“Pink” – The Oldest Human Face in Western Europe, Discovered in Spain: Who Reached Europe First?

In March 2025, researchers at the Atapuerca archaeological site in northern Spain announced a landmark discovery: a partial human face (catalogued as ATE7-1) nicknamed “Pink,” dated between 1.1 and 1.4 million years old. Found in 2022 at the Sima del Elefante (“Elephant Pit”) site, this left maxilla and cheekbone fragment represents the oldest known human facial remains in Western Europe.

The fossil belongs to an adult individual provisionally classified as Homo affinis erectus — a more primitive hominin with affinities to Homo erectus, featuring a projecting face, flatter nasal region, and robust features unlike the more modern-looking Homo antecessor (previously considered the earliest European hominin at ~800,000–900,000 years old, also from Atapuerca).

This find rewrites the timeline of human settlement in Europe. It indicates at least two distinct migration waves: an earlier one around 1.4 million years ago by a more erectus-like population, followed later by Homo antecessor. Stone tools and butchered animal bones at the same level show these early Europeans possessed lithic technology and meat-processing skills.

The nickname “Pink” honors both Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon (“La cara oculta de la luna” – the hidden face) and lead researcher Rosa Huguet (“rosa” means pink in Spanish).

As of mid-2026, Pink remains one of the most significant hominin finds of recent years, listed among Smithsonian’s top human-evolution milestones of 2025. It confirms that the story of Europe’s first inhabitants was far more complex and ancient than previously believed — multiple waves of hominins, not a single arrival. The Atapuerca badlands continue to reveal Europe’s deep human roots.