Tribunes

History of Science

Oliver Hochadel

Researcher from CEHIC

Atapuerca at the EXPO: Spain’s DNA in Shanghai

11 May 2010

Photo: leted

In 2006, Germany celebrated the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the first Neanderthal, named after a valley near Düsseldorf. The media joked about the “first German.” But, 40,000 years ago, there were no border controls, and Neanderthal fossils have been found in a dozen countries all over Europe and Western Asia.

The DNA used for the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome published last Friday in Science was extracted from the shinbones of Neanderthal fossils found in Croatia. And further sequencing will rely on fossil material from Spain, Russia and Germany. Svante Pääbo, the leading figure in the use of ancient DNA, is of Estonian origin, was born in Sweden and works in Germany. The publication in Science had 56 authors from more than a dozen research units in the US, China and all over Europe. Research on human evolution seems to be an international business par excellence.

Just a few days before the publication of the Neanderthal genome, the EXPO in Shanghai opened its doors. In the first exhibition room of the Spanish Pavilion, designed by Bigas Luna, visitors find themselves in some sort of cave. As the press release of the Fundación Atapuerca explains, this room is supposed to evoke the now famous prehistoric site of Atapuerca near Burgos. The visitors to the pavilion start their tour with the “DNA of Spain.”

Originally, the Fundación Atapuerca and the Sociedad Estatal Para Exposiciones Internacionales (SEEI), in charge of the Spanish Pavilion, had even planned to show some of the original Atapuerca fossils in Shanghai as the starting point for a “time tunnel.” In the end, Luna opted for a simple flint-stone he had collected himself in the Sierra de Atapuerca as the only material object.

Besides, it had been done before. In the year 2000, some Atapuerca fossils had been shown in the Spanish Pavilion at the EXPO in Hanover. Some of these fossils are roughly 500.000 years old (the Homo heidelbergensis from the Sima de los huesos), the fossils from Homo antecessor are at least 780.000 years old. Hence, the latter are the oldest hominid remains in Europe and Homo antecessor has been dubbed the “first European” or even the “first Spaniard.” And in this case it was not always clear that this was merely a joke. A journalist of El País was very serious when she wrote that the fossils in the Spanish Pavilion in Hanover would enable the spectator to “enter into a dialogue” with Homo antecessor.

It might seem strange that some fragile fragments of skulls, arms and legs of a long-extinct species have become representatives of “their” country. But Spain is certainly not the only country that employs fossils as ambassadors on the international stage. Ethiopia, for example, used a replica of the skeleton of the famous Lucy (an Australopithecus afarensis of more than 3 million years of age) as the feature of the central exhibit at the EXPO in 2005 in Aichi/Japan.

We are now well into the 21st century. Advanced techniques allow for the extraction and sequencing of Neanderthal DNA. Yet the intimate link between hominid fossils and national identity that can be traced back into the 19th century seems to be unbroken. A flint-stone from the Sierra the Atapuerca symbolizes the “DNA of Spain.” The need to reconstruct national continuities from a remote past seems to be immune to technological changes and globalization. The Spanish researchers of Atapuerca are able to do dance well at two weddings simultaneously. On the international stage they impress their colleagues in paleoanthropology with numerous publications in leading academic journals, while on the domestic stage, and with the help of the national media, they have been able to cultivate the notion of the “magic mountain of Atapuerca,” the home of “our ancestors.”

This leads sometimes to strange alliances. The press service of the Fundación Atapuerca describes the Spanish Pavilion in Shanghai as follows: “The fact that the hominid remains found in both countries – i.e. Spain and China – highlights the old age of the people in both nations.” (“La coincidencia en el tiempo de los restos de homínidos encontrados en ambos países resalta además la antigüedad de la población en ambas naciones”.) This alludes to the famous fossils found in Zhoukoudian near Bejing from 1928 onwards. They are about 500.000 years old and belong to Homo erectus. Yet in China, it is most certainly not a joke that Homo erectus (sometimes also called Homo pekinensis) is the oldest Chinese. It is virtually a state doctrine supported by most Chinese scientists that all Chinese descend from Pekingman. It matters little to the Chinese nationalists that the rest of the world thinks that modern humans originated in Africa roughly 130.000 years ago.

The situation in Western Europe is very different. Nevertheless we may wonder why Atapuerca has such an appeal for national narratives? In many popular accounts, the small sierra is now considered to be the home of the “beginning” of Spanish history. The fact that Atapuerca is so remote in time renders it entirely innocent. The ancient hominids have nothing to do with the tortured history of Spain in the 20th century or with the stereotype of the intolerant and backward Spain of earlier centuries. But mind you - the likes of Homo antecessor were cannibals!

Subjects of the article