This museum takes visitors on a journey back 1.5 million years to the shores of a large lake that no longer exists, where mammoths, hyenas, and saber-toothed cats once lived side by side, and where some of Europe’s oldest human remains have been found.
Its display cases and audiovisual presentations showcase the stone tool industries from the Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3 sites, as well as the famous skull fragment known asthe“Orce Man,” a hominid dating back 1.8 million years.
All of the artifacts on display come from three archaeological sites within the municipality itself (Venta Micena, Barranco León, and Fuente Nueva), making this center a world-renowned hub for the study of the continent’s earliest settlers—comparable only to a handful of museums in Europe and North America.
Housed in a modern building on the outskirts of Orce, the museum is dedicated to the memory of paleoanthropologist Josep Gibert and offers guided tours.
