Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
A fossil found in Spain and dating to 1.4 to 1.1 million years ago is the oldest human face ever found in Europe. The face bears features that represent the shift from our ape ancestors toward more “human” characteristics.
Humans probably arrived in Europe between 1 and 2 million years ago. But the exact timing and direction of human dispersal out of Africa continues to be debated.
It doesn’t help that the oldest evidence of humans in Europe comes from opposite ends of the continent. In the east, stone tools found in Ukraine date (with 68% accuracy) to 1.4 million years ago. In the west, another group of Spanish finds date to 1.32 million years ago.
The eastern finds suggest a route out of Africa through western Asia. Evidence from the Iberian Peninsula support the idea that humans made it out of Africa via the Strait of Gibraltar.
The new fossil was found in 2022 at the Sima del Elefante site in northern Spain’s Sierra de Atapuerca. The fragments, dubbed ATE7-1, include substantial portions of the jaw and cheek bones from the left side of the ancient human’s face.
The bones are described in a paper published in Nature.
Another jawbone fragment was discovered at the same site in 2007, dubbed ATE9-1. It’s believed, though not conclusive, that this bone belonged to the ancient human species Homo antecessor which lived 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago.
While the jawbones of ATE9-1 and ATE7-1 are virtually indistinguishable, the more recent fragments were found 2 metres deeper. This has led the researchers to believe that ATE7-1 is older – possibly as old as 1.4 million years.
H. antecessor is known from other, younger fragments such as the 850,000-year-old remains found at the nearby Gran Dolina site. This human species has a slender midface which resembles the structure of modern human faces.
ATE7-1, however, doesn’t have these slender mid-face features. The fragments bear some resemblance to H. erectus, but the researchers were unable to definitively say that it belonged to this human species either.
Thus, they assigned the fossils to H. aff. erectus to denote an “affinity” to H. erectus, pending further investigation.
The authors note the presence of stone tools and bones with cut marks at the Sima del Elefante site. Analysis of these artefacts could help archaeologists understand the species and behaviour of the ancient humans which lived there more than 1 million years ago.
