Ana Cristina Pinto-Llona, 2005 Women of Discovery Humanity Award

"Ignore what others say about what you can't do and follow your heart. The true success of a person is measured by how close she gets to fulfilling her aspirations." — Ana Cristina Pinto-Llona

Research Scientist in Archaeology

Born: 1959-01-01

Hometown: Oviedo, Asturias, Spain

Education: PhD in Archaeology

Achievements

Discoveries: The Sopena, a cave where first Neanderthals and later early modern humans lived for thousands of years. Also, I proved that supposedly vegetarian cave bears were in fact active cannibalistic scavengers!

Expeditions: Spain, South Africa and Tanzania

Biography

Ana Cristina Pinto-Llona is an archaeologist who spent much of her life organizing archaeological and palaeontological excavations in northern Spain. Her research on the palaeoecology of cave bears has changed the views on how these extinct animals lived and interacted with prehistoric humans, and her work in caves with fossils of mammoths, elephants, rhinoceros, lions and leopards in the same area has offered new perspectives on the extinction of these animals in southern Europe. She explored and probed several caves in Spain looking for testimonies on the origins of modern humans and in 2002 she made an astonishing discovery in a remote cave in northern Spain. Her test excavations revealed an occupation sequence ranging from the Early Upper Paleolithic to the Mousterian -- the first arrival of modern humans into Europe back to Neanderthals and probably further back to the time of Homo erectus. Given the richness of finds and the depth of the stratigraphic sequence, she will be excavating and researching The Sopena Archaeological Project for decades to come. She is currently Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: My dog and good waterproof boots

Heroes: Captain Ahab in Moby Dick