# Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer (-600000)

URL: https://germany-history.com/timeline/-600000-homo-heidelbergensis-at-mauer
Location: Mauer, near Heidelberg
Categories: main-event

In 1907 a sand-pit worker at Mauer near Heidelberg uncovered a massive human lower jaw, later dated to roughly 600,000 years ago. The find became the type specimen of Homo heidelbergensis, an archaic human species that ranged across Africa and Europe. It is among the oldest human remains ever discovered in Europe and shows that early humans lived in the Rhine region during the Middle Pleistocene.

## Why it matters
It places the Upper Rhine among the earliest documented homes of humans in Europe.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia – Mauer 1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauer_1)
- [Wikipedia – Homo heidelbergensis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_heidelbergensis)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica – Homo heidelbergensis](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-heidelbergensis)