The Cueva del Ángel in Lucena holds the oldest DNA in southern Europe

Various digs by Spanish and foreign researchers have unearthed around some 5,000 bones from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations that inhabited the cave from 3000 to 2000 BCE. The unique conditions of the 100-metre-deep pit the bones were thrown into, at a constant 16 degrees centigrade and with a high humidity level, mean that DNA is still present in many of the bones. So now, the private foundation Prehistory and Human Evolution Research Institute, with the help of Lucena Town Council, possesses southern Europe's only deposit of bones with ancient DNA.

The cave consists of three parts, two of them above the pit and mostly open to the elements, although there is a small cave, "la covacha", where burial rites might have been performed. Two holes in the chamber lead to the 100-metre pit where the bodies of the dead were thrown, along with leftover food and broken pottery, creating a  pyramid-shaped pile of refuse which is now being investigated. The cave was inhabited by pre-Neanderthal hominids from 300,000 to 160,000 years ago. They brought fire and carefully kept it alight all that time, so there is a 3-metre layer of ash, the first of its kind to be found anywhere in the world.

Researchers come every summer from Spain and many other countries. They work for free, as volunteers, just like the researchers who found the cave. There are agreements with several prestigious foreign universities, such as Harvard in the USA, and the Paris Natural History Museum. These Paleolithic and Chalcolithic findings are especially important because the DNA of entire populations can be studied, obtaining data on their characteristics and origins, and the illnesses that affected them.