In 2012, a group of archaeologists began exploring the Vanguard Cave, part of the Gorham Caves, to see if hidden rooms or passages that had been blocked by sand could be found.
Last month, the researchers got a surprise when they finally came across a crack in the sediment, which they expanded and crawled through.
The find attracts attention: – Spectacular
What awaited the researchers on the other side was a room of 13 meters where stalactites hung from the ceiling and a pile of broken stones. The damage suggests that there was an earthquake several thousand years ago.
– It’s a bit of a chamber. In a way, it’s almost like discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb. You enter a room where there have been no people for 40,000 years. It is actually quite sober, says the leader of the excavation, Clive Finlayson, to The Guardian.
People in the caves
Inside the chamber were found a bone from a lynx, vertebrae from a hyena and the wing bone from a vulture.
– There is something that has drawn those animals in there a long time ago. We have also found six or seven specimens of scratches after chlorine marks in the caves. We usually attach these kinds of claw marks to bears, and we have found remains of bears in the cave, but they are a bit small. I wonder if it is actually the lynx that has actually scratched the walls, says Finlayson to the newspaper.
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Although the bones are interesting finds in themselves, the team also found a skull from a dog. The discovery may have opened up for several exciting theories.
– The room in the cave is about 20 meters above sea level today, so it is clear that someone who took it up there once 40,000 years ago. It is already a hint that there have been people there, says the professor.
Elsewhere in the caves, the team has found much evidence that there have been Neanderthals there. From both fireplaces and stone tools to the remains of slaughtered animals, such as red deer, ibex, seals and dolphins.
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– Changes vision
Four years ago, researchers found the baby tooth of a four-year-old Neanderthal child in an area where there were several hyenas.
– We are still in the process of doing research in that area, but when we found the tooth, there were not many signs that Neanderthals had lived in that area of the cave. Therefore, we suspect that the hyenas have captured the child and dragged it with it into the bottom of the cave. We are now in the process of seeing if we can find more parts of this child, says Finlayson.
The team of archaeologists is now hoping to find more side chambers or a burial site by digging down from the top of the cave.
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– We have found more evidence that there was habitation in this cave, such as bonfires and so on. We have not yet found the place where they buried their own. There may be a room at the back of a cave. This is pure speculation, but you do not bury people in the kitchen or in your living room, says Finlayson.
– This killed the Neanderthals
For the professor, it’s about more than just finding new skeletons. He wants to find out who the Neanderthals were, how they lived, how they died and how they survived.
– The caves have given us a lot of information about the behavior of these people. This changes the old view of Neanderthals as brutal, monkey-like creatures. Now we realize that they were like humans and that they were able to do most of what modern humans can do today, says the researcher.
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