Museum of Human Evolution

Just outside the museum I was about to visit are these statues of a hominid leading a child. You will understand their significance in a moment.

You may wonder how a city like Burgos acquired a Museum of Human Evolution (MEH in Spanish). It's because the Atapueca archeological site is about 16 km east of the museum. Bone fragments from about 800,000 years ago were discovered there. They provided insight into hominid settlement in Western Europe and new species, Homo Antecessor was named as the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, displacing Homo Heidelbergensis.

But first a translation of the poster. Sueños Rotos (Broken Dreams) refers to bones found of young girl indicating a truncated childhood. The MEH is 15 years old. The Atapueca site has been UNESCO World Heritage for 25 years.

Incidentally the museum staff were very kind to point out that as a senior I qualified for free entry.

The underground level (-1) has replicas of the sites. Also there is this large timeline of hominid species.

This poster visualises a young Homo Antecessor. The facial features are similar to modern humans. One feels kinship, even affection for this distant ancestor.

Level 0 has lifelike sculptures of 10 hominid species, and a reproduction of Darwin's quarters on the HMS Beagle.

Level 1 is devoted to milestones in the development of culture.

Level 2 displays 3 ecosystems for evolution: jungle, savannah, and tundra-steppe.

It's a very fine museum and one of the best science museums I've visited. I am a bit surprised I took only a few pictures. I probably felt there was no point replicating what can be seen on the museum's website. I encourage you to explore it. You can even do a virtual tour.

In the long run we are but dust, but it's poignant that we can now tell the story of our ancestors and our species, and our blink of the eye moment in time. For the moment, we are alive.