Orce

Orce is a municipality located in the province of Granada, in southeastern Spain. According to the 2009 census INE, the city has a population of 1333 inhabitants.

Paleoanthropology

Orce is the location of the paleo-Venta Micena, & Fuente Nueva 3, most the basin of an ancient lake where fossils construct been preserved in sediment. Josep Gibert of the M. Crusafont Institute in Sabadell has led an excavation team there. He asserts that the sites hit Oldowan-style stone tools dating between 1.5 in addition to 1.8 million years ago. whether the early estimates are supported, these would live the oldest stone tool finds in Europe. Other scholars prefer a more conservative date for the stone tools of 1.2 million years. Together with the hominid sustains at the Atapuerca Mountains, the tools are evidence that human ancestors settled in western Europe more than one million years Ma ago.

Recent numerical dating studies using Electron Spin Resonance ESR method applied to fossil teeth and quartz grains have portrayed ages of ca. 1.2 Ma for Fuente Nueva 3, and ca. 1.4 Ma for Barranco León and Venta Micena.