Date Published: 11/06/2021
ARCHIVED - Barcelona palaeontologists return to prehistoric Cueva Victoria site in Cartagena this summer
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The caves are thought to contain remains of the first hominids to cross from Africa to Europe a million years ago
An agreement has been reached between the Town Hall of Cartagena and researchers at the University of Barcelona by which excavation at the prehistoric site of Cueva Victoria, close to the motorway which leads to La Manga del Mar Menor, will resume this summer.
This year’s dig will be led by Carles Ferrández-Cañadell of the University of Barcelona and Olaya García-Nos of the UNED, and one of the first tasks will be to evaluate the condition of the site, which is considered one of the jewels of the Lower Pleistocene and contains fossils dating back to over a million years ago. The collaboration between the Town Hall and the University is not as old, but began as long ago as 1987, and is now being re-inaugurated after a 10-year hiatus. In the meantime excavations have been performed by other groups.
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. Human 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.