Secrets of the Dead: Caveman Cold Case

Secrets of the Dead: Caveman Cold Case. 2013. Written and directed by Ruth Berry; narrated by Jay O. Sanders. Featuring John Hawks, Antonio Rosas, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Marco de la Rasilla, Clive Finlayson, Geraldine Finlayson, Darren Fa, Eduardo Forcelledo, Almudena Estralrrich. 54 minutes. Produced by WNET for PBS. Broadcast premiere May 15, 2013. Check local listings or visit the PBS website.

Secrets of the Dead: Caveman Cold Case describes the recent archaeological investigations into two cave sites associated with our cousins the Neanderthals: El Sidrón, in the Asturian region of northern Spain; and Gorham's Cave, on the Rock of Gibraltar.

The video weaves together these two sites, 30,000 years apart in age, and worlds apart in climate and environment, to tell different stories about what it was like to be a Neanderthal in good times and in very very bad times indeed.

El Sidrón

In El Sidrón, evidence of a horrific event has been deposited: 49,000 years ago, a entire family group of Neanderthals was butchered and eaten by another group. The film features the archaeologists and excavators of El Sidrón, describing the history of the excavations, and how over the years, the slow piling up of evidence for cannibalism among our cousins appeared and grew nearly certain.

El Sidrón is in the Asturias region of Spain, a mountainous area along the northern margin of the country as it abuts the Bay of Biscay. At the time of the event, the Neanderthals were the only hominids living there: and they were apparently suffering great depredations. The time period, during Marine Isotope Stage 3, was that of rapid and frequently unstable climate change: and evidence from the bones themselves support the interpretation of a miserable lifestyle.

The bones of the Neanderthals found within El Sidrón are greatly fragmented, but modern technology has allowed the researchers to identify the ages and genders of the individuals; DNA evidence provides evidence of their familial relationship, and deposits on their teeth identify the diets of the people who died, indicating the desperation of their circumstances.

Lithic studies of the stone tools clearly point to Neanderthal perpetrators, as well as Neanderthal victims, and reveal the abrupt and singular nature of the event. Secrets of the Dead presents this data via interviews with the escavators, and paleontologists and physical anthropologists working on the project in their laboratories.

Gorham's Cave

Gorham's Cave, on the other hand, is located on Gibraltar, that rock at mouth of the Mediterranean Sea as it connects with the Atlantic. That environment, some 30,000 years later than El Sidrón, harbored a veritable city of Neanderthals, and, according to research within the cave and region, the local climate was warming and more conducive to living than that of El Sidron. The sea level was much lower then it is today, with 4-5 kilometers (2.5-3 miles) of land stretching in front of the cave opening where now the sea laps at the door.

Here, say the scholars and researchers investigating Gibraltar, was one of the last refuges of the Neanderthals, where a wide range of large bodied land and sea mammals were available for dinner. No signs of violence are here; and animal bone in the habitation sites are plentiful. Despite this pleasant environment, this is the last site we know about where the Neanderthals lived: after Gibraltar was abandoned by Neanderthals, there are no Neanderthals left on the planet.

The comparison of the two environments, and the social and residential disparities between the two regions, allows the scholars featured in this Secrets of the Dead episode to give us insight into the range of behaviors and lifeways of these hominids. As archaeologists and paleoanthropologists continue to study Neanderthal sites, they expand our knowledge of this extinct race of people, who, as evolutionary biologist John Hawks says, are genetically a part of us, but they're not the same as us, not quite like ourselves.

Secrets of the Dead is a series from PBS that blends historical and scientific research, and, to be honest, in some of the episodes I've seen, the tone is rather more sensational than I'm comfortable with. But Caveman Cold Case is an excellent example of how public outreach videos can help explain and interpret scientific research, in a way that's both entertaining and educational.

Secrets of the Dead: Caveman Cold Case is not currently (May 2013) available on video, but may be watched on local PBS stations.