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Remnant of the first European discovered in Spain
During the 2007 field season, the Atapuerca Research Team, led by professors Juan Luis Arsuaga, Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell, discovered a human mandible associated with a lithic assemblage of Oldowan (Mode 1) artefacts made from chert, in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain), dating back to about 1.200.000 years ago.
The finding occurred on 30 June in the TE9 level of the site known as Sima del Elefante, which is located in the Railway Trench, two hundred metres away from the Gran Dolina site, where in 1994 the first human fossils attributed to the species Homo antecessor were found. Also, Sima del Elefante cave is located about one thousand meters away from the Sima de los Huesos site, where more than 6.000 fossil remains of the species Homo heidelbergensis have been found so far.
The description and interpretation of both the hominin fossil (ATE9-1) and the artefacts, as well as the geologic, geochronologic and biochronologic data, which support the age of this finding, appear this week in the journal Nature, in a paper authored mostly by scientists from the CENIEH in Burgos, and from the IPHES in Tarragona.
The palaeomagnetic analyses reveal that the lower levels from Sima del Elefante site exhibit reversed magnetisation directions, whereas in level TE17 the polarity is normal. Hence, levels TE7 to TE16 were deposited during the Matuyama Chron in the Early Pleistocene, between 780.000 and 1.780.000 years ago.
The mammal fossils associated to the human mandible and the artefacts, in particular a mustelid (Pannonictis nestti), a murid (genus Castillomys), as well as other rodent species, suggest an age younger than 1.400.000 years for the level TE9.
TE9 level has also been dated using the cosmogenic nuclides method, based on the production of certain isotopes of aluminium and beryllium in quartz grains by cosmic radiation. The isotopic ratios of these elements vary at a known rate, once the grains are buried. Using this 'geologic chronometer' it has been determined an age of 1.200.000 years for the TE9 level, which fits well with both the palaeomagnetic and the biochronologic data.
The artefacts, until a total of 32 elements, were probably knapped inside the cave from Neogene and Cretaceous chert nodules available within 2 km of the archaeological site. The technique to produce these artefacts is very simple, and devoted to produce flakes ranging between 30 and 75 millimetres, detached by direct hard hummer percussion. Using these tools, hominins exploited the meet of some big mammals, as demonstrated by marks left by the artefacts on the surface of some bones.
The human fossil consists of the symphysis of a mandible preserving some teeth in situ, besides the lower second premolar of the same individual, which was found two days before at the TE9 level, and that was presented to the media the 29 June 2007.
The morphology of the anterior face of the symphysis (frontal section of the mandible where horizontal branches join. Contemporary humans' chin is placed in its outer side) is primitive, and resembles that of the African Early Pleistocene fossils attributed to Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis. In particular, the Sima del Elefante specimen shows many similarities with the mandibles found in the Dmanisi site (Republic of Georgia), which has been dated as 1.700.000 years old. In contrast, the posterior face of the symphysis exhibits a derived aspect, which resembles that of some Asian mandibles. Provisionally, we have assigned the mandible ATE9-1 to the species Homo antecessor.
In short, the article published in Nature presents numerous data which demonstrate unequivocally the presence of hominins in Southern Europe quite early in the Early Pleistocene. It seems probable that the first European population came from the region of the Near East, the true cross roads between Africa and Eurasia, and that it was related to the first demographic expansion out of Africa, currently represented by the Dmanisi hominins. Evidence suggests that a speciation event would have occurred in the western extreme part of Eurasia, originating the hominin lineage represented by the Gran Dolina-TD6 and Sima del Elefante-TE9 specimens.
This is a new step in the research which is being conducted since 1978 in the Sierra de Atapuerca, and a very significant advance step towards a better understanding of the, nature, age, and protagonists of the first European human settlement.
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