Hotel California

During the 2006 dig, it was decided to excavate another open air settlement, Hotel California. The Atapuerca Research team has prospected the entire Sierra de Atapuerca and documented a large number of open air settlements. They have been located by roaming the countryside in search of prehistoric evidence. The prospectors line up and conducts sweeps together to detect tools, ceramics, pathways, silos, wells, buildings, etc. After they record large amounts of data about the locations, an attempt is made to relate the sites to each other each. This is how we reconstruct the movements of past societies, their central and secondary points, their defence positions, hunting vantage points, etc.

Hotel California, a Middle and Lower Palaeolithic site set above the banks of the Pico River, was visited repeatedly for occasional activities. Like the Hundidero site, it is near a watercourse, both visited often by Neanderthals over long periods of time, but only for isolated activities such as hunting, gathering etc. All the settlements are on or beside outcrops of raw material. It must be stressed that we have not just surveyed the Sierra de Atapuerca itself, but also 17 surrounding municipalities including Ibeas de Juarros, Arlanzón, Atapuerca, Castrillo del Val, Quintanapalla, Rubena. These studies have defined 181 prehistoric archaeological sites, including Valle de las Orquídeas, Hundidero and Hotel California.

Open air settlements like Hotel California are teaching us where the activities (hunting, gathering, carving, agriculture, grazing, etc.), were done by the human groups who visited Gran Dolina, Galería, Cueva del Mirador and indeed any of the other cave sites in this large area.