Does Europe's Human Story Begin in This Spanish Cave?

What is the oldest human DNA ever found, and why did it come out of a cave in Spain? At Sima de los Huesos in the Atapuerca mountains near Burgos, scientists recovered 400,000 year old DNA from the bones of 28 individuals, and the result contradicted every skeleton in the pit. This is the story of the Pit of Bones, the hand axe called Excalibur, the child named Benjamina, and the genetic discovery that rewrote the Neanderthal family tree. Discovery 1: A shaft 13 metres deep, and 28 bodies at the bottom of it Discovery 2: One hand axe, and nothing else in the entire chamber Discovery 3: A child who should not have lived to ten Discovery 4: ??? Want your own surname decoded in a full documented report? Visit https://namedbyhistory.com Sources and Further Research: Meyer, M. et al.: A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de los Huesos. Nature (2013) Meyer, M. et al.: Nuclear DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins. Nature (2016) Carbonell, E., Mosquera, M.: The emergence of a symbolic behaviour, the sepulchral pit of Sima de los Huesos. Comptes Rendus Palevol (2003) Gracia, A. et al.: Craniosynostosis in the Middle Pleistocene human Cranium 14 from the Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, Spain. PNAS (2009) Arsuaga, J. L. et al.: How the Sima de los Huesos was won. The Anatomical Record (2024) Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, published research summaries #atapuerca #ancientdna #spain