Photo: Archaeological Site: Atapuerca, Spain
Posted on 07/27/2013 8:46:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists in Spain are busy excavating the Gran Dolonia portion of the Atapuerca archaeological site for clues to the first humans that arrived in Europe.
Many archaeological treasures have come from this northern Spain location known as the caves of the Sierra de Atapuerca. In 2007 human remains were found that date back one and a half million years, considered the oldest Europeans remains ever found. Human remains have also been found from the "Homo antecessor" dating back 850,000-to-950,000-years ago. The youngest remains found here date back a mere 5,000-years ago from the homo sapien species.
The site is in the Sierra de Atapuerca in the province of Burgos, Spain that has thus far rendered multiple findings covering most ancient periods. The site has been under excavation since 1978 and deemed a historic location by UNESCO in 2000.
UNESCO noted: "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 Gran Dolina, where archaeologist currently are focusing is a cave site with some 19 levels deep of archaeological remains that were first excavated in 1981.
Project director Juan Luis Arsuaga said "It is the site that has yielded the most human remains in the world." That is why experts are confident the site holds the secrets of the first humans in Europe. The current digging will end at the end of this month, then Arsuaga's team will analyze the thousands of fragments found thus far.
From the remains found at Atapuerca, Spanish archaeologists believe these "first Europeans" were probably hunters who lived amongst lions, hippos and rhinos and settled territorial disputes by cannibalizing their enemy.
(Excerpt) Read more at hispanicallyspeakingnews.com ...
Photo: Archaeological Site: Atapuerca, Spain
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 America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi and for the Fallen of Seal Team Six! |
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“And settled territorial disputes by cannibalizing their enemy”
Well, it saved them lawyer fees.
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America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi and for the Fallen of Seal Team Six! |
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Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.
The book "Darwin's Ghost," by Steve Jones, is a modern chapter by chapter update of Darwin's original "Origin of species."
In that book, Jones tells us that ...
Dozens of Neanderthals have been found. Another almost complete set of bones comes from the famous "Lucy," who lived more than three million years ago.
In 2007 human remains were found that date back one and a half million years, considered the oldest Europeans remains ever found.
"Lucy" and other pre-human fossils have been found in Africa.
The last chapter of The Origin of Species is an abstract of the book's "long argument" in simple, even urgent, terms. It returns with almost poetic intensity to the woodpeckers, wasps, and oaks that make Darwin's case, and contains its most famous sentence: "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."
It was environmentally friendly also.
:)
Human remains have also been found from the "Homo antecessor" dating back 850,000-to-950,000-years ago.
How do these two fit?
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