The article addresses human presence on the Iberian Peninsula from 1.2 million years ago, beginning with remains of Homo antecessor and Homo heidelbergensis. 70 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens left Africa and encountered Homo neanderthalensis, who had been living there for 200 thousand years. The Neanderthals, smaller and more stocky than sapiens, were adapted to cold climates and probably had white skin and red hair.
The two species coexisted for more than 20 thousand years in neighboring territories, sharing stone tool-making techniques, tools, hunting and gathering strategies, revealing a typically human mental complexity. Evidence of genetic mixing between the two species has been found, including a hybrid in Portugal. The Neanderthals disappeared about 20-30 thousand years ago, and approximately 2% of the genome of the typical European is composed of Neanderthal DNA.
In Tavira, Neanderthal presence has been identified at several sites: Pinheiro, Torre d'Aires, Antas, Arroio, Alto, Canada and on the hill of Santa Maria. The article also describes the geography of the region at that time, when the Séqua river formed a wide estuary, the hills of Sant'Ana and Santa Maria functioned as peninsulas, and there was a wide gulf open to the sea called Gilão.
Between 20 and 15 thousand years ago, new populations of hunter-gatherers from the Balkans migrated to the Iberian Peninsula. These groups, with dark hair and skin and light eyes, mixed for 8 to 10 thousand years with the previous populations, generating a typically Iberian genetic identity. These communities spread throughout the country, mainly concentrating in the inland areas of the great estuaries of the Tagus, Sado and Mira, extending to the western extreme of the Algarve.
