New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)

2017/03/13 by Joan Daura, Montserrat Sanz, Juan Luís Arsuaga +14 · 5 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1619040114

openalex publication_date 2017/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Significance We describe a recently discovered cranium from the Aroeira cave in Portugal dated to around 400 ka. This specimen is the westernmost Middle Pleistocene cranium of Europe and is one of the earliest fossils from this region associated with Acheulean tools. Unlike most other Middle Pleistocene finds, which are of uncertain chronology, the Aroeira 3 cranium is firmly dated to around 400 ka and was in direct association with abundant faunal remains and stone tools. In addition, the presence of burnt bones suggests a controlled use of fire. The Aroeira cranium represents a substantial contribution to the debate on the origin of the Neandertals and the pattern of human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene of Europe.

Citations

• Homo in the middle pleistocene: Hypodigms, variation, and species recognition
• A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
• The human cranium from Bodo, Ethiopia: evidence for speciation in the Middle Pleistocene?

Cited by

• Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
• The Emergence of Ranked Societies:
• Cochlear morphology of Indonesian Homo erectus from Sangiran
• New dating of the Matalascañas footprints provides new evidence of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 9-8) hominin paleoecology in southern Europe
• Cave of Aroeira [wikipedia]