First Author

Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, has made it his mission to research Neanderthals, the Iberian peninsula's early inhabitants. Since 1997, he and his team have been excavating Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar. The fruits of their labour, revealed on page 850, suggest that Neanderthals occupied the cave some 24,000–28,000 years ago, making it one of their last strongholds. Finlayson spoke to Nature about the dig.

Describe Gorham's Cave. Was it a prehistoric 'Club Med'?

It must have been a great place. It faces the Mediterranean Sea, with the beach about 40–50 metres from the entrance. Pollen records show the climate wasn't bad either.

How hard was it to excavate?

It's a massive cavern with archaeological deposits 18 metres thick. To reach it, you must go 350 steps down a cliff. Our results come from an area just over 2 metres thick, which took us about 10 years to dig. I'm not going to be the one to finish the work being done there. I've already accepted that.

How did you check that modern cave-dwellers didn't contaminate the Neanderthal level?

One of our many collaborators, Francisco Jimenez Espejo, works with marine cores drilled from the sea bed. He drilled cores into the two critical levels: the modern and Neanderthal. Analysis of 40 trace elements was done blindly and showed the chemical signature of each level to be uncontaminated.

What's the biggest misconception about Neanderthals?

People still think of Neanderthals as apemen without any kind of cognitive abilities, which is quite surprising as they survived for 300,000 years — much longer than we've yet survived.

What were the final years like for the Neanderthals?

We think that climate had a lot to do with their dwindling numbers and eventual extinction. Neanderthals were used to a semi-wooded landscape. As the climate turned Europe into a more treeless tundra and steppe environment, the Neanderthals didn't adapt well. By then, the populations were so small that any number of factors, such as disease, could have caused their ultimate extinction.

What's next?

We want to excavate the cave next door — trial excavations have confirmed that Neanderthals lived there. And at the back of Gorham's Cave we hope to excavate a 30-metre narrow passageway, which might have been a burial site. Who knows, maybe we'll be lucky and find more Neanderthals.