There are many open air settlements close to the Railway Cutting. One of the first ones to be dug was Valle de las Orquídeas (Orchid Valley), a settlement that might have been a campsite. It is located strategically beside a sinkhole or doline which probably contained water that attracted animals to drink. It also had commanding views across a large part of the Sierra.
Work in a 12 m2 area began during the 2000 summer dig, but we quickly realised that the settlement covered a larger area. In the summer of 2001, a sample dig was conducted between the two points of the site where stone tools had been discovered on the surface. This 1m2 sample yielded more tools. The vestiges suggest that this is an early Upper Palaeolithic site. Valle de las Orquídeas has yielded tools made from Cretaceous flint, a raw material that lies around the site.
The purpose of the caves can be detected by analysing the materials that are dug up, however the most important aspect in such a large complex of sites and chronologies is to study the area they cover, i.e., how the prehistoric groups that inhabited the Atapuerca Hills led their lives. This makes it extremely important to discover the sites located outside the caves.
