Six tiny bone fragments from Abauntz cave in Navarre belong to an adult male Neanderthal who lived about 46,000 years ago. He is the first confirmed Neanderthal in Navarre and in the western Pyrenees. The date comes in two versions: "around 46,000" and "between 44,000 and 49,000 years".
The find was presented on 19 October 2026 in Arraitz-Orkin, in the Ultzama valley, in the presence of Navarre president Maria Chivite. The project is led by Andion Arteaga and Mikel Arlegi and brings together more than 25 specialists.
The first bones came from a test pit at the cave entrance in 2023. Three are metacarpals, or bones of the palm, and one is a middle phalanx of a finger, all from the right hand. The other two fragments are so small that their shape does not show what they are.
Three methods for six fragments
The team used three methods that complement each other. Palaeoproteomics reads the proteins preserved in bone. They last longer than DNA, so they let the team identify the two unclear fragments as human.
Radiocarbon dating measures how much carbon-14 is left in the bone. The team dated the bones themselves, not the layers around them. Ancient DNA shows the bones are Neanderthal and gives the sex: male.
The press material says the man's adult age is clear from the bones themselves, not from the genome. There is no full genome. Genetic work continues at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, and results on family ties are expected in the coming months.
Early reports speak of "exceptional" DNA preservation. Arlegi says the ancient DNA, together with direct dates, is especially valuable for this individual.
A date between 44,000 and 49,000 years
The IPHES-CERCA team uses the first figure, while the range comes from the Navarre government and the news agency EFE. Radiocarbon dating reaches back about 50,000 years, so this sample sits close to its limit. In a 2014 study, Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford (now in Vienna) warned that traces of modern carbon make old samples look younger than they are.
The site has another date. A 2025 excavation paper puts level 101 at more than 46,900 years old. The press material does not say whether the hand comes from this level. The results on the hand have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Tooth marks and a comparison with El Sidrón
Some of the bones carry tooth marks from meat-eating animals. This suggests the body was left in the cave and animals later carried parts away, rather than the hand being buried whole. The ends of the joints are missing on the metacarpals, which the analysis of the marks attributes to a small predator. Arlegi thinks these were probably foxes.
The same layer holds stone tools and animal bones with butchery marks. This means people used the cave for food and work.
Abauntz lies on a natural passage between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. Arteaga says the find fills a gap in the palaeoanthropological record of the western Pyrenees. The man lived several thousand years before Neanderthals died out. Higham's team, which dated about 200 samples from 40 sites, puts the end of the Mousterian era between 41,030 and 39,260 years ago. Abauntz is the only place in Navarre with documented Neanderthal presence in cave layers.
By comparison, El Sidrón in Asturias has more than 2,500 fragments from at least 13 Neanderthals who lived about 49,000 years ago, and genetics shows they were close relatives. At Abauntz there is only one hand from one person. The genetic results will show whether he was related to other Neanderthals and whether he had contact with Homo sapiens.
A new excavation season starts this autumn, and the bones will go on show at the Museum of Navarre once the research is finished.