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Roberto Sáez v. 20/01/2015 nutcrackerman.com

Main fossils from the Sima de los Huesos

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Cranium 5, nicknamed ‘Miguelón’ It belonged to a 35 year-old male. He suffered great pain in the mouth due to a blow that broke a tooth, which caused a serious infection and inflammation in the left side of the face.

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Humerus 2 It belonged to an adult male about 1.75 m. tall. It appeared in 3 parts and is one of the few complete bones found in Sima de los Huesos. The epiphysis are fused to the bone, indicating that his growth was completed.

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Hand X It was reconstructed from 22 bones of adults. It is very similar to the hand in modern humans, but with key differences such as the wider distal phalanges. This hand suggests the ability to handle objects with high precision.

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Pelvis, nicknamed Elvis It belonged to a man who lived more than 45 years. It is the most complete pelvis in the fossil record. The key feature is its width, suggesting to belong to a very robust man. He was 1.70 m tall and had a weight of 100 kg of pure muscle.

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Tibia 1 It belonged to an adult male who was 1.74 m tall. It shows big thickness of the bone wall, indicating that the individual was very robust.

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Foot, nicknamed ‘Vicente del Bosque’ It belonged to an adult male who was 1.73 m tall and had a weight of 90 kg. It is the right foot, reconstructed from all the bones found of the ankle, heel and instep of the same individual.

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Excalibur It is a handaxe made of red quartzite. It is the only tool found in the Sima de los Huesos and its material is very singular, not common in the area. Its discovery in 1998 gave some light to the potential cause of the large-scale assemblage of bodies in the Sima. The Atapuerca scientists think that Sima is a deliberate assemblage of corpses and the tool is associated to this act. This would imply to be one the oldest evidence of symbolic or ritual (perhaps funerary) behavior in the Prehistory.

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On June 20th 2014, the analysis of 17 crania from the Sima de los Huesos was published in Science, including 7 new specimens. Let’s hope that they all will be exhibited soon! Photo: Javier Trueba /

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