BBC features Gorham’s in Neanderthal series

Gorham’s Cave is now featured on the BBC Earth website through a series of five mini documentaries on Neanderthal history.

The five minute videos focus on the lives of Neanderthals and how they became extinct with a particular focus on those which lived locally within Gorham’s Cave.

Professor Clive Finlayson and his team from the Gibraltar Museum were followed around the cave where they described how the Neanderthals made tools to hunt their prey and how they set camp in the cave.

The team also dissected a dead vulture showing how the Neanderthals would wear its feathers for adornment.

The BBC series aims to recreate the last days of the last Neanderthals and featured the ‘hashtag’ scratched into the floor of Gorham’s, posing the question of whether it is Neanderthal art.

Within the series Professor Finlayson discussed the death of Neanderthals and how humans replaced them. He spoke of how Neanderthal could not adapt to the quickly changing climate that saw rainforests disappear into plain land where humans had the upper hand.

“[Humans] suddenly found a moment of luck where they could spread into this world,” Professor Finlayson said in the miniseries.

He added: “But of course it could have gone the other way. I mean I always say had the climate warmed and got wetter instead of warmer and dryer we might be Neanderthals today discussing the demise of the modern humans.”

The series can be seen on: http://www.bbc.com/earth/world.