Why go
This early history gives a useful scale to the familiar waterfront. The hunters indicated by the Ametzagaña finds lived in a colder landscape long before the port beneath Urgull emerged. Roman Oiasso was farther east at Irun, so it should not be confused with San Sebastián itself.
The full story
At Ametzagaña, between South Intxaurrondo and Astigarraga, archaeologists found worked stone tools dated to about 24,000–22,000 BC. They point to people hunting and working animal skins in an environment colder than the one visitors see now. The surviving evidence is limited; it does not trace a continuous settlement from that period to the modern city. In Roman times, this part of the coast is thought to have lain in the territory of the Varduli. The well-attested Roman town of Oiasso was at Irun, east of San Sebastián. It was once wrongly identified with the present city. Keeping those locations separate helps explain why the clearly documented story of San Sebastián as a port begins much later, in the medieval period.