Every year without fail the Gorham’s Cave Complex summer dig unearths new findings for the archaeologists and this year is no exception, with the dig perhaps more exciting than usual.

The Director of the Gibraltar Museum, Professor Clive Finlayson, said that he is unable to make public what has been found because of the process involving experts outside of Gibraltar, but promised that it is “exciting” news and a great Neanderthal find.

Prof Finlayson explained that the UNESCO World Heritage Site is an ancient seabed that has been pushed up over millions of years due to the movement of tectonic plates, particularly the collision of Africa and Europe plates. The site contains limestone and sandstone formations, which provide valuable insights into the geological history of the region.

While one group of people work on this developing find, another group are working on a different part of Vanguard Cave and what is being uncovered there.

The excavation site has revealed evidence of Neanderthal activity dating back over 100,000 years. Neanderthals were found to have exploited marine mammals like monk seals and dolphins, indicating their ability to intelligently utilise the resources available in their environment.

The excavation team is using scientific techniques, such as optically stimulated luminescence dating, radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and microscopic analysis of sediment layers and bones, to gain a deeper understanding of the site’s history and the activities of its former inhabitants.

So far this summer, archaeologists have been able to uncover evidence of fireplaces, stone tools, and animal exploitation.

Dr Richard Jennings, Reader/ Associate Professor in Archaeology at the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, is conducting the work with some of his students.

“This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I would say the ‘E’ stands for education.

So, it’s really important that we offer the next generation of students,” said Dr Jennings.

Dr Jennings was part of a 1998 excavation that unearthed important evidence of marine life exploitation such as of monkfish and dolphins by Neanderthals. This information which was groundbreaking at the time and was published in a prominent scientific journal.

He explained that at the time the common view of Neanderthals was that they were simple cavemen and not intelligent or sophisticated people like ourselves.

“What effectively happened is that, through excavations such as this one, we found out that they were actually capable of exploiting shellfish and exploiting marine mammals,” he said.

“And you might think ‘well, that’s not a big deal, because the sea is just there’. But you have to put your mind in place and think what did it look like back in time.”

“When we talk about all those years ago, the environment was way different around here, and the sea wasn’t here. The sea was around two to three kilometres out.”

“And they brought them in.

And this is what we were finding in the late 1990s,” he added.

He added this year, the objective is to carry on the work of last year and to reinvestigate this area given that technology has moved on from 25 years ago.

One such piece of technology being used is a 3D handheld scanner.

The same area that featured in the published paper back in 2008 is being explored. The paper reported they were bringing in mollusc shells, it also reported on the findings of stone tools.

“Those stone tools were able to be refitted back together. When you knap a stone tool, there are bits of flint everywhere.

As archaeologists we find a bit here, a bit there and it is actually like a 3D puzzle, we can put it back together, recreate the rock it comes from,” said Dr Jennings.

“If we know that we’ve got these little bits of flakes together, we know that someone was knapping, here.

They weren’t just bringing in the tool and using it here.”

“The fact that we can fit them means it’s really remarkable, because it means that many, many tens of thousands years ago, right in this spot, there were Neanderthals doing something, it has been frozen in time covered up by sand, and it’s still there.”

“That’s what makes these caves so unique, so special, is the fact that you’ve preservation of moments in time.”

He added that there are other sites around Iberia that are uncovering artefacts that were first found in Gibraltar. As a result, they now know it was not just a one-off.

They also found the bones of baby seals which could indicate their taste preference and the fact they would have hunted them seasonally. Dr Jennings likened it to people today eating lamb and not mutton.

“We can tell the same with the shellfish too. You can look at the little bands on the shellfish and work out what season they may have been here, so we need to do all this investigation again. But the idea is they are quite deliberate in their actions and their activities,” said Dr Jennings.

“There’s also we found many bones of terrestrial animals, like the Ibex and red deer, so they were combining and exploiting a range of different resources on the landscape.”

He noted that a stream, which was two kilometres away, but is underwater now and was found by Professor Geraldine Finlayson from the Gibraltar Museum, would have also been a place they could have found animals. They would have used the caves for shelter from the sun and from predators, because there were hyenas and lions.

During the excavation work done years ago, a small bit of a fireplace was found. This is what the students and Dr Jennings are working on now.

“At the moment it just looks like a lot of black sludge.

But we have a geochemical specialist coming next week from the University of Granada and he’ll be sampling this and looking at geochemical signature,” said Dr Jennings.

“There are multiple fireplaces and we will be able to work out what the different geochemical components is.”

“Just earlier on in the week, we had Professor Paul Goldberg, a soil micropathologist. When you look at soil stratigraphy, you look at different layers, you can look at it visually. But also you can take blocks… then you can cut it with a sore into very fine thin sections. And you can look at under the microscope, and you can see all the tiny layers at a microscopic level.

And that’s what he does.”

“We’ll have those analyses to come and the geochemical analysis to come as well,” he added.

Annie Mullen is a second year student at Liverpool John Moores University studying forensic anthropology.

“This was just such a crazy opportunity to come here. It’s not every day that people go off with one of their lecturers and dig for a month, even when they’re doing archaeology. It’s just a great opportunity and you don’t really want to let it slip,” she said.

On the work they are doing, she noted it was interesting to watch and see how much work really goes into it, it’s not just dig and throw something into a bag.

They have to measure exactly where it was, label everything, bag everything, then document that.

“It’s intense. Much work actually goes into it, even though I’ve been doing the scanning and stuff something I never even heard of. So it’s interesting to see,” she said.

Molly Fitzsimons is in the same class as Ms Mullen and she too has been in Gibraltar for the past month.

For her, the most interesting aspect of the work she is carrying out is “learning so much, especially the soil, and how you can see such different and clear stratigraphy within the soil is amazing and that really interested me.”

This was not her first dig with Dr Jennings as she has been on a dig in Ireland before.

But she has found that with Vanguard Cave as they are being more precise and recording everything.

While she has so far found typical items like bones, Ms Fitzsimons said she is happy with any finds because she is interested in all facets of how the Neanderthals lived in the cave complex.

Her inquisitive nature, her interest in history, her love for learning about the past and how humans got here and survived, “why are we here and they [Neanderthals] are not,” is why she is studying this branch of science.

Hebe Unwin is doing her masters in forensic anthropology at Liverpool John Moore University.

She did her undergraduate in forensic biology and the one thing that she wanted to go back and learn more on was the human anatomy side, the identification side.

When looking at graduate careers, she stumbled on forensic anthropology.

“I was like ‘yes, this is exactly the sort of thing I want to be into’.”

“I applied, thankfully got in [and] I have ended up going down a route I would never have imagined if you told me a year or two ago. I couldn’t be happier doing it.”

This is her second time on a dig, and she thinks it is both “weird and wonderful” to be excavating a place where Neanderthals once were.

“I think it’s one of those things where it’s, it’s so crazy to think about, like where I am sat, with my square, and if you go back in time a neanderthal could very well have been sat where I’m sat at this fire,” she said.

“It’s such a crazy thought to be in that aspect of history and you’re uncovering things. You’re going through these layers that haven’t been seen since Neanderthals were sat there themselves.”

“I think it’s just been a great experience, very fortunate for the museum to offer it and for Richard as well, who organises it for us the students. I’m very thankful they’ve got a really good relationship there.”

The second and final instalment of the series focusing on Gorham’s Cave will be published in tomorrow’s edition.