2023-08-01 14:15:20
A very productive excavation campaign has come to an end at the Orce archaeopaleontological sites in Spain, with numerous archaeological remains dating back 1.5 million years. The works will help to better understand the first human settlement of the European continent.
The results of the excavation campaign have been presented publicly.
ProjectORCE, led by Professor Juan Manuel Jiménez from the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain, is approved and financed by the Junta de Andalucía. During this campaign, a total of 60 people have participated, including researchers and students from various universities and national and international research centers.
Deborah Barsky, a researcher at IPHES (Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution) and professor at the URV (Rovira i Virgili University), directs the excavation work at the Fuente Nueva 3 site. Barsky is also responsible for the study of the lithic industry of both Fuente Nueva 3 and the Barranco León deposit.
The work that has been carried out has concentrated on the three best-known and most important deposits in the basin: Fuente Nueva 3, a deposit in which the skeleton of a large male mammoth has been extracted; Barranco León, where the oldest human tooth in Western Europe was obtained and, finally, in the Venta Micena site, specifically in the so-called “cut 4”.
In the words of Jiménez himself, “globally, the campaign of this 2023 has been a success, both for the findings and for the dissemination activities carried out.” And he adds: “The lithic industry cut as well as the fossils of extinct animals recovered are of excellent quality and quantity.”
Restoration work on the rhinoceros jaw found at the Fuente Nueva 3 site. (Photo: URV / IPHES / ProyectORCE)
The most outstanding findings of each site
Without a doubt, the Fuente Nueva 3 deposit is the one that has provided the most outstanding results of this campaign in Orce. According to Deborah Barsky, “it’s been a magical year.” One of the most outstanding archaeological evidences has been the first spheroid found in this deposit. Regarding this discovery, it should be noted that it is a type of utensil made of limestone and extremely rare in Europe. Its rounded, almost perfect shape is the result of extracting small pieces of stone until a “faceted ball” is obtained. The production of the spheroids is very complex and denotes highly developed cognitive and psychomotor abilities of the humans who lived in Orce.
A juvenile jaw of an extinct rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus etruscus) also appeared in this site in an exceptional state of preservation and with practically all of its teeth. In addition, an almost complete skull of a large horse (Equus suessenbornensis) has been extracted which, in the absence of a more detailed study, points to the first finding of its kind in the world. Finally, a grid stands out, located very close to the tusks of the great mammoth known as the Pleistocene Titan, in which the remains of twenty different animals have been exhumed, accompanied by a varied set of lithic tools carved in flint and limestone by the first inhabitants of the European continent.
The excavation at the Barranco León site has focused on the southern wall of the site, one of the richest parts with archaeopaleontological material. The findings have been multiple, highlighting 60 pieces of lithic industry, among which is a limestone hammer, with which the humans who inhabited Orce 1.5 million ago cut the stone blocks that accumulated in this area of the site, and two retouched remains. The recovery of this last pair of flint tools is especially relevant because it indicates a high degree of complexity on the part of our most remote ancestors.
Bones bitten by different carnivores have also appeared, as well as others cut by lithic tools created by humans. This will make it possible to advance in the knowledge of the behavior, and in particular of the interactions, of the different meat-consuming species that gathered at this emblematic site. According to the director of the activity, José Solano (University of Granada), the work to prepare new excavation areas makes it possible to foresee very promising results in the coming campaigns.
Finally, in Cut 4 of Venta Micena, the team led by José Yravedra (Complutense University of Madrid in Spain) and Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenas (UGR) has worked, first of all, to extract the maximum number of fossils from the great accumulation located in the “southeast corner” of the deposit. It has been an extremely complex task, since bones and teeth overlap in a labyrinthine fashion. In this sense, it is worth highlighting the work carried out by the restoration team led by Eva Montilla (UGR). Above all, remains of an extinct species of horse (Equus altidens) have appeared: pelvis, jaws, extremities, vertebrae…; some nibbled by the carnivores that inhabited these lands 1.6 million years ago. Other fossils are a heel bone (calcaneus) of a giant deer (Praemegaceros), an upper part of the skull of a caprid (Hemitragus albus) which, preliminarily, can be considered a male due to its large size, and a first cervical vertebra (atlas ) of a bison. (Source: URV)
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