The Last Refuge Of The Neanderthals Was On The Coast Of Gibraltar
Archaeologists breached a Gibraltar cave chamber sealed for 40,000 years and found bones exactly where they fell
The limestone cliffs on Gibraltar’s eastern face hold caves that have sheltered humans for more than 100,000 years.
But one chamber, discovered in 2021 at the back of Vanguard Cave, had seen no light for at least 40 millennia.
When researchers from the Gibraltar National Museum finally breached its sediment seal, they found bones of lynx, hyena, and vulture resting exactly where they had fallen, alongside the shell of a whelk that someone had carried deep into the darkness.
The chamber’s contents offer a moment frozen in time from the final chapters of Neanderthal existence. But the larger story of who occupied these caves, and when they vanished, has become one of the most contested questions in paleoanthropology.
The Gorham’s Cave complex, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016, contains evidence that some Neanderthal populations may have survived in southern Iberia thousands of years after their disappearance elsewhere in Europe.
That claim, based on radiocarbon dates from the site’s deepest layers, has faced sustained scrutiny from researchers who question whether the dates can bear the weight of the interpretation.
The sealed chamber cannot resolve that debate directly, but it preserves materials in contexts uncontaminated by millennia of subsequent activity, offering opportunities for fresh analysis using techniques unavailable when the main excavations began.
A 100,000-Year Record Etched in Stone and Shell
The four caves that comprise the complex, Gorham’s, Vanguard, Hyaena, and Bennett’s, sit against steep limestone cliffs on Gibraltar’s Mediterranean coast. Although first identified in 1907, formal excavations did not begin until the 1980s, when researchers recognized the depth and preservation of the archaeological deposits.
No Neanderthal or modern human skeletal remains have been found inside, but the material evidence of occupation spans more than 100,000 years.
Level IV at Gorham’s Cave, the Mousterian horizon associated exclusively with Neanderthal occupation, has yielded a sequence of 22 accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates.
Based on these measurements, researchers reported in a 2008 analysis published in Quaternary International that Neanderthal occupation persisted until approximately 24,000 years ago.
The study noted that the overlying Level III, which contains Upper Palaeolithic tools, does not appear until around 18,500 years ago, leaving a dating interval of more than four thousand years separating the two horizons.
The site’s excavators have recovered extensive evidence of marine resource exploitation. A 2016 study in Quaternary International examined marine molluscs from the 1998 to 2005 excavations, comparing levels associated with Neanderthals and later modern humans.
The analysis found a high degree of consistency in how marine molluscs were exploited across the transition, with species collected in proportion to their relative abundance and accessibility.
The primary difference, the authors noted, was an absence of evidence for shell collection for decorative purposes in the Middle Palaeolithic levels, though the small sample size precluded excluding this possibility entirely.
In 2014, researchers documented abstract engravings on the bedrock of Gorham’s Cave in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The cross hatching patterns, deeply scratched into the stone, were dated to more than 39,000 years ago and attributed to Neanderthal authors based on their stratigraphic context.
Inside the 40,000-Year-Old Time Capsule
The 2021 discovery at Vanguard Cave involved a 13 meter deep chamber that had been completely sealed by sediment accumulation. Based on the depth and composition of the sealing layer, as reported by IFLScience, researchers estimated the chamber had remained closed for at least 40,000 years.
Initial analysis identified remains of lynx, hyena, and vulture within the chamber. The team also recovered the shell of a large whelk, an edible marine snail, which must have been transported to the chamber given its distance from the contemporary shoreline.
The Gibraltar National Museum, which manages the property, continues to analyze materials from the chamber. The sealed context eliminates the possibility of vertical mixing of artifacts and faunal remains, a persistent challenge in open cave excavations where burrowing animals, flowing water, and human activity can move materials between layers.
What Drove the Last Neanderthals From Their Refuge
Researchers have proposed that ecological diversity within the Gibraltar region enabled Neanderthals to persist longer here than elsewhere in Europe. The faunal assemblage recovered from Level IV includes two amphibian species, seven reptiles, 44 bird species, and 11 large mammal species.
Based on this diversity, the 2008 analysis argued that the environment surrounding the caves provided a mosaic of wooded areas, open terrain, and accessible coastline within foraging distance.
A 2007 study in Quaternary Science Reviews examined marine core data to reconstruct climatic conditions during the period of final Neanderthal occupation. The analysis identified Heinrich event 2, a period of extreme cold and aridity between 25,500 and 22,500 calibrated years before present, as the most severe climatic downturn in the previous 250,000 years.
The authors linked this event to the final disappearance of Neanderthals from the Gibraltar region.
The stratigraphic gap at Gorham’s Cave provides no evidence of direct contact or competition between Neanderthals and modern humans. Whether the two populations overlapped temporally or geographically in this region cannot be determined from current evidence.
Preserving the Past for Future Tools Not Yet Invented
The Gibraltar Museum operates under a five year archaeological action plan that balances continued excavation with conservation of remaining deposits. Access to the caves is strictly controlled, and visitors must be accompanied by guides approved by the museum director.
The sealed chamber discovered in 2021 will undergo continued documentation before deeper excavation proceeds. Researchers must balance the scientific value of recovering additional materials against the irreversible destruction of the pristine context that excavation entails.
The chamber’s contents will be analyzed using current methods and preserved for future researchers with access to techniques not yet developed.
See more here indiandefencereview.com
Header image: Clive Finlayson, Gibraltar Museum