Atapuerca
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Atapuerca, also known as Sierra de Atapuerca or Sierra Atapuerca, is an ancient karstic region of Spain, containing several caves such as the Gran Dolina site, where fossils and stone tools of the earliest known hominids in Europe have been found, dating to between 780,000 and 1 million years ago.
It is believed that the fossils may belong to either Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or a more recently-identified species called Homo antecessor. The most famous site in Atapuerca is "Sima de los Huesos" (The pit of bones). This site is located at the bottom of a 13 metre (50 foot) deep chimney reached by scrambling through the cave system of the Cueva Mayor. The fossils there have a minimum age of 350,000 years old, corresponding to the Middle Pleistocene. The "Sima de los huesos" contains abundant human remains representing around 30 skeletons of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a direct ancestor of the Neanderthals.
The excavators suggest that the concentration of bones in the pit may represent the practice of burial by the inhabitants of the cave. A competing theory cites the lack of small bones in the assemblage and suggests that the remains were washed into the pit by natural agencies.
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