Second excavation campaign at the Pliocene site of Canal de San Clemente in Huéscar (Granada) comes to a close
Over the course of three weeks, between July 10 and 30, the second excavation campaign took place at the Canal de San Clemente site (CSC-1), where excavations first began last year in 2025. Following four decades without excavations at the key paleontological sites in Huéscar, this second campaign consolidates this research project in one of the most important Plio-Pleistocene series in the entire Baza-Huéscar basin, with records spanning from 5 million years ago to just under 1 million years ago at the Huéscar-1 site.
The Canal de San Clemente site is a Pliocene paleontological locality dated to between 3.5 and 4 million years old, which was discovered in 2002 by Professor Trino Torres from the School of Mines of Madrid. Curiously, he is the same person who found the first human remains at Atapuerca back in 1976.
The excavations at Canal de San Clemente were carried out by a team of 28 researchers and excavators, including geologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, restorers, and students from the Universities of Almería, Málaga, and Sevilla, led by Javier Medianero (University of Almería), Sergio Ros-Montoya (University of Málaga), and Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro (ICREA, IPHES-CERCA, and Rovira i Virgili University).
During the first campaign in 2025, only 12 m² were partially excavated. In this 2026 campaign, excavation continued across those 12 m² and the trench was expanded to 20 m². This allowed for the surface exposure of various mastodon remains belonging to the species Anancus arvernensis, including tusks and large long bones (femur, humerus, among others), along with several teeth from rhinoceroses, large deer, bovids, and abundant turtle remains. A total of 350 cataloged records were made during this second campaign. Furthermore, during the washing and sieving of the extracted sediments, numerous gastropod (snail) remains of various species were recovered, and most importantly, several rodent teeth that will help date the site with greater precision.
Geological studies of the site and its surroundings also continued, and taphonomic studies were initiated to provide insight into the processes behind the formation of the site. These studies reveal that the consecutive accumulations of fossil remains at this paleontological locality resulted from the infilling of an ancient riverbed, caused by major water floods triggered by severe storms. These floods were capable of dragging massive stone cobbles along with finer materials, as well as the carcasses of megafauna (mastodons, rhinoceroses, deer, bovids, etc.) that became buried at this specific location next to the Canal de San Clemente. Remarkably, this phenomenon occurred at least three consecutive times at the exact same spot.
In the coming months, the extracted materials will undergo restoration, followed by anatomical and taxonomic analysis. Subsequently, the paleoecological and paleoclimatic conditions will be reconstructed to understand the Pliocene environment in the southern Iberian Peninsula and correlate it with data available from other regions.
This site in Huéscar highlights the significance of Pliocene records within the area of the Granada UNESCO Global Geopark.
This excavation campaign was authorized by the Regional Ministry of Culture under the overarching research project titled Study of the Pliocene paleontological records of the Baza basin in the Mediterranean context, and by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, owner of the land where the site is located. Funding was provided by the Provincial Council of Granada through the 2025 Archaeological and Architectural Heritage Conservation and Use Program, with a grant of €20,000, and by the Huéscar Town Council with an additional grant of €9,000.
