve of data, the scientific study of which provides priceless information about the appearance and the way of life of these remote human ancestors. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage site website =

The Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is located near the city of Burgos, in the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, in the North of the Iberian Peninsula. The property encompasses 284.119 ha and contains a rich fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe, from nearly one million years ago and extending into the Common Era. It constitutes an exceptional scientific reserve that provides priceless information about the appearance and way of life of these remote human ancestors. =

“The Sierra de Atapuerca sites provide unique testimony of the origin and evolution both of the existing human civilization and of other cultures that have disappeared. The evolutionary line or lines from the African ancestors of modern humankind are documented in these sites. The earliest and most abundant evidence of humankind in Europe is found in the Sierra de Atapuerca. The sites constitute an exceptional example of continuous human occupation, due to their special ecosystems and their geographical location. The fossil remains in the Sierra de Atapuerca are an invaluable reserve of information about the physical nature and the way of life of the earliest human communities in Europe. In addition, painted and engraved panels have been recorded, with geometrical motifs, hunting scenes, and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures.

Henry McHenry wrote in Encyclopædia Britannica: Atapuerca is a “site of several limestone caves near Burgos in northern Spain, known for the abundant human (genus Homo) remains discovered there beginning in 1976. The site called Sima del Elefante (“Pit of the Elephant”) contains the earliest evidence of humans in western Europe—fragments of a jawbone and teeth date to 1.1–1.2 million years ago. The nearby site of Gran Dolina contains human remains dating to about 800,000 years ago and some of the earliest tools found in western Europe. Paleoanthropologists who first described the fossils attributed them to a new species, H. antecessor, which they proposed as the ancestor of modern humans (H. sapiens) owing to certain distinctly modern facial features. Other researchers, however, hesitate to accept this assertion and group the fossils with similar remains classified as H. heidelbergensis.” [Source: Henry McHenry, Encyclopædia Britannica]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024