Public Research Lecture: Professor Geraldine Finlayson

Gibraltar preserves one of the most enduring records of Neanderthal occupation in Europe, spanning from MIS 5e to the terminal phases of MIS 3. Eight Mousterian sites, including Gorham’s and Vanguard Caves, offer a unique palaeoenvironmental archive through fossil, charcoal, and pollen assemblages, complemented by geomorphological features such as dune complexes, raised beaches, and speleothems. During this period, from 125,000 to 34,000 years ago, these caves overlooked an emerged coastal shelf whose biotic composition — reconstructed juniper habitats of Doñana National Park, enabling quantitative modelling of shelf vegetation structure and dynamics. Pollen and charcoal data from Gorham’s Cave reveal a thermomediterranean landscape rich in oak, pine, juniper, savannahs, wetlands, and coastal scrub, persisting through the climatic oscillations of the last glacial cycle, which harboured a unique blend of plant and animal taxa.

By integrating palaeoecological data with modern analogues from the Doñana Reserve, I will reconstruct the seasonal and hydrological variability of the ancient coastal plain.

In addition to the multiple sources of evidence for the systematic use of coastal ecosystems and resources by Neanderthals, fossil hominin footprints now offer direct portraits of individual or social group presence and locomotor behaviour, and interspecific interactions, in the coastal ecospace. I will end with a summary of our recent research in this field which gives us clues as to how Neanderthals behaved in this coastal landscape.