In Spain, the excavation of a Neanderthal camp has been extended to 140 m²

In the Prado Vargas cave in the northern Spanish province of Burgos, archaeologists have expanded the excavation of sub-level 4D by a further 32 m². The total area of the Neanderthal layer that has now been excavated stands at 140 m².

During the 2026 season, the team uncovered more than 1,500 animal bones and stone artefacts. Researchers believe that around 46,000 years ago, this section of the cave was used as a large Neanderthal camp.

Details

The Prado Vargas Cave is situated in the Ojo Guareña karst complex near the village of Cornejo. The excavations are jointly led by Alfonso Benito from the Spanish National Research Centre for Human Evolution (CENIEH), Marta Navazo from the University of Burgos, and Rodrigo Alonso from the Museum of Human Evolution.

Work in 2026 focused on the entrance to the cave. According to CENIEH, the expansion of the excavation site makes Prado Vargas one of the most extensively studied Neanderthal cave sites.

Among the animal bones, remains of wild boar, horse, steppe bison, aurochs, fallow deer and red deer have been found. Many of the bones bear cuts and impact marks. Such marks are particularly common on limb bones, which is consistent with the butchering of carcasses and the splitting of long bones to extract bone marrow.

Around 95 per cent of the stone artefacts found were made of flint, with the remainder made of quartzite and quartz. The collection is dominated by sharp, unworked flakes, as well as scrapers, gouges and serrated tools.

Archaeologists make special mention of bone retouchers – fragments of long animal bones which Neanderthals used to refine the edges of stone tools. Taking into account finds from previous years at the site, around 100 such objects are already known. An earlier peer-reviewed study by Prado Vargas described 65 retouchers from Layer 4 in detail.

The researchers attribute this collection of finds to prolonged and recurring stays by Neanderthal groups from spring to late autumn over the course of several generations. This is an interpretation of the archaeological context, rather than a direct observation of the duration of a specific stay.

In the younger sub-layers 4A–AB, excavation of the Upper Palaeolithic layer has been completed. A hearth found here in 2025 is associated with early Homo sapiens groups in this part of inland Iberia. Preliminary dating of this layer suggests an age of around 35,000 years, though this requires further analysis.

Why this is important

The large exposed area of a single stratum allows archaeologists to study not only individual tools and bones, but also the spatial organisation of the site: where animals were butchered, where stone was worked, and how successive settlements overlapped.

Prado Vargas also provides an opportunity to compare the Neanderthal layer with the later presence of Homo sapiens in the same cave. This helps to reconstruct changes in population and land-use patterns during the late Middle and early Upper Palaeolithic.

However, the data from the 2026 season are presented in an official CENIEH report rather than in a separate peer-reviewed scientific article. Some of the conclusions, including the scale and seasonality of the camp, remain a working archaeological interpretation, which may be refined following laboratory analysis of the finds.

Source

Main source: CENIEH’s official report on the 2026 field season.

Context regarding bone retouchers: Alonso-García P., Navazo Ruiz M., Blasco R. ‘Use and selection of bone fragments in the north of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Palaeolithic: bone retouchers from level 4 of Prado Vargas’, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2020.