Who the first inhabitants of Western Europe were, what their physical characteristics were, and when and where they lived are some of the pending questions in the study of the settlement of Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene epoch. The available paleoanthropological information from Western Europe is limited and confined to the Iberian Peninsula. Now, paleoanthropologists have found the fragments of the hominin midface at the Sima del Elefante site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Dated to between 1.4 million and 1.1 million years ago, the fossil represents the earliest human face of Western Europe identified thus far.
Archaeological excavation work at the Sima del Elefante, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Image credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA.
“It is suggested that Eurasia was first settled by hominins at least 1.8 million years ago,” said Dr. Rosa Huguet, a researcher at the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, and colleagues.
“Evidence of early hominin settlement in Western Europe has been limited to extremely fragmented fossil samples from the Iberian Peninsula, providing few clues about the appearance and taxonomy of these hominins.”
“Fossils from a Spanish site, dated from approximately 850,000 years ago, were determined to be from Homo antecessor, a species of early people with a slender midface resembling modern humans.”
“In 2007, a 1.2 to 1.1-million-year-old hominin jawbone (ATE9-1) was found in the Sima del Elefante site in northern Spain but could not be conclusively assigned to Homo antecessor.”
In new research, the authors examined the fossil remains of a hominin midface from the Sima del Elefante site.
Labeled ATE7-1, the fragments consist of a substantial part of the maxilla and the zygomatic bone from the left side of an adult individual.
The researchers used both physical evidence and 3D imaging techniques to reconstruct the fossil fragments, estimating their age to be between 1.4 and 1.1 million-years-old.
They also discovered additional archaeological remains: stone tools and the remains of butchered animals.
“These practices demonstrate that the first Europeans had an intimate understanding of available animal resources and knew how to systematically exploit them,” Dr. Huguet said.
According to the scientists, the ATE7-1 fossils do not display ‘modern’ mid-face features found in Homo antecessor fossils, but bear some resemblance to the Homo erectus lineage.
They provisionally assigned the fossils to Homo aff. erectus, indicating an affinity to Homo erectus, pending further evidence.
This discovery could suggest that Western Europe was populated by at least two Homo species during the Early Pleistocene period: Homo aff. erectus, and later Homo antecessor.
“The evidence is still insufficient for a definitive classification, which is why it has been assigned to Homo aff. erectus,” said Dr. María Martinón-Torres, a researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana and University College London.
“This designation acknowledges ATE7-1’s affinities with Homo erectus while leaving open the possibility that it may belong to another species.”
“Our discovery proves that at least two different species of human populated Western Europe during the Pleistocene era and it provides fascinating insight into the evolution of the genus Homo.”
“While they are small in size, our pioneering analysis of the facial fragments has hugely enriched our understanding of the origins and dynamics of the continent’s earliest Europeans.”
“Further research and fossil samples are needed to investigate the relationship between these populations and further refine their classifications,” the researchers concluded.
Their paper was published this month in the journal Nature.
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R. Huguet et al. The earliest human face of Western Europe. Nature, published online March 12, 2025; doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08681-0
