40,000-year-old sealed cavern in Gibraltar gives new insight into Neanderthal life

Vanguard Cave is one of four caves that make up the famous Rock of Gibraltar and a nine-year-excavation project led researchers to a sealed chamber with evidence of long-gone Neanderthal life inside.

By SHIRA SILKOFF the Jerusalem Post OCTOBER 2, 2021

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/40000-year-old-sealed-cavern-in-gibraltar-gives-new-insight-into-neanderthal-life-680884

The Rock of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar is seen from the Spanish side of the border near La Linea de la Concepcion (photo credit: JON NAZCA/ REUTERS)

A cave chamber that is estimated to have been sealed shut for at least 40,000 years was recently discovered in the Rock of Gibraltar, and researchers believe that it could offer new insights into the lives of the Homo Neanderthalensis, or Neanderthals, who lived in the area at that time.

Vanguard Cave is one of four caves that make up the famous Rock of Gibraltar, with the other three being Bennett's Cave, Gorham's Cave, and Hyaena Cave. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the caves provide evidence of Neanderthal life existing in the location for over 100,000 years.

The caves have provided large amounts of evidence relating to how Neanderthals lived, UNESCO said, including "rare evidence of exploitation of birds and marine animals for food; and use of bird feathers and abstract rock engravings," all of which have allowed scientists to piece together a clearer image of the Neanderthal species, and their cognitive abilities.

While most of what is known today about the species which once inhabited the area has been garnered from the excavation of Gorham's Cave, researchers have now turned their attention to the smaller, unexplored, Vanguard Cave.

The Gibraltar National Museum announced the discovery of the 40,000-year-old sealed chamber on September 24 via their website, stating that the discovery was a culmination of nine years of work, after a project was started in 2012 to determine if the sea rock's Vanguard Cave was home to passages or chambers which had been blocked up by sediment over time.

And, just as the research team had predicted, a large sealed chamber was discovered at the very back of Vanguard Cave by chief scientist and curator of the Gibraltar National Museum, Clive Finlayson and his team. Preliminary investigations into the chamber have revealed a 13-meter deep space along the back of the cave, the museum reported.

Initial research into the cavernous space has resulted in several important discoveries, including lynx, hyaena, and griffon vulture remains. A number of scratch marks were visible on the cave walls, left there by an unknown carnivore tens of thousands of years ago.

An exhibit shows the life of a neanderthal family in a cave in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern town of Krapina (credit: REUTERS)

Speaking to CNN, however, Finlayson said that none of these were the most impressive discovery made. Instead, he said, what has most excited the team of researchers was a large marine mollusk found towards the back of the cave.

"The whelk is at the back of that cave... it's probably about 20 meters from the beach," he said to CNN. "Somebody took that whelk in there... over 40,000 years ago. So that's already given me a hint that people have been in there, which is not perhaps too surprising. Those people, because of the age, can only be Neanderthals."

The evidence found inside the cave is consistent with another item found in the same area back in 2017. At the time, the researchers were excavating an area close to the entrance of the cave when they came across the milk tooth of a four-year-old Neanderthal child.

However, they do not believe that Neanderthals lived in the location that the tooth was found in, as other evidence pointed to it having been a hyena den. Instead, Finlayson explained, researchers have concluded that the tooth was probably left there as a result of the hyenas dragging the child into the den, away from the areas inhabited by the Neanderthals.

Although the remainder of the excavation is expected to take decades, Finlayson believes that the project is already changing the common portrayal of Neanderthals and helping to move people away from the stereotypical image of unintelligent brutish hunters, he explained in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

"We found the bones of these animals that they've butchered. But we're finding a lot more ... marine shells. They're eating shellfish from the coast," he expanded. "So it's changing the whole perspective of the Neanderthal as this sort of inferior, brutish ape-like creature and showing that there were very much humans in every respect."

We are still around and a lot more civilised and intelligent than many who have college degrees in Marxist economics, gender studies , feminism & critical race theories !