Further update from Vanguard Cave

Work continues at the back of Vanguard Cave and more material is now appearing as we descend the levels and begin to reach areas that are less confined and would have allowed the Neanderthals to move about with some freedom.

Evidence of their presence is revealed by flint flakes like the one above. These levels are revealing important use of limpets, notches on their shells (N in picture below) revealing where the Neanderthals inserted their knives to prise the limpets from the rocks.

Below the dried pond that we discovered last week, we found an even larger one, indicating that this part of the cave received intermittent supplies of water (2 photos below).

This week we've also been hosting visits of members of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust, who have had an opportunity to see our work close hand, and even help out on sieving duties!

The work doesn't end when we return from the cave. Each evening several hours in our field station are spent going through the day's finds before sending them to the main lab in the museum.