Torralba and Ambrona (

Province of Soria Soria is a province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Demographics It is bordered by the provinces of La Rioja, Zaragoza, ...

, Castile and León,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) are two

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

and

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

s that correspond to various

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

iferous levels with

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

lithic industry ( Lower Paleolithic) associated, at least about 350,000 years old ( Ionian,

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, widely known by its previous designation of Middle Pleistocene, is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. Th ...

). From these sites have been obtained fossils of large mammals, mainly elephants ('' Straight-tusked elephant''), with remains of nearly fifty individuals from each site, in addition to large bovines and horses. A type training model

elephants' graveyard An elephants' graveyard (also written elephant graveyard, elephant's graveyard, or elephants' cemetery) is a place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age. According to this legend, ...

has been proposed, similar to the current Africans. They also show evidence of successive occupations by human beings, such as

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

station or, more likely, carrion and quartering. The sites, traditionally studied together, are about 3 km distant, and belong to the towns of

Ambrona Torralba and Ambrona (Province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain) are two paleontological and archaeological sites that correspond to various fossiliferous levels with Acheulean lithic industry ( Lower Paleolithic) associated, at least about 3 ...

(municipality of Miño de Medinaceli) and

Torralba del Moral Torralba del Moral is a village under the local government of the municipality of Medinaceli, Soria, Spain. It has a railway station and a junction where the branch to Soria splits from the Madrid-Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as ...

(municipality of

Medinaceli Medinaceli () is a municipality and town in the province of Soria, in Castile and León, Spain. The municipality includes other villages like Torralba del Moral. Etymology Its name derives from the Arabic 'madīnat salīm', which was named afte ...

). Known since the end of the 19th century, they were excavated first by the Marquis of Cerralbo between 1909 and 1914, later, in the early '60s and early '80s, by the American

Francis Clark Howell Francis Clark Howell (November 27, 1925 – March 10, 2007), generally known as F. Clark Howell, was an American anthropologist. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, F. Clark Howell grew up in Kansas, where he became interested in natural history. H ...

with the collaboration of the paleontologist

Emiliano Aguirre Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez (5 October 1925 – 11 October 2021) was a Spanish paleontologist, known for his works at archaeological site of Atapuerca, whose excavations he directed from 1978 until his retirement in 1990. He received the Princ ...

and later, in the '90s, new campaigns were carried out by Manuel Santonja and Alfredo Pérez-González. The remains from the different excavations are scattered, mainly, between the

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales The National Museum of Natural Sciences ( es, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales) is the national museum of natural history of Spain. It is situated in the center of Madrid, by the Paseo de la Castellana. It is managed by the Spanish National Re ...

, the

Museo Arqueológico Nacional The National Archaeological Museum ( es, Museo Arqueológico Nacional; MAN) is a museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. History The museum ...

, the Museo Numantino de Soria and the museum ''in situ'' of Ambrona. They were declared

Bien de Interés Cultural A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" (" goods" in the economic sense) and incl ...

in the category of "archaeological zone" on September 7, 1995. They are also declared as "a place of international geological interest of international relevance" ("Geosite") by the

Geological and Mining Institute of Spain The Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (Spanish: ''Instituto Geológico y Minero de España'') is a research institute located in Madrid, Spain. It is run under the auspices of the Ministry of Science. In collaboration with the Spanish Geo ...

, with the designations "VP -07: Loma del Saúco, Torralba" and "VP-07b: Loma de los Huesos, Ambrona", within the category "vertebrate sites of the Pliocene-Spanish Pleistocene".

History

1888: discovery

The first remains appeared in 1888, with the works of canalization of the water that a Belgian company was carrying out for the first railway station of Torralba (moved later twice, before 1926 and in 1959). Part of that material was acquired by the Escuela Superior de Minas de Madrid and the rest distributed among individuals.

1909–1916: the Marquis of Cerralbo

The first excavations were carried out by

Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, 17th Marquess of Cerralbo (1845 – 1922), was a Spanish archaeologist and a Carlist politician. Family and youth Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa came from the aristocratic family for centuries residing in the Salaman ...

, Marquis of Cerralbo, first in Torralba from 1909 to 1913 and later in Ambrona from 1914 to 1916, and have been considered as the best performed of the first half of the 20th century. In 1907, when the Marquis of Cerralbo vacationed in the area, he had news of the appearance of "colossal" elephant carcasses; after visiting the place and aware, from the beginning, of the antiquity of the remains, he decided to undertake and pay for the excavations himself, hoping to find evidence of its synchrony with the "most primitive" man. He initiated them in 1909 – a year after taking office as Permanent Academician of the Real Academia de la Historia – and established his paleontological workshop in a palace of his property in Santa María de Huerta, relatively close location. Cerralbo excavated between 1000 and 2000 m² of the Torralba site and an unknown, but much smaller, area of Ambrona. Paleontological elements recovered accounted for 525 elephant remains ('' Straight-tusked elephant''), 86 horse ('' Equus caballus torralbae''), 37 of a great bovid ('' Aurochs''), 25 deer (''

Cervus elaphus The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

'') and 3 rhinoceros (''

Stephanorhinus hemitoechus The narrow-nosed rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus hemitoechus'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that lived in western Eurasia and North Africa during the Pleistocene. It first appeared in Europe some 600,000 years ago, and survived there until ...

''), and the lithic industry accounted for a total of 557 specimens, including

hand axe A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or ch ...

s, cleavers, flakes, cores and

Chopping tool In archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and ...

s. Cerralbo was accompanied in his excavations by the archaeologist Juan Cabré, the geologist Pedro Palacios and the French paleontologist Édouard Harlé.Santonja Gómez, M. (publisher); Pérez González, A .; Ruiz Zapata, B .; Sesé, C. and Soto, E. (2005)
Waiting for the Flood. Ambrona and Torralba 400,000 years ago
'. Madrid: Regional Archaeological Museum, Community of Madrid, Junta de Castilla y León: 55 pp. The international diffusion of the works in Torralba was due, on the one hand, to the communication that Marquis of Cerralbo himself presented at the International Congress of Prehistory that was held in Geneva in 1912, which he accompanied with a sample of his discoveries, and, on the other hand, to the book by the German paleontologist

Hugo Obermaier Hugo Obermaier (29 January 1877, in Regensburg – 12 November 1946, in Fribourg) was a distinguished Spanish-German prehistorian and anthropologist who taught at various European centres of learning. Although he was born in Germany, he was late ...

, ''The fossil man'' -reference work during the first third of the 20th century-, in which he describe the findings of Torralba, originally published in Spanish in 1916, with a second edition expanded in 1925 eviewed facsimile reissue:/small> that was translated into English.

1961–1983: Howell and Aguirre

Palaeoloxodon antiquus - in situ fossil bones - Ambrona

The American anthropologist

conducted six excavation campaigns in Torralba and Ambrona, between 1961 and 1963 and in 1980, 1981 and 1983. The results of his studies seemed to have demonstrated the practice of active hunting by the human groups of the time-hypothesis discussed later, in favor of occasional scavenging. Also carbonaceous remains to indicate the presence of homes: the intentional and controlled use of fire. In 1959, during the Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, in which John Desmond Clark was presenting the concept of "occupation sites", the Spanish archaeologist Lluís Pericot (University of Barcelona) interested the anthropologists F. Clark Howell (University of Chicago) and Pierre Biberson (Museum of the Man of Paris), in the works that the Marquis of Cerralbo had done in Torralba and his concept of "station", very similar to the one they were discussing. Howell visited Ambrona and Torralba in 1960. He obtained funding and permits to excavate, helped by Biberson, who was also able to provide some funding for the work. An international multidisciplinary team and a modern work methodology were proposed. In the different campaigns from 1961 to 1963 they were part of Howell's teams: Pierre Biberson (Museum of the Man of Paris, deputy director of the excavations and head of the Ambrona area),

(

, paleontology of vertebrates), Dolores Echaide (University of Zaragoza, representative in 1961 of the Dirección General de Bellas Artes), Francisco Jordá Cerdá (professor at the University of Salamanca, delegate of Fine Arts in 1962–63), Desmond Collins (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom), Peter Taylor, Richard G. Klein, Blanca Izquierdo, José Viloria (MNCN, preparation and restoration of fossils), Karl W. Butzer (University of Wisconsin,

edaphology Edaphology (from Greek , ''edaphos'', "ground",, ''-logia'') is concerned with the influence of soils on living beings, particularly plants. It is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology includes the study ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

), Josefina Menéndez Amor (MNCN) and F. Florschutz (

palynology Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and ''-logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposit ...

and paleobotany, Leslie Gordon Freeman (University of Chicago, record), Thomas Lynch (University of Chicago), Susan Tax (cartoonist), several Spanish and American students denses and more than twenty workers in the area. Grids were drawn, stratigraphic profiles were raised and each extracted remainder was labeled. As an example of thoroughness, samples of pollen were taken from the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

adhered between the teeth of the elephants, to get as close as possible to the existing environment during the accumulation of the remains. In 1973 Aguirre directed the systematic excavation of more than 200 m² around the Museum of Ambrona, built ten years earlier, necessary to correct the humidity that endangered it, recovering more fossils and lithic industry. The last campaigns of Howel were realized in 1980, 1981 and 1983. The possibility of finding some human fossil facilitated new economic supports, even of the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...

. For the excavations and analysis of samples of these campaigns, he had the following team: co-directors: Leslie Gordon Freeman ( lithic industry) and Martín Almagro Basch (director of the

Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España The National Archaeological Museum ( es, Museo Arqueológico Nacional; MAN) is a museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. History The museu ...

); researchers: Emiliano Aguirre, Karl W. Butzer, Richard G. Klein, M. Teresa Alberdi, A. Azzaroli, J. Bischoff, T. E. Cerling, Katherine Cruz-Uribe, Ignacio Doadrio, Frank Harrold, Manuel Hoyos, P. Preece, Antonio Sánchez-Marco (birds), F. Borja Sanchiz (amphibians), H. P. Schwarcz, Carmen Sesé (micromammals), Kathy Schick, N. P. Toth and Charles Turner. In all its campaigns, Howell excavated more than 1000 m² in Torralba, recovering about 700 lithic instruments and more than 2100 fossils, and about 2700 m² in Ambrona, with more than 4400 lithic instruments and several thousand fossils (of them more of 2000 elephants). The investigations of these years gave rise to a large number of scientific publications on all related aspects, paleontology, archeology, geology, paleoclimatology, etc., but highlighting, due to its social impact, those related to the presumed hunting activities of primitive man.

1990–2002: Santonja and Pérez-González

As a result of the results of Howell and collaborators, in the following years, extensive discussions took place on some conclusions related to human behavior, mainly those related to active hunting or the use of bone instruments. In order to establish a precise formation model of the deposits, the archaeologist Manuel Santonja and the geologist Alfredo Pérez-González proposed and co-directed a new stage of excavations, focused mainly to establish with precision the geology and the detailed stratigraphy of the same. The approach was based on the realization, prior to the systematic excavation, of trial pits and sections for detailed stratigraphic analysis, since simultaneous excavation in large areas could lead to confusion among very similar facies, mixing levels that should be differentiated with this other method. The works began in the years 1990 and 1991, with the elaboration of surface geological studies complemented with some soundings, and the main excavation campaigns were carried out, this time only in Ambrona, the summers from 1993 to 2000, without interruption, taking place some complementary sampling and other trials between 2001 and 2002. The team had numerous specialists: Carmen Sesé and Enrique Soto (mammals), Paola Villa (

taphonomy Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term ''taphonomy'' (from Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientist Ivan Efremov t ...

), Blanca Ruiz Zapata (palynology), Rafael Mora (area of Torralba, registry and cartography), Josep María Parés ( paleomagnetism), Ángel Baltanás (

ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typi ...

s), Ignacio Doadrio (

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

es), Ascensión Pinilla (

phytolith Phytoliths (from Greek, "plant stone") are rigid, microscopic structures made of silica, found in some plant tissues and persisting after the decay of the plant. These plants take up silica from the soil, whereupon it is deposited within different ...

s), Borja Sanchiz (amphibians and reptiles), Antonio Sánchez Marco (birds), Juan M. Rodríguez de Tembleque, Joaquín Panera and Susana Rubio (archeology), Christophe Falguères (dating), Alfonso Benito Calvo (geology), C. Álvaro Chirveches, M. Vilà Margalef and Alexandra Vicent (consolidation and restoration). The excavations were carried out by a large number of archeology students, reaching over fifty in one of the campaigns. In Ambrona a total of 688 m² were excavated and some surveys and control tastings were carried out in Torralba. Some 975 lithic industry specimens were obtained, however, most paleontological remains were left unexploded, consolidated, covered again and protected to prevent spoilage and looting, in anticipation of a possible future extension of the museum exhibition ''in situ'' to a much larger extension of the site. The works were followed by numerous publications, highlighting an extensive monographic volume of the magazine ''Zona Arqueológica'' (vol.5, 2005).

Geology

The sediments in which the deposits are integrated correspond to ancient fluvium-

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

, Discordant deposits, by a soft local pale-relief, on the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

materials of the area (locally constituted by

lutite Lutite is old terminology, which is not widely used, by Earth scientists in field descriptions for fine-grained, sedimentary rocks, which are composed of silt-size sediment, clay-size sediment, or a mixture of both. When mixed with water lutites o ...

s and

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywal ...

s facies of type

Keuper The Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolomite, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Late T ...

). They were located in the flat and impermeable bottom of an elongated valley from an ancient ''

polje A polje, also karst polje or karst field, is a large flat plain found in karstic geological regions of the world, with areas usually . The name derives from the Slavic languages and literally means 'field', whereas in English ''polje'' specific ...

'', then open and in the process of erosion.

Stratigraphy

The Ambrona site is located in the "Ambrona formation", whose sediment thickness, as a whole, would not exceed eight meters. Seven levels or litic facies have been identified, grouped into three members: one lower (AS1 to AS5 levels) – gravels, gray silts and clays, another medium (AS6) – sands and gray limes, and the upper one (AS7) – graves and red sands. The AS3 level (silt and clays) is locally eroded, supporting AS4 directly on AS2 at some points. The base, discordant, corresponds to facies of

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

s channel (AS1 and AS2). The AS3 level has been interpreted as

lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

environment. The rest of the lower and middle members (AS4 to AS6) are interpreted as deposited in low-energy shallow fluvial-

environments, with some sediments of channel and overflow. The upper member (AS7), with a granulometry higher than the previous ones, corresponds again to alluvial fan facies, in which neither

s nor lithic industry have been found. The Torralba site, in turn, is integrated into the Torralba

Formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

. It would be more recent than Ambrona, formed at a later time, not determinable, of the encasement of the fluvial network in the valley, although Aguirre it supposes a probable temporary overlap between the superior members of Ambrona and the inferior ones of Torralba. The maximum recognized thickness of this formation is about 15 meters. In 1965, Butzer differentiated thirteen units in the

stratigraphic column A stratigraphic column is a representation used in geology and its subfield of stratigraphy to describe the vertical location of rock units in a particular area. A typical stratigraphic column shows a sequence of sedimentary rocks, with the oldest ...

, grouped into two "complexes", both with fossils and lithic industry: * Lower complex, of gray tones, characterized by gravels, sands and marls (IIa to IId, IIIa, IIIb, IVa and IVb units). * Superior complex, of reddish colors, composed of sands, marls and gravels (Va to Vd units). Above the Torralba Formation, the Sahuco Formation, of the Upper Pleistocene, absent in Ambrona, is superimposed.

Dating

Combining the methods of

electron paramagnetic resonance Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a method for studying materials that have unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but the spi ...

(EPR) and uranium-thorium (U-Th), on the enamel and dentin of

horse teeth Horse teeth refers to the dentition of equine species, including horses and donkeys. Equines are both heterodontous and diphyodontous, which means that they have teeth in more than one shape (there are up to five shapes of tooth in a horse's ...

, a dating has been obtained absolute not inferior to 350,000 years, contemporary of OSI 9 or final of OSI 11. The studies of paleomagnetism have given in all Ambrona samples a normal polarity value, consistent with the cron Brunhes, the current one, which started 779 000 years ago .

Paleontology

Systematics

The lists of taxa identified in the deposits have been changing over time, depending on the discovery of better diagnostic elements or the vagaries of the systematic; we try to present the most up-to-date relation.

Microorganisms

* Algae: diatoms (''Amphora'', ''Hantzschia'', ''Surriella'', ''Cyclotella'', ''Anomoeoensis'', ''Epithemia'', ''Rhopalodia'', ''Cocconeis'', ''Pinnularia'', ''Nitzschia''), chrysophytes.

Vegetation

* Herbaceous: Poaceae,

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

, Cichoriaceae, Fabaceae, '' Rumex'', ''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though ...

''. * Aquatic: Cyperaceae, Nymphaeaceae, ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

'',

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...

, '' Typha''. * Shrubs: juniper (''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

''), Rosaceae,

Cistaceae The Cistaceae are a small family of plants (rock-rose or rock rose family) known for their beautiful shrubs, which are profusely covered by flowers at the time of blossom. This family consists of about 170(-200) species in nine genera that are ...

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

. * Trees: pine (''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden ...

''), alder (''

Alnus Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

''), willow (''

Salix Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

''), elm (''

Ulmus Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

''), oak (''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ...

''), birch (''

Betula A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 t ...

''), chestnut ('' Castanea''), hazel (''

Corylus The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

''), walnut (''

Juglans Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with 5–25 leaflets ...

'').

Arthropods

Ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typi ...

es (''Candona'', ''Cypris'', ''Cypridopsis'', ''Eucypris'', ''Herpetocypris'', ''Heterocypris'', ''Ilyocypris'', ''Leucocythere'', ''Plesiocyrpdopsis'', ''Potamocypris'').

Fishes, amphibians and reptiles

* Bermejuela ('' Chondrostoma arcasii'') * Common toad (''

Bufo bufo The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (''Bufo bufo'', from Latin ''bufo'' "toad"), is a frog found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, and some Mediterranean islands), in ...

'') * Runner toad (''

Bufo calamita The natterjack toad (''Epidalea calamita'') is a toad native to sandy and heathland areas of Europe. Adults are 60–70 mm in length, and are distinguished from common toads by a yellow line down the middle of the back and parallel paratoid g ...

'') * Spanish painted frog ( ''Discoglosus'' cf. ''jeanneae'') * European tree frog (''

Hyla arborea The European tree frog (''Hyla arborea'') is a small tree frog. As traditionally defined, it was found throughout much of Europe, Asia and northern Africa,Frost, Darrel R. ''Amphibian Species of the World''. Allen Press, Inc., 1985, p. 126. but b ...

'') * Spanish spadefoot toad ('' Pelobates cultripes'') * Common parsley frog (''

Pelodytes punctatus The common parsley frog (''Pelodytes punctatus'') is a species of frog in the genus '' Pelodytes''. It lives in the Iberian region in south-western Europe. Description The common parsley frog (''Pelodytes punctatus'') is a very small and sle ...

'') * Perez's frog (''

Rana perezi The Perez's frog, also known as Iberian waterfrog, Iberian green frog, or Coruna frog (''Pelophylax perezi'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is native to southern France, Portugal, Spain, and has been introduced to the Canary an ...

'') * Lizard ( Lacertidae indeterm.) * Ladder snake (cf. ''

Elaphe scalaris The ladder snake (''Zamenis scalaris'') is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to southwestern Europe. Distribution The geographic range of the ladder snake includes Portugal, Spain, southern France a ...

'') * Water snake (''

Natrix ''Natrix'' is a genus of Old World snakes found across Eurasia (although the range of ''Natrix tessellata'' extends into Egypt and those of '' N. astreptophora'' and '' N. maura'' into north-west Africa) in the subfamily Natricinae of the famil ...

'' sp.)

Birds

* Greylag goose ('' Anser anser'') * Ruddy shelduck ('' Tadorna ferruginea'') * Northern pintail ('' Anas acuta'') * Gadwall ('' Anas strepera'') * Common merganser ('' Mergus merganser'') * Red-breasted merganser ('' Mergus serrator'') * Western swamphen ('' Porphyrio porphyrio'') * Eurasian coot ( ''Fulica'' cf. ''atra'') * Northern lapwing (''

Vanellus vanellus The northern lapwing (''Vanellus vanellus''), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tew-it, green plover, or (in Ireland and Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Eurosiberia. ...

'') * Great bustard (''

Otis tarda The great bustard (''Otis tarda'') is a bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus ''Otis''. It breeds in open grasslands and farmland from northern Morocco, South and Central Europe, to temperate Central and East Asia. European ...

'')

Soricomorphs, rodents and lagomorphs

* Musk shrews (''

Crocidura The genus ''Crocidura'' is one of nine genera of the shrew subfamily Crocidurinae. Members of the genus are commonly called white-toothed shrews or musk shrews, although both also apply to all of the species in the subfamily. With over 180 spec ...

'' sp.) * Topillo de las brechas ( ''Microtus'' (''Iberomys'') ''brecciensis'') * Southwestern water vole ( ''Arvicola'' aff. ''Sapidus'') * Wood mouse ( '' Apodemus '' aff. '' Sylvaticus '') * Rabbit ('' Oryctolagus'' sp.)

Carnivores

Panthera leo cf fossilis - radius - Ambrona

* Early Middle Pleistocene European cave hyena ( ''Crocuta crocuta'' aff. ''praespelaea'') * Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion ( ''Panthera leo'' cf. ''fossilis'') * Fox (''

Vulpes '' Vulpes '' is a genus of the sub-family Caninae. The members of this genus are colloquially referred to as true foxes, meaning they form a proper clade. The word " fox" occurs in the common names of all species of the genus, but also appea ...

'' sp.) * Mosbach's wolf ( ''Canis lupus'' cf. ''mosbachensis'')

Proboscides, perissodactyla and artiodactyla

* Ancient elephant with a septated nose (''

Palaeoloxodon antiquus The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...

platyrhynchus'') * Rhinoceros with a septated nose (''

'') * Torralba's horse ('' Equus caballus torralbae'') * European red deer (''

'') * Fallow deer ( ''Dama'' cf. ''dama'') * Roe Deer (''

Capreolus ''Capreolus'' is a genus of deer, the roe deer. Etymology English ''roe'' is from Old English ''ra'' or ''rá'', from ''raha'', from Proto-Germanic ''*raikhaz'', cognate to Old Norse ''ra'', Old Saxon ''reho'', Middle Dutch and Dutch ''ree'' ...

'' sp.) * Great-horned deer ( ''Megaloceros'' aff. ''Savini'') * Ancient bull ('' Bos antiquus'') or primitive bull (''

Bos primigenius The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene; ...

'')

Primates

* Heidelberg's man? (? ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' i ...

''). Without skeletal remains in the sites, human presence is identified by the lithic industry and the activity marks on elephant bones. The species is inferred only by correlation with the Sima de los Huesos site of Atapuerca, of similar age.

Paleoecology

The vegetation, identified by the pollen at different levels, shows the evolution of the paleoenvironment during the sedimentation of the same, which in general corresponds to fluvio-lacustrine media under a temperate climate, softer and more humid than the current one. For the lower sections of the sequence (AS1 to AS5) an initial environment is inferred with grasses, riparian trees (alder, willow and elm) and few pines, after which an environment of moorland with junipers, alternating, with an increase towards the end, with pine forests. The AS6 level is characterized by the almost exclusive domain of the pine forests, but on the roof, the return of the moorlands is finally reflected with junipers and grasses (Poaceae). The diatoms indicate that during the sedimentation of the AS4 and AS5 units the salinity increased in the lagoon and that the water layer was somewhat higher with respect to the previous units -the salts would be contributed by the sediments of the underwater Keuper facies that surround all area-. For the AS6 unit they show that a medium-high salinity is maintained, but with a lower water layer, decreasing until disappearing towards the roof of the unit. The ostracod ''Leucocythere mirabilis'', present throughout the sequence (AS1 to AS6), indicates oligotrophic water conditions. On the other hand, the salinity of the waters could not be very high, as indicated by the presence of certain ostracods. The set of frogs indicates a more benign environment than the current one, with less dry summers and less cold winters. The age (stage of ontogenetic development) of some specimens indicates that death occurred between March and summer, most likely in the spring. The bermejuela, the only fish found in these sites, indicates a small fluvial course or lagoon not very extensive. Some of the birds found are typical of lacustrine areas with thick marginal vegetation, but no remains of any diving species have appeared, indicating that the lagoon would be shallow, of shallow depth. Mammals indicate forest environments (''Cervus'', ''Dama'', ''Capreolus'') and open areas with meadows (''Microtus brecciensis'', ''Palaeoloxodon'', ''Stephanorhinus'', ''Bos'', ''Dama'', ''Capreolus''), with areas of abundant water (''Arvicola'', ''Palaeoloxodon'') and more temperate and humid climate than the current one.

Biochronology

Some Pleistocene mammals may provide some biochronologic resolution, and those represented in Torralba and Ambrona have the association and characteristics typical of mid-Middle

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, between 400 000 and 300 of Ionian age, which lasted from 781 000 to 126 000 years before the present). The most characteristic temporal marker is the

Arvicolinae The Arvicolinae are a subfamily of rodents that includes the voles, lemmings, and muskrats. They are most closely related to the other subfamilies in the Cricetidae (comprising the hamsters and New World rats and mice). Some authorities place ...

''Microtus'' (''I.'') ''brecciensis'', which in Ambrona presents some primitive characters, as does ''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'' and ''Bos primigenius'', prior to populations recorded in late-Middle Pleistocene sites. On the other hand, ''Arvicola'' aff. ''sapidus'', from Ambrona, presents traits that indicate an age after the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, coinciding with what is indicated by the presence of ''Palaeoloxodon''. Other sites, with a similar faunal association of mammals or the evolutionary status of the significant species, are those of Áridos (

Arganda del Rey Arganda del Rey () is a municipality and city of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. Geography Located in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, the city lies at roughly 613 metres above sea level, not far from the junction of the J ...

) and some terraces of the

Manzanares River The Manzanares () is a river in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, which flows from the Sierra de Guadarrama, passes through Madrid, and eventually empties into the Jarama river, which in turn is a right-bank tributary to the Tagus. In its ...

(

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

), Pinedo ( Toledo), El Higuerón (

Rincón de la Victoria Rincón de la Victoria () is a municipality in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is the municipality with the highest well-being in the province of Malaga, according to the Synthetic Indicator ...

, Province of Málaga) or Solana del Zamborino ( Fonelas, Province of Granada).

Taphonomy

The bone remains of large mammals are, in general, dispersed, eroded and fragmented, evidencing trawling by fluvial transport, although in clay or silty sediments there are usually elements in anatomical connection, with little or no transport (primary accumulation), and without predators or scavengers, even the skeleton of an elephant specimen (in the so-called "α" concentration) is practically complete. On the other hand, there is evidence of human manipulation in some elephant bones: certain fractures and cut marks by lytic instruments for dying. The abundant accumulations of elephant remains in Ambrona are similar to the modern sites popularly known as "

Elephants' graveyard An elephants' graveyard (also written elephant graveyard, elephant's graveyard, or elephants' cemetery) is a place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age. According to this legend, ...

s". In these places, close to water sources, corpses tend to accumulate, mainly elephants, but also other mammals, and have been well studied in African parks. In this environment trampling and fragmentation of exposed or semi-buried remains by elephants or other mammals occurs, which continue to go to the water sources. In Ambrona, the elephant mortality curve also fits into this model, seems to indicate deaths due to natural causes and does not present the typical bias due to selective hunting. From the excavations of Howell in Ambrona, the alignment of a defense and five long elephant bones of difficult interpretation have been described and in which it has been wanted to see, without any justification, some type of ritual. Elephants are the most represented mammals in all the fossiliferous levels, except in the AS6 levels of Ambrona (middle member), in which only horse remains appear, and Va de Torralba (upper complex), in which the horse is clearly predominant over the rest.

Archeology

Lithic industry

The lithic industry recovered from these sites has been very numerous, although in relation to the excavated volumes it can be considered scarce. It corresponds to the late

primitive or middle-ancient Acheulian, dated in the «full»

. The typology is diverse:

s, cleavers,

racloir In archaeology, a racloir, also known as ''racloirs sur talon'' (French for scraper on the platform), is a certain type of flint tool made by prehistoric peoples. It is a type of side scraper distinctive of Mousterian assemblages. It is created ...

s, denticulates, perforators, back knife or burins, among others. The materials are very varied:

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, from different origins, some transported from long distances (flint and quartzite) and others taking advantage of those available in the area (limestone and quartz). Between 20% and 65% of the pieces, according to the levels, they seem not to be eroded, while the rest show signs of light bearing, secondary accumulation, with few elements very rolled. There is no evidence of ''in situ'' manufacture, only of secondary retouching, and mainly on quartzite elements.

Bone industry

The existence or not of bone industry from bones and elephant defenses in these sites is very controversial. On the one hand, Villa and collaborators, based on the taphonomic analysis of the types of breaks and superficial alterations of the bones deny the existence of bone industry, at least for the Ambrona site, leaving Torralba with indetermination. In the deposits, more than fifty tips of young elephant tusks have been collected, after almost a century of excavations, which these authors interpret as a result of the natural break during the activity of the animals in the barking of trees or the digging of the ground looking for water, as is the case with today's elephants. On the other hand, Aguirre, among others, maintains that it is very probable a certain rudimentary industry of trihedral and other bone elements endowed with points and edges. Likewise, Aguirre interprets the tips of ivory of defenses as possible soft

hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...

s, selected and purposely prepared by man for use in lithic carving. These affirmations are based on direct experimentation with current elephant bones and comparing the results with the breaking and polishing marks of some bone elements of the sites, with sharpness and with the percussion polishing marks at the tips of the defenses, as well as in the relative abundance of these last ones against complete defenses.

Paleontological Museum

Palaeoloxodon antiquus - recreación Ambrona

There is a small

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

built directly on the site, which shows, ''in situ'', part of the material as it was found. It was devised by Aguirre in 1963, for which Howell reserved an area of the excavations from which the fossils found were not extracted. Aguirre and Echaide designed the project, which was completed in November of the same year. It was the first museum of its kind to be opened in Spain. Ten years later Aguirre obtained, in addition, that a road was made that facilitated a route of tourist-cultural purpose between the Nacional II, the Museo aqueológico de Ambrona and

Sigüenza Sigüenza () is a city in the Serranía de Guadalajara comarca, Province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. History The site of the ancient ''Segontia'' ('dominating over the valley') of the Celtiberian Arevaci, now called ('old to ...

. In 1985, laboratories and a public exhibition room were built, showing material that was deposited in other museums. Subsequently, the unrealistic figure of a straight-tusked elephant at its natural size was incorporated into the exterior of the museum.

Other exhibitions

* In addition to the aforementioned Museo aqueológico de Ambrona, they house and exhibit material from these sites in the

, the

and the Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid.

References

{{coord, 41, 09, 36, N, 2, 29, 54.622, W, region:ES-CL_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Archaeological sites in Castile and León Prehistoric sites in Spain Lower Paleolithic Archaeological cultures Middle Pleistocene Paleontology in Spain Miño de Medinaceli Buildings and structures in Medinaceli Buildings and structures in the Province of Soria