Researchers working on the Gibraltar promontory have amassed a suite of about 30 AMS radiocarbon dates from stacked Neanderthal occupations at Gorham's Cave that suggest Neanderthals were still living on Gibraltar at about 25,000 years ago, fully 5,000 years after they have been thought to be gone from the world. Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum and colleagues report on their findings in an online article made available on September 13, 2006 and to appear in a future issue of Nature. The archaeological site of Gorham's Cave is located on the British territory of Gibraltar, that rocky narrow strip of land that extends off Spain and points towards Morocco. Gibraltar overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar, a 14-kilometer wide stretch of open water connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, and separating Europe from northern Africa. Gorham's Cave was discovered in 1907 and first excavated in the 1950s by John Waechter of the Institute of Archaeology in London. In addition to Phoenician, Carthegenian and Neolithic occupations in the cave, there are 16 meters of Pleistocene deposits. The top part of the Pleistocene consists of two Upper Paleolithic deposits, identified as Solutrean and Magdelenian and used by what archaeologists now call Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Below that, and reported to be separated by five thousand years is a level of pure Mousterian, and, according to the latest AMS radiocarbon dates, was occupied beween 23,000 and 33,000 years ago.
Mousterian Occupations at Gorham Cave
Mousterian is the name given to a lithic industry that in Europe is always associated with Neanderthals; in parts of Africa, the Mousterian is found with both Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH), at sites such as Haua Fteah in Libya and Djebel Irhoud in Morocco. The Mousterian occupation has been known since the 1940s and the fossil remains of Neanderthals have been found elsewhere on Gibraltar before. There are eight other Mousterian sites including Forbes Quarry and Devil's Tower, where Neanderthal remains were recovered. Recent work at Gorham's Cave is headed by Clive Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum and has concentrated on the Mousterian parts of the cave deposits.What Finlayson and his crew have found to date include three superimposed Mousterian hearths, which all contained charcoal, and are now dated to 24,010 (+/-320), 26,400 (+/-440), and 30,560(+/-720) years before the present. Other materials in these occupation layers include cut (probably butchered) animal bone and classic Levallois blade-like flakes. The team has also conducted environmental research, and they argue that as climatic conditions worsened in Europe, the last small group of Neanderthals retreated as far as they could, finding refuge on Gibraltar.
Is this the last stand of the Neanderthals? It's hard to say. It's a pretty compelling story, but there are no fossil remains of Neanderthals in the cave and it's possible this is an AMH site (14 kilometers of sea separates Gibraltar from Morocco, after all). Nevertheless, Gorham's Cave is one of the sites to keep your eyes on.
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For references and further information, see the complete article, The Last Neanderthal Standing: Neanderthals at Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar.
The photograph of the lovely primate (not a commentary on the humanness of Neanderthal) at Gibraltar was taken by ForsterFoto.
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