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José Rodríguez Cámara
Rincón de la Victoria
Tuesday, 12 November 2024, 13:55
In the 19th century someone noted on an illustration of the Neanderthals, which had been revised in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, a beacon in the study of prehistory, that they were "too human". This assessment marked the subsequent development, up to the present day, of graphic representations of our ancestors, who appear as brutal beings and more monkeys than humans.
But in Malaga a group of researchers has been trying to dispute this image, The researchers include Malaga-born María del Mar Espejo, Luis-Efrén Fernández, José Ramos, Cristina Liñán, Yolanda del Rosal, José Antonio Molina, Antonio Aranda and Pedro Cantalejo.
All of them, with the invaluable help of the illustrator Guillermo Espejo Rubio, have set out to update the portraits of the Neanderthal and Homo sapiens groups, starting with those who inhabited the Cueva de la Victoria and the Galería del Higuerón, inside the Cueva del Tesoro, between Rincón de la Victoria and La Cala del Moral on the eastern stretch of the Costa del Sol. This is where the last Neanderthals and the first Homo Sapiens sought refuge forty thousand years ago, and where they lived until 9,500 years ago.
Pedro Cantalejo made it clear that the archaeological results of the excavation in these caves, processed in 2024 in different laboratories, inside and outside Spain, allow us to ensure that they were not so different. “A substitution has been proposed, but the evidence suggests that what happened was a hybridisation, in which, yes, the sapiens, who were more numerous, finally absorbed the Neanderthals,” he said. “A lot of effort has been put into emphasising the differences, but there were many similarities. That is why we have worked on these representations, to show that they had similar traits,” explained the expert.
The scientists have established that for example during the Palaeolithic period, both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had a very similar diet, 70% of which was based on sea food: sea bream, shellfish and, occasionally, a cetacean, probably stranded on the beaches, as attested to by the skeletal remains of a dolphin.
Likewise, it is clear that they hunted rabbits and mountain goats and that they used fire to cook them. Cantalejo points out that they were taken to the cave for consumption; in other words, they had a very similar day-to-day life.
The archaeological project in the Cueva de la Victoria and the Galería del Higuerón, therefore, where, unlike other caves, there is a clear level of Palaeolithic excavation, with a large number of remains, opens up a large number of possibilities, both for archaeological progress and for dissemination. For this reason, after checking the details of clothing, tools, ways of life and work, very basic characters and scenes have been depicted, thanks to the illustrator of this group of researchers.
The idea, Cantalejo stressed, is to obtain descriptive graphic panels that are capable of compressing the scientific information; an image that helps all kinds of people of all ages to understand who these Palaeolithic inhabitants of Malaga’s coastline were, how they lived, what they lived on, how they dressed, and to contemplate their appearance, in accordance with anthropological data that are in accordance with the evidence obtained.
The research team working in Rincón de la Victoria are very keen to convey the importance of the field work being carried out in these caves, which means that visits to the Cueva de la Victoria and the Galería del Higuerón are still open during the archaeological excavations, allowing for a unique approach.
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