beginning in 1992, a spanish team has located more than 5,500 human bones that are at least 350,000 years old in the sima de los huesos site. this site is in the sierra de atapuerca, in northern spain. the pit contains fossils of perhaps 28 individuals, together with remains of "ursus deningeri," other carnivores, and a biface called "excalibur". some scientists think that this acheulean axe, made of red quartzite, was some kind of ritual offering for a funeral. if so, it would be the earliest known evidence of a funerary practice.