After a sabbath yesterday, I’m back on sabbatical today. After some of the nicest weather you could ask for in Scotland, the tide has turned in Gibraltar (which is kind of ironic, since they get virtually no tide in Gibraltar!). It’s not like the weather has been awful, but it rained last night, and that means that you can’t go into the caves for two days. So no opportunity for me to stumble onto any new Neanderthal fossils.
I met Prof. Clive Finlayson, who was scheduled to give me a tour. He was very apologetic, and even disgusted. “These bureaucrats making rules… wait 48 hours after a rain… I used to go into those caves as young man while it was raining. It’s totally fine.” But evidently the bureaucrats have learned (through some generously funded study, no doubt) that after it rains there is an increased likelihood of rocks falling down the cliffs where the caves are. So I suppose that is a good thing to be worried about and to make regulations about. But truth be told, if they had offered to let me go into the caves if I signed a waiver releasing and indemnifying them from all responsibility should I be crushed by a falling rock, I would have done it.
Instead, I met with Prof. Clive in his museum and office and talked about his work for an hour, which was really quite fascinating (the work, not his office). He is part of the camp (and even founded the camp) that thinks Neanderthals are people too, in the sense that they were not just some inferior troglodyte cavemen (and cavewomen). Prof. Clive said that anyone who thinks that is just letting their own biases interpret the evidence, which when you look at it objectively, shows no clear signs of them being inferior in any way to the Homo sapiens of the same time period, and there is plenty of evidence that they did everything that Homo sapiens did back then. At the caves here in Gibraltar that are being excavated, there is clear evidence that they used fire and tools, hunted all sorts of animals, decorated themselves with small bones and feathers (they had a clear preference for black feathers), and made art. And we now know from genetics that when Homo sapiens first came into Europe 40-50k years ago, they thought Neanderthals compatible enough that they, ahem… shall we say, developed more intimate relations with them. Everyone with European or Asian ancestry has 2-4% of their DNA from Neanderthals.
Unfortunately for this understanding of Neanderthals, there was new research released just this week about their brains compared to ours. In volume, theirs were just as big. But they were shaped a bit differently. We have this larger frontal lobe that seems to be important for advanced thinking, and the new research shows that a very slight difference in one of our genes makes neurons grow faster in that section of the brain. I asked Prof. Finlayson if he had seen this. “I know of it,” he said, “but haven’t gotten around to reading it. Sounds to me like another wild goose chase trying to find the missing link or some such rot.” Hmm… kind of sounds like a bias may be interpreting the evidence there, or even keeping him from taking a look at the evidence! But there is a lot we don’t know about how such things work. It will be fascinating to see where the evidence leads.
After the conversation, I poked around the rest of the museum a bit, which had some of the artifacts and bones they’ve found. Here’s a photo of the artist’s reconstruction of the two Neanderthal skulls found in Gibraltar (supplemented by the hundreds of other Neanderthal skeletons found elsewhere).
Then I purchased an all-day bus pass to see the rest of the peninsula. I first went over to the other side of the rock where the visitors center for the caves is. You can see several of them right down at water level. That’s where Clive was going to take me!
Then I went to a beach and had a quick dip in the (very chilly!) Mediterranean right by the sinking oil tanker they’re still trying to rescue. And then I went to the big market area. I’d love to bring home souvenirs for all of you faithful readers of my adventure… but anything I buy has to go in the backpack and be carried around. So you’ll have to settle for a story. I’ll end with a funny one.
Well, it’s not really that funny, just the kind of odd and quirky thing that happens to you on a trip like this. I discovered last night that I am not the only guest staying here with the Jewish man and wife. I was sitting up on the roof-top terrace and this youngish guy (22 years old?) walked out. I first wondered if he was the son of the Jewish couple, but didn’t think he really gave off that vibe. We kind of looked at each other oddly for a minute, wondering what each other was doing there, and he asked (in a very thick English accent), “You live here?” I replied, “I do for a few days.” And we both discovered we’re guests. He asked what I was doing here, and after telling him he said, “Oh, I’m not that smart” and he walked away to have a vape. This isn’t the funny part yet, just the set-up.
Tonight I was sitting out on the terrace again and was not as surprised when another person walked out there. He asked (in a more refined English accent), “Are you a fellow AirBnB-er?” I said, “Yes I am.” And he said, “Oh an American! I’ve come out here to have a cigar, and a beer, and do my crossword puzzle. Would you like to join me?” I said, “I don’t go much in for cigars, and I’ve already done my crossword today, but I wouldn’t let you drink alone if you’ve brought enough.” He said, “Splendid. I always think it’s a sad thing to drink alone” and pulled out of his bag a couple of cans of Budweiser. I was a bit taken aback, “A Brit in Gibraltar drinking American Budweiser?!” He said, “Yes I know, I guess it’s rather sad anyway. But it was the only thing at the grocers I could buy a six pack of rather than twelve or twenty-four. There you have it.” So as not to be impolite, I choked down a Bud and we talked for an hour about the queen and now king, about Brexit and Trump, about science and religion, and Neanderthals.
Sounds like you had a great day! Sorry you couldn't go into the caves... will you be able to do it in a couple of days or you have to move on with the journey?
Sorry about the Budweiser. hahaha!