Portal de Caravaca de la Cruz
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Students of Murcia, USA, Australia, UK and Canada have participated in the last excavation campaign
Emeritus professor of Zoology and Physical Anthropology at the University of Murcia, Michael J. Walker, has announced the results of the XXVII campaign paleoanthropological and caravaqueño archaeological excavations in the site of the Black Cave.
The co-director of the excavation has been accompanied by the Councillor for Culture, Oscar Martinez, and the headman of the Incarnation, Antonio Muñoz, who thanked the work being done by the Murcia Association for the Study of Paleoanthropology and Quaternary (Mupantquat) , chaired by Michael J. Walker, who on Sunday will dedicate a street, according to resolution adopted in plenary.
According to Professor Walker, the Black Cave continues to provide a wealth of information about the behavior of early hominids, maintaining its status as a key site for understanding human evolution and Paleoanthropology.
"Year after year we continue with great momentum and enthusiasm, research to understand and to respond to the numerous questions posed by the origin of human beings," said the professor.
In the campaign of excavation carried out this July has continued investigating the impressive evidence of use of fire by the old man who was first detected in the campaign of 2011, in a very deep layer 5 meters of sediment accumulation of Old Pleistocene.
The question of when man was able to control the fire has recently focused the debate within the scientific community, especially following the publication of the report on the Black Cave in the prestigious 'Antiquity'.
In this regard, Walker has said it is the first time a research team murciano able to publish this magazine recognized.
"Remnants of homes, or indirect evidence of fire in several sites in Africa and Eurasia are known, most of them from the Middle Pleistocene, but finding such evidence in an older chronology is extremely rare, and this happens in the Black Cave, which it has been documented the presence of in situ fire in an age of more than 800ka, being by far the fire, or if possible, home, oldest found in Europe to date, and one of the oldest in the world " he explained the professor.
The site of the Black River Cave Strait Quípar has between 900,000 and 800,000 years old, which corresponds to the end of the Pleistocene Old or Lower.
The cave was frequented by humans who left traces of their presence in the form of remnants of the fire and a hand ax, both the oldest in Europe, and other useful Palaeolithic minors and abundant faunal remains.
Ancient humans probably belonged to the extinct species of "Man of Heidelberg" or Homo heidelbergensis who lived in Europe between 900,000 and 150,000 years in the Pleistocene and was ancestral species of "Neanderthal Man" or Homo neanderthalensis who lived between 150,000 and 40,000 years in Europe.
During the first half of July, twenty students and teachers has been part of the XXVII Campaign Archaeological Excavation of the Black Cave.
In the field school they have participated experts and students of the University of Murcia, with students coming from US, UK, Canada, China and Australia.
The work has been co-directed by Professors Michael J. Walker, Mariano Martinez and Maria Lopez Uriarte Haber.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Caravaca de la Cruz
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