Hunting tools dating back more than 100,000 years found in Spain

Researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid have found lithic tools in the Toriles Cave in Carrizosa (Ciudad Real), which reveal hunting and food preparation practices dating back over 100,000 years. The discovery, which the scientists have published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, provides new data on the life of those who lived on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Palaeolithic period.

A variety of stone tools have been identified that indicate a specialised use for obtaining meat and preparing plants. These findings suggest that the human groups of that time had an advanced knowledge of their environment and a complex social organisation.

The analysis of these tools not only provides information on the technology of these human groups but also on their eating habits, their social interactions and their ability to adapt to the climatic and ecological changes that characterised the Middle Pleistocene, a geological period that encompasses glaciations and the lowest temperatures on Earth.

According to the researchers, the findings allow us to understand how these humans devised tools to ensure their survival in a changing environment, which shows that they had some technological knowledge. They have also compared the tools with those from other contemporary sites, identifying behavioural patterns that connect the human groups in the area with other European populations of the Middle Palaeolithic period.

The Cueva de los Toriles was discovered in 2018 and covers periods from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. Two years later, fossil remains of a prehistoric badger species were found inside the cave, which allowed researchers to date the primitive use of the cave to a period ranging from the Upper Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene.