El Salt is located close to the confluence of the Polop and Barxell (or Barchell) rivers, minor rivers that are tributaries of the
Serpis. It is an open-air
rock shelter at 680 (or 700) meters above sea level, one of several site clusters in the plain of
Valencia that give evidence of "significant levels of mobility across extended territories" by population groups. The site has a 6.3 meters thick stratified deposit, at the bottom of a limestone wall, 38 meters high, which is covered with
tufa and
travertine deposits.
Thermoluminescence dating indicated its age is between 60.7 ± 8.9 and 45.2 ± 3.4
Ka. Thirteen
lithostratigraphic units are grouped into five different segments; the second contains units IX-XII, containing "horizontally bedded fine sands with abundant archaeological remains and combustion residues". Evidence of campfires are found in abundance in unit X, some 50,000 years old. That unit is up to 35 cm thick, and one of its sub-units (called Xb, 10-14 cm thick and browner, with more clay, than Xa) suggests that the climate at the time of deposit was more humid than today's. Unit X suggests "several diachronic human occupation episodes and different site functions". Analysis of the
coprolites left at the site (the sample had been left on the remains of a campfire) indicated the donor was omnivorous: fats associated with meat consumption were found, but also evidence that the donor had eaten plants. A study published in 2014 indicates that Neanderthals may have disappeared from the
Iberian Peninsula some 45,000 years ago, perhaps 5,000 years earlier than from the rest of Europe. ==History of the research==