Story at a glance
- Archaeologists from the Gibraltar National Museum began studying Vanguard Cave in 2012.
- Just last month, researchers crawled through a gap in the sediment and discovered a “large chamber at the very back” of the cave.
- The team uncovered a number of interesting findings in the chamber, including the remains of lynx, hyaena and griffon vultures, as well as scratch marks on the walls made by an unidentified carnivore.
Researchers have discovered a hidden chamber that’s been sealed off for at least 40,000 years on the Rock of Gibraltar where Neanderthals are estimated to have lived for more than 100,000 years.
Archaeologists from the Gibraltar National Museum began studying Vanguard Cave, which is part of the Gorham’s Cave complex, in 2012 to determine whether the cave had unknown passages or chambers that may be hidden by sediment.
Just last month, researchers found a gap in the sediment and discovered a “large chamber at the very back” of the cave.
“Preliminary investigation has revealed a 13-metre [42-feet] chamber on the very roof of the cave,” researchers said in a release.
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The team uncovered a number of interesting findings in the chamber, including the remains of lynx, hyaena and griffon vultures, as well as scratch marks on the walls made by an unidentified carnivore.
A large whelk shell was also found in the back of the cave, an interesting discovery since the chamber is a fair distance from the coast.
“The whelk is at the back of that cave…it’s probably about 20 meters from the beach,” Clive Finlayson, director and chief scientist at the Gibraltar National Museum, told 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,” he told the news outlet.
Gorham’s Cave complex is made up of four caves and is considered to be the last known habitats of the Neanderthals in Europe.
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