In the Atapuerca mountain range, very close to the city of Burgos, the history of human evolution of the last million and a half years has been written, which has earned it the declaration of World Heritage Site.
Since 1978, intense and meticulous research work has been carried out that allows us to know the evolution of the different European human groups, of which five different species have been found so far.
The Museum of Human Evolution located in the city of Burgos is the catalyst of the " Atapuerca System, Culture of Evolution", a management instrument for the different teams, centers, services and departments involved in the correct development of the comprehensive Atapuerca project. .
But the Museum of Human Evolution is much more, it is the axis on which the entire Complex of Human Evolution is articulated in a modern attempt to reproduce all the singularities of the Sierra de Atapuerca, in addition to making room for the scientific disciplines that They intervene in the investigation and give an existential vision of the presence of man on earth.
Already at the entrance, a large room thirty meters high draws attention to the four inclined modules with vegetation that emulate the railway trench of the Atapuerca site, where it all began. On this same floor, different rooms display fossils found in excavations, the process of discovery, recovery and analysis of each one.
Already on the first floor, it is possible to see what the interior of the brig in which Darwin conceived his theory of natural selection was like. In the center of the floor is the Gallery of Evolution, a hyper-realistic reconstruction of the evolution of hominids over seven million years. Next to it, a large-scale recreation of the human brain allows us to see inside and out what the neuronal interconnection system is like. At this same level, tribute is paid to the Spanish Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who discovered the connective processes of nerve cells.
The next floor talks about symbolism, the complexity of the human mind, how funeral rites are the oldest in humanity, social organization and its evolution, the creative spirit of homo sapiens and the appearance of its aesthetic sense and how the technological development was for the manufacture of the first tools. The center of the plant is occupied by an installation dedicated to fire, since its discovery is one of the great milestones of human evolution.
On the last floor, the ecosystems of evolution are explained: the tropical forest where the hominids originated, the savanna as a supplier of the meat necessary for brain growth, and the tundra-taiga through which the hominids expanded to other continents. On this same floor, an augmented reality system allows you to see what the Atapuerca mountain range and its inhabitants were like in the most important moments.
The Museum of Human Evolution is a scientific and informative reference inside and outside Spain, a museum of the past and a space for reflection on the present of homo sapiens.
