Gibraltar

NEANDERTHAL CAVES AND ENVIRONMENTS

Anow a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Gibraltar Neanderthal Caves and Environments site, on the Rock of Gibraltar, is changing the way we think of Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relative. The site encompasses a series of caves, the main ones being Gorham’s and Vanguard Caves, on Gibraltar’s Mediterranean shore. The area was a Neanderthal stronghold and the caves were occupied for at least 100 thousand years, starting 127 thousand years ago.

During the climatic upheavals of the Ice Ages the climate here remained benign, thanks to Gibraltar’s southern position; its distance from high Iberian mountains and glaciers; and the influence of the Atlantic. In this climatic refuge Neanderthals survived as long, perhaps longer, than anywhere else on Earth. Even during the coldest moments, olives – the classic indicator of Mediterranean conditions – survived. So too did land tortoises, lizards, Mediterranean birds and many warm-weather plants.

Scientists from many countries and institutions, led by the Gibraltar Museum, have been studying the caves for 25 years and evidence that includes camp fires, stone tools and remains of butchered animals is helping piece together the lives of the Neanderthals.

Outside the caves, the habitat that supported them is now a shallow coastal shelf submerged by sea, but evidence from the caves, such as pollen and fossils, gives a clear picture of what it once looked like. It was a wooded savannah – a veritable Mediterranean Serengeti – and was inhabited by ancient elephants and rhinos, red deer, ibex, wild boar, horses and cattle. These attracted carnivores, from spotted hyenas to lions, leopards, wolves and brown bears, and the caves provided the Neanderthals with shelter and safety from them, particularly at night.

Many bird fossils, including those of golden eagles, were found in the caves and it is now known that Neanderthals caught them not just for food but also for their feathers, which suggests symbolic thinking. In 2014 scientists reported a major discovery: a rock engraving, known popularly as the Neanderthal hashtag, is the first known example of their artistic potential.

It is hardly surprising that these caves are a World Heritage Site; they are not just giving evidence of the Neanderthal way of life, they are giving clues as to the intelligence of what were once thought of as ape-like brutes. At the cutting end of research, the Gibraltar Neanderthal Caves and Environments site is changing the way we think of the Neanderthals.