Queen Sofía of Spain had a close encounter of the ancient kind when she presided over the meeting of the board of the Atapuerca Foundation in her role as Honorary President.
Her Majesty arrived at the Foundation’s quarters in Ibeas, near Burgos, and was welcomed by the General Secretary for Research, the Mayor of Ibeas, and the Councilor for Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Castilla y León Parliament, among many others.
Once inside, Queen Sofia signed the book of honour to mark her visit, and then moved to the conference hall, where she opened proceedings. This was followed by the President of the Atapuerca Foundation laying out the activities carried out in the past year and outlinig goals for the future.
He was followed by members of the Foundation, who showed Queen Sofía the most relevant discovery of the year: the face of the first European human, found on Elephant’s Peak, and believed to be between 1.2 and 1.4 million years old.
Much less exciting, but equally important, members of the Foundation’s board then laid out the budget for 2023, and projects for the two main areas of action: archaeological excavation, and the promotion of the findings of said excavation, so that members of the public can take part in the amazing discoveries.
There was also the presentation of the new internal policies, which are strongly pushing for more transparency on the economic front, both in terms of integrity of financial information and the control of economic risks of the institution.
And finally, members of the board and local authorities presented the results of the project to expand the Foundation’s quarters, mainly in order to welcome the library fund of Professor Emiliano Aguirre, who left all of his study materials to the Foundation, after working in archaeology his entire life. The project began in 2019, and is co-financed by the Foundation itself and the Autonomic Province of Castilla y León.
Before leaving, Queen Sofía held a brief and informal meeting with all authorities present, both political and members of the board of Atapuerca Foundation.
The Atapuerca Foundation was created in 1999 with the aim of supporting and promoting the work of the Atapuerca Research Team in their efforts to expand and deepen the archaeological excavations in the area.
Queen Sofía inaugurated their Ibeas quarters in 2009, and since then has been a regular visitor of the Foundation, to learn more about their projects and support their work. It has to be remarked that archaeology plays a very important role in her life; she was born in Greece, one of the major countries in the world in terms of archaeological preservations, and a country that contains some of the most ancient buildings in the world.
