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Atapuerca (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Last modified: 2019-01-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: atapuerca | burgos |
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Presentation of Atapuerca

The municipality of Atapuerca (208 inhabitants in 2010; 2,475 ha) is located 20 km of Burgos.

Atepuerca is world-famous for the archaeologic site of Atapuerca (website), registered in 2000 on the UNESCO World Heritage List:

The caves of the Sierra de Atapuerca contain a rich fossil record of the earliest human beings in Europe, from nearly one million years ago and extending up to the Common Era. They represent an exceptional reserve of data, the scientific study of which provides priceless information about the appearance and the way of life of these remote human ancestors.
The earliest and most abundant evidence of humankind in Europe is to be found in the caves of the Sierra de Atapuerca. Criterion v The fossil remains in the Sierra de Atapuerca constitute an exceptional reserve of information about the physical nature and the way of life of the earliest human communities in Europe.
[...]
The earliest fossil hominid remains in Europe, the Pleistocene deposits, from around 800,000 BP as established by palaeomagnetic analysis, were found in the Gran Dolina site in the Sierra de Atapuerca, one of the Trinchera del Ferrocarril group. They are associated with simple stone tools of the pre-Acheulean type, which is consistent with the dating of the earliest levels of this site. Also in the Trinchera del Ferrocarril group of sites are those known as Tres Simas. The oldest human remains from the Galer’a site have been dated to between 200,000 and 400,000 BP, associated with Acheulean stone tools. Similar dates have been established for human skeletal remains from the Sima de los Huesos in the Cueva Mayor. The absence of herbivores consumed by humans in this site, where the remains of no fewer than 32 humans have been discovered, suggests that this may have been a mortuary site. The relatively large sample, largely of adolescents and young adults, has permitted a number of important studies to be carried out on the palaeopathology of this population, the growth and development of individuals, and their average size. [...]

Ivan Sache, 15 March 2011


Symbols of Atapuerca

The flag and arms of Atapuerca are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 21 January 1999 by the Burgos Provincial Government, signed on 1 March 1999 by the President of the Government, and published on 11 March 1999 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 48, p. 2,533 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Quadrangular flag with the colours arranged horizontally. Red, 0.25; thin golden stripe, 0.05; green, 0.40; thin silver stripe, 0.05; blue, 0.25. In the middle of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Gules an escutcheon [?, rather a castle] of Castile masoned sable port and windows azure in chief the Cross of the Sovereign Order of Malta, 1b. Vert two spears argent per saltire ensigned with a six-pointed star or and a scallop of the same, 3. Azure a rocky place [peñascal] argent and a rising sun or with human face and radiating. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

Ivan Sache, 15 March 2011