Highlights

•This study helps resolve one of the longest controversies in paleoanthropology: when did early hominins arrive in Europe?

•Three superposed hominin sites are dated between the Olduvai and Jaramillo magnetic subchrons (1.78–1.07 Myr) for the first time in Europe.

•A Bayesian age-stratigraphic model provides Europe’s oldest and most accurate early Pleistocene hominin ages.

•Hominins with Oldowan tools entered Europe for the first time ~ 0.5 Ma after first leaving Africa.

•This migration occurred ~0.5 Ma before the arrival of Acheulian technology in Europe.

•Both African migrations are first reported in Spain, suggesting that the Strait of Gibraltar was a permeable barrier for early Pleistocene hominins

The Orce region presents a unique European stratigraphic, paleontological, and hominin succession with >1 million years of the Early Pleistocene record.

This study places three hominin sites within this record between the Olduvai and Jaramillo subchrons with dates of 1.32, 1.28, and 1.23 Ma.

The Orce region recorded the first arrival of hominins in Europe ~1.3 Ma at the Venta Micena site, indicating that Europe was isolated from an Afro-Asiatic hominin world for >0.5 Ma, likely due to biogeographical barriers.

Once hominins reached Iberia, they further dispersed into southern Europe. The archaeological record shows that a second wave of hominins with Acheulian lithic culture reached Europe (Iberia) after the Jaramillo, around 0.9 Ma.

These chronologies suggest that the Strait of Gibraltar acted as a filter bridge for African species like hominins, Theropithecus, and hippos during the Early Pleistocene.