[Image depicts cava excavation. Credit to Pixabay]

The cava excavation at the Sima del Elefante site revealed a previously unknown prehistoric human population in Europe, and this was first revealed in the research paper on March 12, 2025. 

The discovery of the oldest known human face fossil in Western Europe represents an extraordinary paleontological breakthrough that fundamentally rewrites the established timeline of human settlement on the continent, pushing back the date of the first hominin arrival back by hundreds of thousands of years. 

First unearthed in 2022 at Spain's world-famous Sima del Elefante cave site in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains north of Spain, the fossil consists of meticulously reconstructed pieces of a partial left upper jaw and cheekbone of an adult hominin.

Described "Pink" in honor of excavation coordinator Dr. Rosa Huguet, the fossil was precisely dated to between 1.1 and 1.4 million years ago.

This dating identifies it as the earliest human face material found in Western Europe.

Previously, the oldest significant hominin remains in the region were those of Homo antecessor, discovered nearby at the site of Gran Dolina. 

Dated at approximately 850,000 years old, it was a species that had surprisingly had modern-appearing, flat facial morphology comparable to that of Homo sapiens.

However, anatomical examination of Pink reveals a more archaic morphology, characterized by a robust and projecting forward-projecting midface structure, as sharply differentiated from the later Homo antecessor population.

Due to this unusual set of characteristics—primitive features typical of the Homo clade but also substantial differences from other contemporaneous hominins—the research team tentatively classifies the fossil as Homo affinis erectus.

This provisional classification implies that the individual belongs to a species or subspecies closely related to, yet distinct from, the widely dispersed Homo erectus, which was the first human species known to leave Africa and whose older remains date to 1.8 million years ago in Eastern Europe (Dmanisi, Georgia). 

The find thus introduces a "new actor" in the story  of European human evolution, strongly indicating that hominins had successfully navigated the journey from the east to the Iberian Peninsula, the westernmost point of Eurasia, much earlier than previously confirmed. 

Archaeological remains associated with the daily life of the early inhabitants were also recovered at the site, including crude cutting or chopping tools made of quartz and flint, as well as animal bones with clear marks of cuts. 

These findings indicates that this population also possessed the lithic technology and behavioral sophistication to process carcasses.

Paleoenvironmental reconstruction indicates the Atapuerca area during Pink's time was a dense, wet forest ecosystem with abundant water resources and varied wildlife such as horses, bison, and hippos that ensured a perfect ecological setup for long-term inhabitation.

This groundbreaking discovery compels paleoanthropologists to reconsider deeply current models of migration, investigate the evolutionary interdependence of H. aff. erectus, H. erectus, and H. antecessor, and investigate the assumed demographic replacement within the region. 

Ultimately, while additional fossil evidence is needed to confirm the species classification and fully determine the complex narrative of the initial Europeans, the Pink discovery is a significant and pioneering step towards illuminating the beginnings and diversity of humankind on the old continent.