So who were these?
Neanderthals? Heidelberg Man?
I’d been under the impression that this site was in the running for the ancestral home of Neandertal, via Heidelbergensis, and that the remains were the latter. This page was little help:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/atapuerca/sima/index.php
“...The hominids of Sima de los Huesos lived around 400,000 years ago — much later than Homo antecessor. Detailed analysis of the Sima fossils indicates that these hominids belong to a different lineage, possibly unrelated to Homo antecessor.”
I think we should just refer to them as “Bob”.