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Excavating Neanderthals in Gibraltar

Every September for the four years 1995 to 1998 Nigel was, at the request of Professor Stringer of The Natural History Museum (London), responsible for a large three-week excavation studying Neanderthal occupation layers in Pleistocene cave deposits in Gibraltar. This was to attempt to date the transition from Neanderthal to modern human occupation of the caves and to compare the ways in which the two different peoples had lived there. The excavation team consisted mostly of staff from the Natural History Museum and Oxford Brookes University, with a team of local archaeologists from Gibraltar and Spain, and additional experts from other countries around the world. The two caves being excavated during the four field seasons were at the bottom of a 180-foot sea cliff, with no access possible from the sea, making logistics a little more difficult than they might have been.

As Site Manager, Nigel's duties included:

Liasing with many individuals in different institutions, indeed different countries, during several months of organisation prior to the excavation each year to assess all the needs of the team and select appropriate equipment
Arranging aspects of travel and accommodation
Organising site communication (including getting portable two-way short-wave radios loaned from Motorola, and organising licensing
Assisting advising on health and safety issues
Advising on, and sourcing, hiring or purchasing, all tools and consumables
Hiring specialist equipment (generators, cabling, lights, pulleys, scaffolding) and approaching organisations for sponsorship and loan of equipment
To be the point of contact for media crews, and to advise on their travel, logistics, equipment and health and safety
To be the main driver, responsible for collecting and dropping off different groups of people and transporting equipment
Each year transporting all the tools and materials and some equipment to Gibraltar by road through Spain in a Land Rover
On arrival preparing the site and organising all the equipment and materials ready for the arrival of the main team
Assisting in devising and erecting a pulley system to transfer the bagged residues some 200 feet from the rear of the caves to the seashore where they were sieved in sea water with a petrol driven pump and sorted
Catering for food and water needs and other consumables every day of the dig and kept the equipment maintained (petrol driven pump, generator, lights, cabling, scaffolding, pulley, vehicles), fixing or replace items at short notice.
When other duties allowed, excavating the cave sediments and recording finds.
Nigel also liased with the local officials, including the Gibraltar Museum and the military on whose land we were working.

During the dig there were up to 35 workers at any one time, divided between the two caves, with numbers fluctuating daily as different specialists, each with unique requirements, arrived and departed.

Lunch break at Vanguard Cave – note the sand bags and equipment stretching to the back on the left.

For more details about what we can do for you, or for a quote, please contact:
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