Atapuerca | |
|---|---|
Municipality and town | |
| View of Atapuerca, 2009 | |
| Municipal location of Atapuerca in Burgos province | |
| Country | Spain |
| Autonomous community | Castile and León |
| Province | Burgos |
| Comarca | Alfoz de Burgos |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Raquel Torrientes Burgos (People's Party) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 24.75 km2 (9.56 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 953 m (3,127 ft) |
| Population (2018) [1] | |
| • Total | 172 |
| • Density | 6.9/km2 (18/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 09199 |
| Website | www |
Atapuerca (Spanish: [ataˈpweɾka] ) is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. It encompasses the Archaeological Site of Atapuerca and is famous for its prehistoric archaeological sites. [2] The municipality is made of two villages: Atapuerca (seat or capital) and Olmos de Atapuerca.
The village is the home of an Experimental Archaeology Centre (CAREX). The village also plays host to an annual cross country running event—the Cross de Atapuerca—which attracts over 2000 runners each year. [3]
Atapuerca is on the French Way (Spanish : Camino Francés) of the Camino de Santiago. For a while the Spanish Army had an armoured tank training facility nearby.
The massif just outside of town was the site of the Battle of Atapuerca in 1054.
In 1899, construction of a railway unveiled several significant archaeological sites at Atapuerca. [2] The railway proved uneconomic and closed in the twentieth century.
On November 30, 2000, Atapuerca was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is unique in Europe in allowing archaeologists to follow the evolution of the first human beings to inhabit the European continent.
According to the 2005 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 195 inhabitants.
Apart from the typical dryland farming of the region, the municipality now has the economic resources generated because of the presence of the archaeological site and its associated services. 15% of the active population have a job related to tourism; since the 1990s this "tertiarization" of their economy has reversed depopulation, rejuvenating the population and placing the average age in 42 years. [4] Directly related, the creation of employment that has been derived from this type of actions, has had a positive social impact in society. [5]
Burgos is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos.
Castile and León is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983 by merging the provinces of the historic region of León: León, Zamora and Salamanca, with those of Old Castile : Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid. The provinces of Santander and Logroño, which until then had been included in the "Old Castile" administrative division, opted out of this merger and formed the new Autonomous Communities of Cantabria and La Rioja respectively. Condado de Treviño and La Puebla de Arganzón, the two municipalities that make up the Treviño enclave, are geographically surrounded by the neighboring Basque Country Autonomous Community, but belong to Castile and León.
The Province of Burgos is a province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia, Cantabria, Vizcaya, Álava, La Rioja, Soria, Segovia, and Valladolid. Burgos is the province of Spain that has borders with most provinces. Its capital is the city of Burgos.
Tizimín Municipality is a municipality in the Mexican state of Yucatán. The municipality is located in the north-east of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and it is the largest municipality in the state with a territory that is 11% of the total area of the state. As of 2005 it also has the second largest population of any municipality in the state, the largest being Mérida and the third largest being Valladolid.
Homo antecessor is an extinct species of archaic human recorded in the Spanish Sierra de Atapuerca, a productive archaeological site, from 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene. Populations of this species may have been present elsewhere in Western Europe, and were among the first to settle that region of the world, hence the name. The first fossils were found in the Gran Dolina cave in 1994, and the species was formally described in 1997 as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, supplanting the more conventional H. heidelbergensis in this position. H. antecessor has since been reinterpreted as an offshoot from the modern human line, although probably one branching off just before the modern human/Neanderthal split.
Belorado is a village and municipality in Spain, belonging to the Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. It has a population of approximately 2,100 inhabitants. It is also known for being a city in the Way of Saint James.
The Atapuerca Mountains is a karstic hill formation near the village of Atapuerca in the province of Burgos, northern Spain.
Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras is a Spanish paleoanthropologist and author known for his work in the Atapuerca Archaeological Site.
Entrena is a municipality of La Rioja, (Spain), located near the capital Logroño. Its population in January 2010 was 1,503 over an area of 21.03 square kilometres. The nucleus is placed at an altitude of 558 metres. It is bordered by Navarrete and Lardero to the north; Albelda de Iregua to the east; Nalda, Sorzano and Sojuela to the south; and Medrano to the west.
Arlanzón is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain.

Ibeas de Juarros is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 1,192 inhabitants.
Rabé de las Calzadas is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 154 inhabitants.
Santa Olalla de Bureba is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 33 inhabitants.
Lubián is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2018 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 302 inhabitants. It is one of the few bilingual municipalities in the province con Zamora. Its inhabitants habitually use Spanish as well as Galician.
Eudald Carbonell i Roura is a Spanish archaeologist, anthropologist and paleontologist.
The Cross Internacional de Atapuerca is an annual cross country running competition that takes place in Atapuerca, Spain. Established in 2004, it takes place in early November and is among the first major competitions of the cross country season. In its initial years, it was usually the first permit meeting in the European Athletic Association's cross country season, and it now begins the IAAF Permit Meeting series, having replaced the Cross de Soria event in 2010.
Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez was a Spanish paleontologist, known for his works at archaeological site of Atapuerca, whose excavations he directed from 1978 until his retirement in 1990. He received the Prince of Asturias Award in 1997.
The Museum of Human Evolution is situated on the south bank of the river Arlanzón, in the Spanish city of Burgos. It is located roughly 16 kilometers west of the Sierra de Atapuerca, the location of some of the most important human fossil finds in the world. In addition, the Archaeological site of Atapuerca, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000, has yielded some of the exhibits at the museum.
Castrojeriz or Castrogeriz is a locality and municipality located in the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León (Spain), the comarca of Odra-Pisuerga, the judicial district of Burgos, head of the town council of the same name and former head of the Castrojeriz judicial district.
The archaeological site of Atapuerca is located in the province of Burgos in the north of Spain and is notable for its evidence of early human occupation. Bone fragments from around 800,000 years ago, found in its Gran Dolina cavern, provide the oldest known evidence of hominid settlement in Western Europe and of hominid cannibalism anywhere in the world.