page_title: Torralba and Ambrona (archaeological site)
section_title: 1990–2002: Santonja and Pérez-González
hierarchical_section_title: Torralba and Ambrona (archaeological site) / History / 1990–2002: Santonja and Pérez-González
caption_attribution_description: Español: Yacimiento paleontológico (Pleistoceno medio) y arqueológico (Paleolítico inferior) de Ambrona (Soria, España). Las trincheras de las excavaciones se aprecian en primer plano y tras los edificios del museo in situ y de la exposición permanente. Nótese el cambio de coloración del terreno, de gris (A1 a A6) a más rojizo en los tramos superiores de la serie (A7). English: Paleontological (Middle Pleistocene) and archaeological (Lower Palaeolithic) site of Ambrona (Soria, Spain). The trenches of the excavations can be seen in the foreground and behind the in situ museum and the permanent exhibition buildings. Note the color change of the land, from gray (A1 to A6) to more reddish in the upper levels of the series (A7). This is a photo of an archaeological zone indexed in the Spanish heritage register of Bienes de Interés Cultural under the reference RI-55-0000446.
context_page_description: Torralba and Ambrona are two paleontological and archaeological sites that correspond to various fossiliferous levels with Acheulean lithic industry associated, at least about 350,000 years old. From these sites have been obtained fossils of large mammals, mainly elephants, with remains of nearly fifty individuals from each site, in addition to large bovines and horses. A type training model elephants' graveyard has been proposed, similar to the current Africans. They also show evidence of successive occupations by human beings, such as hunting station or, more likely, carrion and quartering. The sites, traditionally studied together, are about 3 km distant, and belong to the towns of Ambrona and Torralba del Moral.
  Known since the end of the 19th century, they were excavated first by the Marquis of Cerralbo between 1909 and 1914, later, in the early '60s and early '80s, by the American Francis Clark Howell with the collaboration of the paleontologist Emiliano Aguirre and later, in the '90s, new campaigns were carried out by Manuel Santonja and Alfredo Pérez-González.
context_section_description: As a result of the results of Howell and collaborators, in the following years, extensive discussions took place on some conclusions related to human behavior, mainly those related to active hunting or the use of bone instruments. In order to establish a precise formation model of the deposits, the archaeologist Manuel Santonja and the geologist Alfredo Pérez-González proposed and co-directed a new stage of excavations, focused mainly to establish with precision the geology and the detailed stratigraphy of the same. The approach was based on the realization, prior to the systematic excavation, of trial pits and sections for detailed stratigraphic analysis, since simultaneous excavation in large areas could lead to confusion among very similar facies, mixing levels that should be differentiated with this other method. The works began in the years 1990 and 1991, with the elaboration of surface geological studies complemented with some soundings, and the main excavation campaigns were carried out, this time only in Ambrona, the summers from 1993 to 2000, without interruption, taking place some complementary sampling and other trials between 2001 and 2002.
  The team had numerous specialists: Carmen Sesé and Enrique Soto (mammals), Paola Villa (taphonomy), Blanca Ruiz Zapata (palynology), Rafael Mora (area of Torralba, registry and cartography), Josep María Parés (paleomagnetism), Ángel Baltanás (ostracods), Ignacio Doadrio (fishes), Ascensión Pinilla (phytoliths), Borja Sanchiz (amphibians and reptiles), Antonio Sánchez Marco (birds), Juan M. Rodríguez de Tembleque, Joaquín Panera and Susana Rubio (archeology), Christophe Falguères (dating), Alfonso Benito Calvo (geology), C. Álvaro Chirveches, M. Vilà Margalef and Alexandra Vicent (consolidation and restoration). The excavations were carried out by a large number of archeology students, reaching over fifty in one of the campaigns.
  In Ambrona a total of 688 m² were excavated and some surveys and control tastings were carried out in Torralba. Some 975 lithic industry specimens were obtained, however, most paleontological remains were left unexploded, consolidated, covered again and protected to prevent spoilage and looting, in anticipation of a possible future extension of the museum exhibition in situ to a much larger extension of the site.
  The works were followed by numerous publications, highlighting an extensive monographic volume of the magazine Zona Arqueológica (vol.5, 2005).
caption: Aspect of the Ambrona site in 2012. The trenches of the excavations can be seen in the foreground and behind the Museum buildings.
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