Tools that may be a million years old discovered near Tarragona
50 extremely old flint tools have been unearthed at an archaeological campaign near Tarragona, a city 80 kilometres south of Barcelona. The tools are thought to be between 800,000 and a million years old, according to a report issued by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleo-Ecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), the organisation at the head of the excavation. The site near Tarragona “contains the oldest files on human evolution in Catalonia and on the Iberian Peninsula” of which the potential is still unknown, stated Co-director of the excavation and researcher at IPHES, Josep Vallverdú. The area in which the tools were found is known as La Mina – the area was also host to, along with the manmade artefacts, many animal remains. These include skeletal remains and coprolites, most notably those of deer, horses, cattle, rhinoceros, and even hyenas. A more extensive area is set to be excavated at La Mina, in order to introduce the area to the academic and EU university field.