Changes

The Lower Paleolithic covers a vast period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. As illustrated in the figure, it spanned from 1,350,000 years ago to roughly 130,000 years BC, the period which is generally considered to mark the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic. The Lower Paleolithic coincides with the geological age of both the Lower (or possibly older) and Middle Pleistocene Epochs. The Lower Pleistocene had a warm climate similar to today´s Mediterranean environment in which the regular flow of water from rivers (greater in the Atlantic watershed than in the Mediterranean watershed) deposited sediment and produced fluvial terraces. The fauna typical of this time period was similar to that of the present-day African Savannah: large mammals such as elephants, panthers, saber-tooth tigers, hippopotamus, zebras, and hyenas. The Middle Pleistocene was marked by glaciations which transformed ecosystems and gave rise to mammals such as cave bears, rhinoceros, and mammoths.

The oldest human fossil remains found on the Iberian Peninsula were discovered in sima del Elefante, (in the archaeological site of [https://www.atapuerca.org/es/ver/Video-del-Proyecto-Atapuerca Atapuerca], Burgos) in the form of a jawbone from an undetermined hominid dating from 1,200,000 years ago. If the fossil were of Homo habilis origin, it might have arrived on the Iberian Peninsula by way of the Strait of Gibraltar. Another hypothesis is that the fossil could belong to a new species called Homo antecessor, which may have possibly evolved from individuals of Homo erectus and settled on the Iberian Peninsula (at Gran Dolina, TD6, Atapuerca) after having migrated from Asia around 800,000 years ago. However, it is important to note that fossilised human remains of, as yet, undetermined origin have also been unearthed at Venta Micena in Orce (Granada) and in cueva Victoria, in Cartagena (Murcia).