Early humans were living in the Atapuerca region by 800,000 years ago. They shared the landscape with a variety of creatures, including bison, mammoths and rhinoceroses. Scientists have uncovered the bones of a variety of animals from this period that show signs of having been butchered by hominids, who hunted and scavenged animal carcasses for food.

Layer 6 Illustration by Mauricio Antón

The environment of the Atapuerca region 800,000 years ago supported a rich diversity of life. The climate at this time was mild, and a river flowed through the area, as shown above.

Layer 6 (TD 6)
The 800,000-year-old sediments from Layer 6 (also known as TD6) have yielded a richer assortment of fossils than any other layer at Gran Dolina. So far, 25 different types of animals—as well as the earliest European hominids—have been identified.

Because this layer supports all the others above it, researchers could remove only a small portion for study. The sediments in Layer 6 consist primarily of sandy mudstones.

How old is Layer 6?
The Earth’s magnetic field periodically reverses: north becomes south and south becomes north. These switches occur sporadically many thousands or even millions of years apart. Analysis of the magnetic compounds in Layer 6 indicates that the sediments are magnetically reversed compared to today’s soils and thus date back to before the most recent reversal almost 800,000 years ago.