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ATE7-1 is the oldest hominin fossil discovered in Europe, estimated to be 1.4 million years in age. This partial face of an ancient hominin was discovered in Sima del Elefante site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain during the 2022 excavations [1][2][3].

ATE9-2 is a proximal hand phalanx, attributed to Homo sp. discovered in the Sima del Elefante Cave site in Atapuerca, Spain [1].

ATE9-1 is a mandible attributed to Homo sp. discovered in Sima del Elefante Cave site in Atapuerca, Spain in 2007 [1][2][3]. It was previously the oldest evidence of a hominin in Europe, with an age of 1.2 to 1.3 million years, until July 2022, when it was replaced by ATE7-1, whose age is estimated to be 1.4 million years [4][5][6]. 

Sima del Elefante (TE) is one of the main palaeoanthropological sites in the Sierra de Atapuerca archaeological cave complex [1][2], a UNESCO World Heritage site in Spain [3]. The Sima del Elefante site preserves a long Early to Middle Pleistocene sequence with Oldowan and Acheulean tools, as well as archaic Homo fossils in the lower levels [4][5][2]. It is also well known for the discovery of Europe’s oldest human fossils, including a 1.2 to 1.3 million-year-old mandible [4] and a hand phalanx [6], and more recently facial fragments estimated to be 1.4 million years old [7]. 

The Arbreda cave, contains important occupations of the Middle and Upper Palacolihic, enable us to accurately and clearly appreciate the differences between the two periods. The Middle Paleolithic is characterized by the use of native stones; quartz, quartzite and other stones found in the riverbed. In the Upper Paleolithic we highlighted the use of flints that carried from elsewhere.[1]