A molar from the Pinilla del Valle excavations, found last summer, revealed that the presence of Neanderthals in that enclave dates back more than 480,000 years: a place with a paleontological importance similar to sites such as Atapuerca or the Guadix-Baza Basin, or Almonda, in Portugal.
According to research carried out using the Uranus-Thorium method, the molar, under the investigations of Professor Ha Cheng, is dated to the first half of the Middle Pleistocene.
For the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, Mariano de Paco, who visited the site yesterday, this is “extraordinary” news in the study of “human evolution in Spain and Europe.”
The work, which began on August 15 and will continue until September 10, is coordinated by Enrique Baquedano, Juan Luis Arsuaga and Alfredo Pérez-González.
The area has been declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), and the remains are unique. The site itself is also of international interest.
Not by chance, Baquedano presented the details of the findings to the Society of American Archaeology in April.
Those who wish to learn more about the Neanderthals can take guided tours outside the excavation periods at this site, the so-called Valley of the Neanderthals.
The place will be equipped next year with a Museum-Study Center for the dissemination and promotion of the ways and forms of life of this extinct species of the Homo genus.
