| 350.000 YEARS AGO |
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 HOW WERE THEY? WHERE DID THEY LIVE? HOW DID THEY LIVE? |
THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF LA SAFOR. LOWER PAEOLITHIC The lower levels in Cova de Bolomor (Tavernes de la Valldigna) have provided with archeological materials which prove the human presence in this area some 350.000 years ago. |
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 HOW WERE THEY?: HOMO HEIDELBERGENSISThe Homo heidelbergensis had the physical features that inherited from the Homo ergaster, but its skull capacity was greater, between 1 100 and 1 400 cm3 in the settlement of the Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca. The body shape was big and strong: the medium size of a man can be placed between 1.75 metres and 90 kg of weight. The difference in height between sexes must not have been greater than 10 centimetres. The head had some morphological features different from ours: lack of chin, existence of a thick bone ledge over the eye sockets, a prominence in the middle of the face with a wide nasal hole and a low frontal part.
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| WHERE DID THEY LIVE?: GENERALLY IN CAVES Mobility was very high and the territories extraordinarialy wide. That is the reason why hominids preferibly settled in the territories linked to big natural corridors, or the natural ways of comunication, avoiding excesively mountainous environments, with very specialized biomasses. The concentration places of huge herds (river passes, boggy or lagoon areas, or marsh environments) were specially haunted looking for hunt, carrion and shelter. The structures built in short settlements are unknown in our area, but the ones excavated in other European sites show a scarce building effort. The absence of fire did not make easier the concentration of activities. |
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| HOW THEY LIVED?: OF THE HARVESTING, THE CARRION AND THE HUNTING VERY LITTLE SPECIALIZED Scarce and the nourishing possibilitis were as much varied as the environment allowed. Small animals, such as turtles, rabbits, mouses, reptiles or insects, fruits and vegetal food, and, eventually, the hunting of any medium or big size herbivorous, or the carrion of death bodies left by other carnivorous or by the big animals found after their natural death. The transportation of these animal remains to the caves shows us some social consumption models of meat and fat, probably looking for protection against other carnivorous and animal fed on carrion. They did not know fire elaboration and the bone remains were very badly broken with the aim of obtaining the marrow, rich in fat. The space inhabitated does not seem to have been structured and the time investment in the construction of folding shields or other kind of shelter structures must have been very reduced. It does not seem that they buried their death bodies, nor they used objects with a symbolic value or personal ornament. |
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