Category Archives: Noticias
Next July, 2nd will restart the excavations in the paleoanthropological sites of Cueva Negra and Sima de las Palomas
The fieldschool about paleoanthropology and prehistory of the quaternary in Murcia will start this 2003 season next Tuesday, July the 2nd 2013, welcoming the group of volunteers arriving from different parts of the world to Caravaca.
From July the 3rd to July the 22nd we will excavate the site of Cueva Negra del Río Quipar in Caravaca. On July the 23rd we will be moving to Dolores de Pacheco where the excavation at Sima de las Palomas will occur in the following 3 weeks.
“Cueva Negra” in the Archaeological museum Enrique Escudero de Castro in Cartagena.
The animated documentary “Cueva Negra”, produced by the murcian “Integra” foundation, was presented last Thursday February the 21st, 2013 in the municipal archaeological museum of Cartagena.
“Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quipar” is a very important paleoanthropological site found in Caravaca de la Cruz.
The documentary takes the spectator to a period close to one million years ago in the area around the river Quipar gorge. It recreates the environtment and the human inhabitants that dwelled in the area.
Following the documentary, Mariano López Martínez (archeologist and codirector of the excavations at Cueva Negra) led a colloquium where Antonio López Jiménez (biologist) and Ignacio Martín Lerma (archaeologist) introduced the main aspects of the investigations around Cueva Negra.
“Decoding Neanderthals” on PBS Nova
Last January 9th was the premeire in the U.S. of the documentary “Decoding Neanderthals” produced by PBS as part of the NOVA series. This documentaries series of popular science are produced by WGBH Boston and presented by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in more than 100 countries.
In “Decoding Neanderthals” NOVA explores the fate of Neanderthals highlighting the discoveries made at “Sima de las Palomas” site.
Program description:
Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans—people physically identical to us today—left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundred of thousands of years. So what happened when the first modern humans encountered the Neanderthals? Did we make love or war? That question has tantalized generations of scholars and seized the popular imagination. Then, in 2010, a team led by geneticist Svante Paabo announced stunning news. Not only had they reconstructed much of the Neanderthal genome—an extraordinary technical feat that would have seemed impossible only a decade ago—but their analysis showed that “we” modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small but consistent signature of Neanderthal genes behind in everyone outside Africa today. In “Decoding Neanderthals,” NOVA explores the implications of this exciting discovery. In the traditional view, Neanderthals differed from “us” in behavior and capabilities as well as anatomy. But were they really mentally inferior, as inexpressive and clumsy as the cartoon caveman they inspired? NOVA explores a range of intriguing new evidence for Neanderthal self-expression and language, all pointing to the fact that we may have seriously underestimated our mysterious, long-vanished human cousins.
(Source: PBS NOVA)
