Date Published: 20/08/2021
ARCHIVED - Summer palaeontological excavation concludes in the Cueva Victoria in Cartagena
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Cartagena council continues to work towards its long-term plan of opening the site to the public
The summer excavation campaign in the Cueva Victoria, Cartagena, has come to an end, the team led by Carles Ferrández-Cañadell of the University of Barcelona and Olaya García-Nos of the UNED spending much of their time preparing the remains already uncovered for the conversion of the site into a visitable attraction which the council plans to partially open for public visits.
The caves of the Victoria complex were formed by a geological movement nearly 3.5 million years ago, and during the 2 million years which followed they gradually filled with accumulated silt, washed in by the rain. This in turn created a unique storehouse of fossils, and later, around 1.2 million years ago they were inhabited by a prehistoric species of hyena, a much larger and more powerful animal than its modern descendants, which weighed in at around 120 kilos and had astonishingly powerful jaws.
Many of the bones found in the caves bear tooth marks which show that carcasses were dragged into the caves and devoured here, and the huge accumulations and volume of bones found indicate that a considerable number of hyenas lived here over a long period of time.
Other remains found by palaeontologists over the last 30 years include those of elephants, horses, dolphins, bird species and even toads which were not formerly thought to have lived in this area 1.2 million years ago, but it was the finding of human remains from the same period in the caves that sparked worldwide scientific excitement. Hominid bones from a million years ago are indescribably rare, and while some still doubt that those discovered in Cueva Victoria actually belong to our forefathers many believe they are evidence of the first hominids to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Europe.
The council in Cartagena continues to work towards plans to open the caves for tourism.
Limited new excavations have been undertaken in this latest campaign to locate new areas and hidden cavities; work has also been undertaken to elaborate moulds and make replicas of a section of pit breccia of great interest (breccia being sedimentary rock comprising angular fragments of stones cemented together by finer, calcerous material), which will be used in the fabrication of reproductions to be exhibited as part of the musealization of the site and conservation of fossil materials that, for various reasons, cannot be extracted from the site has been undertaken.
In December last year the preliminary phase of the musealization project began, which involved improving and guaranteeing security at access points and the second phase, currently underway, involves the conditioning and security of the interior, including geotechnical studies for which a new system is being used. The third phase, which will follow, will allow the site to be opened to the public in the future.
The council has already offered a very limited number of visits, but the few places available are always filled within minutes of booking being opened and the tours have been in Spanish; in the future, it is to be hoped that the needs and interests of non-Spanish speaking visitors will be catered for.
Images: Ayto-Cartagena