Atapuerca, Research for the XXI century

The Cervantes Institute is pleased to present in Australia the cycle of conferences "Atapuerca, investigations for the 21st century" in collaboration with the guest Robert Sala Ramos, director of IPHES and professor of Prehistory at the URV and in collaboration with the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales. Atapuerca was discovered in the seventies and was confirmed as a key site for human evolution in the eighties and nineties. Today it is a 40-year research project and has benefited from the work of three generations of researchers. Its wealth includes the recovery of the oldest human fossils in Western Europe. It is a key site for the reconstruction of the evolution of human behavior in Europe in various aspects such as technology, ecological adaptation, economy, self-awareness and complexity. Atapuerca is not a unique site: it covers nine sites that cover all Pleistocene times, from the early Pleistocene to the Holocene archeology. Therefore, it is also a geological record that allows us to date the main problems of human evolution in Western Eurasia, including many clues that also affect the complete evolution of our Homo genus. Our guest expert, the archaeologist and researcher Robert Salas will present the current problems that are being worked on and the topics of interest to develop and participate in their solution during the next decades. The objective of the research team is to participate in the definition of current paradigms in human evolution.