Gorham's Cave
Encyclopedia
Gorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in Gibraltar
, considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthal
s. It is located on the south east face of the Rock of Gibraltar
. When first inhabited, it would have been approximately five kilometres from the shore but, due to changes in sea level, it is now only a few metres from the Mediterranean Sea
.
who discovered it in 1907 when opening a fissure at the back of a sea cavern. Capt. Gorham inscribed his name and the date of his discovery in lamp-black on the wall of the cave which has borne his name ever since. After this initial discovery, it seems the cave was forgotten at least at an official level as Gibraltarian
historian
and potholer
, George Palao, recalls an inscription on the cave wall that read "J. J. Davies 1943"
interest.
, craftsmen
Keighley and Ward, were the first to find an archaeological deposit in the cave when the beach leading to Gorham’s Cave (Governor's Beach) became temporarily accessible from the cliffs above via a pile of spoil
that resulted from tunnelling inside The Rock. Gibraltar newspaper reports of the time report that a quantity of pottery
, stone tool
s (from the Neanderthal
period), and some human and animal remains had been unearthed at the cave. The Royal Engineers told Rev. F.E. Brown of the Gibraltar Society of their findings who in turn informed the Governor of Gibraltar
, who visited the site and called for further investigations to be carried out. The results of these investigations were detailed in a report sent to the British Museum
and the cave was closed pending their advice on the matter.
In 1945, a Lieutenant
George Baker Alexander, Royal Engineer and a graduate geologist
from University of Cambridge
arrived in Gibraltar and, in his own time, conducted a thorough geological survey
of Gibraltar which concluded with the production of a new geological map
of The Rock. Lt. Alexander became the first to excavate Gorham’s Cave but details such as the date or from whom he obtained permission are unknown. Any personal records were never made public. It is known however, that his excavations in the cave were carried out before his forced departure from Gibraltar in 1948 when the Gibraltar Museum Committee challenged his methods.
In the spring of 1948, the Governor was once again in correspondence with the British Museum requesting that they continue any further explorations of the cave. However, the British Museum had no staff available at this time and forwarded his letters to Professor
Dorothy Garrod
at Cambridge who had previously excavated at another site in Gibraltar, Devil’s Tower Rock Shelter, in 1927 to 1928. She was also unable to undertake the work and asked Dr. John D'A Waechter, a fellow of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara
, if he could fit the work into his own programme in Turkey
. Dr. Waechter arrived in Gibraltar in September 1948 and spent two months digging test pits to see if an extensive excavation was justified. Waechter reported his success verbally to the Government of Gibraltar and arranged to continue on a larger scale the following year. Dr. Waechter returned to Gibraltar again in June 1950, and except for a six week break in September and October, he worked through until March 1951. He went back to England
without concluding the work and returned in February 1952, working through until July that year. During his final visit in 1954 he found that his funds for research were insufficient to enable him to complete the excavations so he requested financial assistance from the local government. The standing Finance Committee subsequently approved his plea and he was able to complete his excavation programme.
. The first level has produced evidence for 8th to 3rd centuries BC use by Phoenicia
ns. Below that is evidence for brief Neolithic
use. Level III has yielded at least 240 Upper Paleolithic
artefacts of Magdalenian
and Solutrean
origin. Level IV has produced 103 items, including spear-points, knives and scraping devices, identified as Mousterian
, and shows repeated use over thousands of years. AMS
dating gives dates for this level of between 33 and 23 kyr BP — the researchers felt that the uncertainties at this time depth made calibration impractical. They suggest occupation until at least 28 kyr BP and possibly 24 kyr BP. No fossil remains have been found that would allow identification pointing to either Neanderthal
or Anatomically Modern Human inhabitants, nor associate with findings of a modern human in nearby Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal
of 24,500 years ago that allegedly featured Neanderthal admixtures
, but Mousterian culture is normally identified with Neanderthals in Europe.
World Heritage Site
. Professor Clive Finlayson, Director of the Gibraltar Museum, is responsible of co-ordinating the efforts to achieve such nomination. The first step has been the submission of a proposal to the United Kingdom
cultural authorities
in order to get Gorham's Cave added to the UK's World Heritage Tentative List. Such a list is revised every 10 years, and the process for a new list was ongoing at the date of the submission.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
s. It is located on the south east face of the Rock of Gibraltar
Rock of Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promontory located in Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is high...
. When first inhabited, it would have been approximately five kilometres from the shore but, due to changes in sea level, it is now only a few metres from the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
.
Discovery
The cave is named after Captain A. Gorham of the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster FusiliersRoyal Munster Fusiliers
The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army. One of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, it had its home depot in Tralee. It was originally formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of two regiments of the former East India Company. It served in India and...
who discovered it in 1907 when opening a fissure at the back of a sea cavern. Capt. Gorham inscribed his name and the date of his discovery in lamp-black on the wall of the cave which has borne his name ever since. After this initial discovery, it seems the cave was forgotten at least at an official level as Gibraltarian
Gibraltarian people
The Gibraltarians are a cultural group native to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean sea.- Origins :...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and potholer
Caving
Caving—also occasionally known as spelunking in the United States and potholing in the United Kingdom—is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems...
, George Palao, recalls an inscription on the cave wall that read "J. J. Davies 1943"
Archaeology
Since its discovery, Gorham's Cave has been a site of considerable archaeologicalArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
interest.
History
A few years later two Royal EngineersRoyal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
, craftsmen
Craftsman
Craftsman may refer to:* Craftsman , a brand of tools* Master craftsman, an artisan who practices a handicraft or trade* a style of architecture and furniture arising from the British Arts and crafts style...
Keighley and Ward, were the first to find an archaeological deposit in the cave when the beach leading to Gorham’s Cave (Governor's Beach) became temporarily accessible from the cliffs above via a pile of spoil
Spoil
Spoil or spoils:*Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.*Material removed during:**excavation**mining**dredging*An Australian rules football tactic, see One percenter #Spoil...
that resulted from tunnelling inside The Rock. Gibraltar newspaper reports of the time report that a quantity of pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
, stone tool
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
s (from the Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
period), and some human and animal remains had been unearthed at the cave. The Royal Engineers told Rev. F.E. Brown of the Gibraltar Society of their findings who in turn informed the Governor of Gibraltar
Governor of Gibraltar
The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The Governor is appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the British Government...
, who visited the site and called for further investigations to be carried out. The results of these investigations were detailed in a report sent to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and the cave was closed pending their advice on the matter.
In 1945, a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
George Baker Alexander, Royal Engineer and a graduate geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
from University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
arrived in Gibraltar and, in his own time, conducted a thorough geological survey
Geological survey
The term geological survey can be used to describe both the conduct of a survey for geological purposes and an institution holding geological information....
of Gibraltar which concluded with the production of a new geological map
Geologic map
A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show geological features. Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols to indicate where they are exposed at the surface...
of The Rock. Lt. Alexander became the first to excavate Gorham’s Cave but details such as the date or from whom he obtained permission are unknown. Any personal records were never made public. It is known however, that his excavations in the cave were carried out before his forced departure from Gibraltar in 1948 when the Gibraltar Museum Committee challenged his methods.
In the spring of 1948, the Governor was once again in correspondence with the British Museum requesting that they continue any further explorations of the cave. However, the British Museum had no staff available at this time and forwarded his letters to Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod CBE was a British archaeologist who was the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair, partly through her pioneering work on the Palaeolithic period. Her father was Sir Archibald Garrod, the physician.-Life:Born in Oxford, she attended Newnham College, Cambridge...
at Cambridge who had previously excavated at another site in Gibraltar, Devil’s Tower Rock Shelter, in 1927 to 1928. She was also unable to undertake the work and asked Dr. John D'A Waechter, a fellow of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, if he could fit the work into his own programme in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Dr. Waechter arrived in Gibraltar in September 1948 and spent two months digging test pits to see if an extensive excavation was justified. Waechter reported his success verbally to the Government of Gibraltar and arranged to continue on a larger scale the following year. Dr. Waechter returned to Gibraltar again in June 1950, and except for a six week break in September and October, he worked through until March 1951. He went back to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
without concluding the work and returned in February 1952, working through until July that year. During his final visit in 1954 he found that his funds for research were insufficient to enable him to complete the excavations so he requested financial assistance from the local government. The standing Finance Committee subsequently approved his plea and he was able to complete his excavation programme.
Ongoing excavation
Excavation of this site has resulted in the discovery of four layers of stratigraphyStratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....
. The first level has produced evidence for 8th to 3rd centuries BC use by Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
ns. Below that is evidence for brief Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
use. Level III has yielded at least 240 Upper Paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
artefacts of Magdalenian
Magdalenian
The Magdalenian , refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe, dating from around 17,000 BP to 9,000 BP...
and Solutrean
Solutrean
The Solutrean industry is a relatively advanced flint tool-making style of the Upper Palaeolithic, from around 22,000 to 17,000 BP.-Details:...
origin. Level IV has produced 103 items, including spear-points, knives and scraping devices, identified as Mousterian
Mousterian
Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.-Naming:...
, and shows repeated use over thousands of years. AMS
Accelerator mass spectrometry
Accelerator mass spectrometry differs from other forms of mass spectrometry in that it accelerates ions to extraordinarily high kinetic energies before mass analysis. The special strength of AMS among the mass spectrometric methods is its power to separate a rare isotope from an abundant...
dating gives dates for this level of between 33 and 23 kyr BP — the researchers felt that the uncertainties at this time depth made calibration impractical. They suggest occupation until at least 28 kyr BP and possibly 24 kyr BP. No fossil remains have been found that would allow identification pointing to either Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
or Anatomically Modern Human inhabitants, nor associate with findings of a modern human in nearby Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
of 24,500 years ago that allegedly featured Neanderthal admixtures
Genetic admixture
Genetic admixture occurs when individuals from two or more previously separated populations begin interbreeding. Admixture results in the introduction of new genetic lineages into a population. It has been known to slow local adaptation by introducing foreign, unadapted genotypes...
, but Mousterian culture is normally identified with Neanderthals in Europe.
UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination
In November 2010, the Government of Gibraltar announced that Gorham's Cave would be put forward for potential nomination as a UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. Professor Clive Finlayson, Director of the Gibraltar Museum, is responsible of co-ordinating the efforts to achieve such nomination. The first step has been the submission of a proposal to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
cultural authorities
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
in order to get Gorham's Cave added to the UK's World Heritage Tentative List. Such a list is revised every 10 years, and the process for a new list was ongoing at the date of the submission.