TD11, almost 2 metres deep, spans the period between 350,000 and 200,000 years. It has now been dug horizontally, yielding Mode 3 stone industry and fauna. We know that the groups who visited this level manufactured their tools here thanks to the discovery of remains of blocks from which tools were made and flakes. Digging is now underway at level TD10, dated at around 370,000 BP. Judging from the volume of stone remains and fauna that is emerging, the cave had intense usage and occupation. TD9 corresponds to a period when it was hard to enter Gran Dolina. It seems to be sterile, with no evidence of anthropic occupation- just bat dung. The 600,000 year old TD8, and TD7 levels contain remains of horses, wild boar, rhinoceros, roe deer, bison, etc., but just one quartz flake at the latter level.

The big surprise came during the 1994 test dig in TD 6, when we recovered animal carcasses, Mode 1 stone tools, flakes from their manufacture and fossilised fruit from species including the nettle tree. This was proof that the groups who lived in these hills 800,000 years ago were hunters and gatherers. Along with all of this material, we found 85 heavily fragmented human remains from different parts of the skeletons of six individuals. The taphonomic analysis of this level showed that the agents responsible for this accumulation were human beings, backing our claim that TD 6 was a campsite inhabited by human groups 800,000 years ago. This implies the acknowledgement that Europe was inhabited at the time. The question then is, who were these hominids?

Analysis of the human remains showed that it was a new species belonging to the first populations that arrived in Europe. They were the common ancestors of Neanderthals and H. sapiens, so we called them Homo antecessor, the explorer or pioneer who moved into Europe from Africa a million years ago.