European have been discovered in a cave in Spain, pushing back the beginnings of human occupation of the Continent by up to 400,000 years.

The jawbone and teeth found in the Atapuerca hills, near Burgos, have been reliably dated to between 1.1 million and 1.2 million years ago, and probably come from a female who was among the first ancient humans to inhabit Europe.

She has been tentatively identified as a member of a species called Homo antecessor, or “pioneer man”, and lived 300,000 to 400,000 years before any other early humans — or hominins — are known to have reached Western Europe.

Hominin fossils dating to 1.7 million years ago have been found in Dmanisi, Georgia, but the oldest remains previously known west of the Caucasus, also from an Atapuerca cave, are 800,000 years old. The discovery, by a team led by Eudald Carbonell, of the Human Palaeoecology Institute in Tarragona, Spain, suggests that Homo antecessor, or a closely related hominin species, settled in Europe much earlier than that, within a few hundred thousand years of the first human migration from Africa.

These first Europeans, however, are unlikely to have been direct ancestors of Homo sapiens. Scientists largely agree that we are descended from hominins that evolved in Africa about 200,000 to 150,000 years ago.

Homo sapiens left Africa in a fresh migration about 60,000 years ago, and went on to supplant other human species in every part of the globe.

The new fossil, described today in the journal Nature, consists of a jawbone or mandible containing teeth, which was found at the Sima del Elefante cave, 656ft (200 metres) from the Gran Dolina cave where Homo antecessor was first identified in 1994.

The discovery also included primitive stone tools and animal bones with cut marks, which indicate that they were butchered by the ancient humans. Both provide corroborating evidence for the fossil’s age.

Dr Carbonell’s group suggested that the finds indicate that Homo antecessor may have evolved in Western Europe, but this has been challenged by other researchers.

Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said: “The timing of the earliest human occupation of Europe has been controversial for many years. Until more material has been discovered, I am cautious about inferring that this find indicates that Homo antecessor originated in Western Europe.”

— The 3,000-year-old remains of early East Enders have been unearthed at the site of the London 2012 Olympic Park. Archaeologists from the Museum of London have uncovered four skeletons that were buried in graves dating back to the Iron Age.

Times Recommends

• Sarah Brown says 'no thanks' to veal at G8 - twice
• Stockton-on-Tees is obesity capital of Britain
• Stores blame poor sales on Murray factor