Sala, N.Alcaraz-Castaño, M.Arriolabengoa, M.Martínez-Pillado, V.Pantoja-Pérez, A.Rodríguez-Hidalgo, A.Téllez, E.Cubas, M.Castillo, S.Arnold, L.J.Demuro, M.Duval, M.Arteaga-Brieba, A.Llamazares, J.Ochando, J.Cuenca-Bescós, G.Marín-Arroyo, A.B.Seijo, M.M.Luque, L.Alonso-Llamazares, C.et al.2024-10-252024-10-252024Science Advances, 2024; 10(26):eado3807-1-eado3807-182375-25482375-2548https://hdl.handle.net/2440/142987The Iberian Peninsula is a key region for unraveling human settlement histories of Eurasia during the period spanning the decline of Neandertals and the emergence of anatomically modern humans (AMH). There is no evidence of human occupation in central Iberia after the disappearance of Neandertals ~42,000 years ago until approximately 26,000 years ago, rendering the region "nobody's land" during the Aurignacian period. The Abrigo de la Malia provides irrefutable evidence of human settlements dating back to 36,200 to 31,760 calibrated years before the present (cal B.P.) This site also records additional levels of occupation around 32,420 to 26,260 cal B.P., suggesting repeated settlement of this territory. Our multiproxy examination identifies a change in climate trending toward colder and more arid conditions. However, this climatic deterioration does not appear to have affected AMH subsistence strategies or their capacity to inhabit this region. These findings reveal the ability of AMH groups to colonize regions hitherto considered uninhabitable, reopening the debate on early Upper Paleolithic population dynamics of southwestern Europe.en© 2024 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.Iberian Peninsula; g human settlement historiesAnimalsHumansClimatePopulation DynamicsArchaeologyFossilsHistory, AncientSpainNeanderthalsJournal article10.1126/sciadv.ado38072024-10-25698766Arnold, L.J. [0000-0001-9603-3824]Demuro, M. [0000-0002-5799-4216]