Spain has a long and colorful history – it is not always as easy to keep track of peoples and cultures that have come and gone – or remained – through the ages. The Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited for at least 1.2 million years. FindYourSpain has put together a brief overview of Spanish history – which is meant to be helpful when traveling in this wonderful country – either from home or when we can once again go where we want to, whenever we choose. The first part of this series “Peoples and kingdoms in Iberia” deals with prehistoric times up to approx. 4000 BC.
The oldest traces of human settlement known in the Iberian Peninsula have been unearthed in Atapuerca near the northern Spanish city of Burgos in the region of Castile and León. Researchers say that this area is the only place in Europe where traces of all early human species known on the European continent have been found.
In Atapuerca, archaeologists have found what is often referred to as “the bone pit” (Sima de los huesos in Spanish), with several thousand skeletal remains of people who, strangely enough, lived in various prehistoric periods. In areas that today belong to Spain, researchers have identified a number of early human species, including Homo pre-antecessor, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
So far, fossilized remains have been discovered by humans who lived as far back as about 1.2 million years ago, but the oldest stone tools we know from the same area are about 1.4 million years old. Just to put the timeline in perspective: Modern man (Homo sapiens) originated about 200,000 years ago.
New discovery fills gap in Atapuerca’s history of human evolution or visit the museum in Burgos dedicated to the development of the earliest peoples in the country: Museo de la Evolución Humana. Or, follow this link: https://www.atapuerca.org/.
On the Iberian Peninsula, ancestors have also left behind some of humanity’s earliest works of art. In several places in Spain, as a visitor, you can come face to face with art created by Neanderthals something like 65,000 years ago.
The oldest cave paintings discovered so far, are also found in Atapuerca near Burgos. Another place you can get an impression of Neanderthal everyday life is in Altamira in Cantabria, in the far north of Spain. Traces of artists from prehistoric times have also been discovered in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, for example in the Cueva de los Aviones near the port city of Cartagena. Here, archaeologists have, among other things, found necklaces made from shells and color pigments that they believe are at least 115,000 years old.
This far back in time, we are talking about people who belonged to hunter gatherer communities, but farming also started early on the Iberian Peninsula. From Andalusia, which today accounts for a significant share of Spain’s agricultural production, we know that humans cultivated the land as early as the 6th millennium BC.
People on the Iberian Peninsula also knew how to extract and recover copper as far back as the first half of the 5th millennium BC. In southeastern Spain, more specifically in Cerro Virtud in Almería, the earliest copper mine in Western Europe’s has been found. Such early metal extraction is startling, and the only other traces of such early mining elsewhere in Europe are found in the Balkans.
Remains of several early types of people have been found in Atapuerca.
In Altamira and several other places in the north there are beautiful cave paintings.
Asturias has several caves with paintings that date back as far as 20,000 BC.
In the Cueva de los Aviones, Murcia, shell jewelry and remains of Neanderthals have been found.
In Andalusia there are both caves with paintings and early signs of agriculture.
In the Basque Country, close to the Pyrenees, cave paintings have been found that are up to 25,000 years old.
Discovered artifacts, relics and art can provide some insight into the earliest peoples and their way of life on the Iberian Peninsula before we have written sources. But we do not know for sure where the earliest peoples who established known civilizations in the area came from. Some probably found their way over land from the North or the East, probably with a number of stops along the way, others must have come from the South across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Among the earliest peoples we know of who settled in Iberia were the Vascones – today known as the Basques. No one knows for sure where the Basques originated or exactly when they found their way to the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque language, Euskara, remains a mystery to linguists. It does not resemble any other known language. Basques constitute an indigenous people who have, remarkably, managed to survive in the mountainous landscape between present-day Spain and France. Geography, culture and language have all contributed to the Basques retaining their uniqueness for thousands of years.
In the next article, we will look at the peoples and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula over the next thousand years, that is, from about 4000 BC to 3000 BC. Among other things, we embark on an early urban culture that emerged in the middle of the 3000s BC. – long before the Phoenicians, Celts and Romans set foot on the peninsula.
Harry B., Find Your Spain!
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