iphes

University researchers from all over the world excavate together in the Abric Romaní in Catalonia in this 35th campaign

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. 

The archaeological site known as Abric Romaní is currently being excavated for the 31^st year in order to continue documenting and understanding how Neanderthals lived and organised communities in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The archaeologist, palaeontologist and Director of excavations, Eudald Carbonell, has explained to the CNA that this campaign will be “very interesting” as the dig will be in the level corresponding to the time when the Neanderthals lived “their maximum expansion period”. Carbonell, who is one of the directors of Atapuerca site (where the Homo Antecessor was discovered), leads a team of 20 including research staff and doctoral students. The site is located some 50 kilometres west of Barcelona city and is open for the public to visit.

The Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) is one of the 3 centres with the highest scientific production internationally in its field. It is directed by Eudald Carbonell, the palaeontologist who has been directing the Atapuerca site since its discovery. Atapuerca was where the oldest human specimens in Europe were found, the so-called Homo Antecessor. The IPHES started its activities in 2006 but due to its increasing relevance it needed more room. Since last June the institute has moved to a new building in the Sescelades Campus of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in southern Catalonia. On Friday the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, officially unveiled the facilities. The new building cost €6 million and it has 3,000 square metres to host 62 members of staff.