Sima de los Huesos

Sima de los Huesos, 'the pit of bones', is a deep chamber at the bottom of a cave shaft in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Excavations that began in 1984 have produced more than 6,000 human bones from at least 28 individuals, about 430,000 years old. They include skulls, jaws, and many bones of the body, making it one of the largest collections of early human fossils in the world. The people were stocky, with strong bones, and their skulls already show features of Neanderthals, such as a projecting midface and strong brow ridges.

Genetic work confirmed this. In 2016 scientists reported nuclear DNA from the bones, among the oldest ever read from humans, showing that the group was on the Neanderthal line, after the split from the Denisovans. How the bodies got into the pit is debated. The excavators think other people deliberately dropped the dead down the shaft, which would be an early funeral custom, though others think accidents or natural causes explain it. One skull, Cranium 17, bears two wounds from the same object, which researchers interpret as the result of violence. A single hand axe of pink quartzite, nicknamed Excalibur, was found with the bones and may be an offering.