ABSTRACT
Archaeologically tangible places, such as caves, can be read as spaces bound up with 'anxious experiences' in the past. The Sima de los Huesos could become a place to deposit the dead due to its uncanny function in the lives of the populations of hominins that lived in the region of the Sierra de Atapuerca at that time. The point of comparison with the people of the Sima and Heidegger's phenomenological description of the death of the other must turn on the interpretation of the material evidence of their mortuary practice. The perspective of dwelling has revealed that the form of engagement lying behind the structured deposition of an individual corpse is such that it sees the dead individual as mattering to the group within an open world. The dwelling perspective problematises theoretical perspectives that prioritise human beings' cognitive abilities over their practical engagements, whether these are taken as markers of full 'modernity' or not.
