July 27 Guided visit IN ENGLISH to discover the world of the Neanderthals at Cabezo Gordo in Torre Pacheco

The fossilized remains found at Sima de las Palomas are well over 100,000 years old

This guided tour, entitled “Neanderthals, the Other Humanity”, on Saturday July 27 is led by a palaeontologist who is working on the excavations at the Sima de las Palomas in the mountain of Cabezo Gordo, where Neanderthal remains were discovered in 1991.

The visiting party will climb some way up the southern slope of the mountain to the viewpoint where the paleoanthropological site is located, looking out over the crop fields of the Campo de Cartagena and offering a beautiful panoramic view of the Mar Menor. The tour also includes the Cueva del Agua, an old mine with a natural lake where 5 different species of bats currently live, and throughout the visit the guide explains some of the most important findings and discoveries at the site, which is generally agreed to be the second most important in terms of fossilized humanoid remains in Spain after that of Atapuerca in the northern province of Burgos..

The tour begins at 19.00 at the car park on the southern side of the mountain and lasts for around two hours. Participants must be equipped with a cap, sturdy walking footwear, drinking water and a torch. Registration is available online here at a price of just 3 euros per head.

Cabezo Gordo and the Sima de las Palomas

Located on the mountain of Cabezo Gordo is the Sima de las Palomas site, where excavations have uncovered valuable pre-human remains dating back to the Neanderthal period, 40-60,000 years ago. Going even further back there are also remains from the inter-glacial period of 120,000-130,000 years ago, which it is believed may belong to pre-Neanderthal humanoids such as Homo Heidelbergensis. Over 150 individual fossilized human remains have been discovered, belonging to 8 or 9 individuals.

There are also bones from lions, panthers, hippopotamus, hyenas, rhinos, horses, tortoises rabbits and birds, all of which lived in this area, and many tools which would have been used by our distant ancestors in the course of their daily lives for hunting, fishing, and processing their prey.

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