Many of the tools were preserved impeccably. “I saw one flake and went to touch it, knowing it was a tool left by a Neanderthal, and it drew blood,” said Finlayson. “It can be very powerful being in the cave. You can get that feeling that a Neanderthal was sitting in exactly the same spot, that the only thing separating us is time.”
Neanderthals explained
The neanderthals were short and powerfully-built, with huge noses and receding foreheads, but there is no evidence that they had less brainpower than modern humans. Their brains were at least as big as ours, although there were differences: the frontal lobes were smaller, suggesting they may not have been as adept at planning, while the rear of the brain was larger, suggesting keener sight than modern humans.
Many scientists believe their stocky stature was chiefly an adaptation to the cold, a useful trait considering they lived through the last Ice Age. Being squat reduces a creature's surface area, and so less heat is lost from the body.
Climate may have played only a part though. Some scientists believe the Neanderthal's squat form favored their lifestyle, of limited roaming with regular and physical wrestles with the animals that would become their prey.
The spear points and cutting edges unearthed in Gorham's cave in Gibraltar are known as Mousterian tools, named after the Le Moustier site in Dordogne, where the best examples of neanderthal archeaology were first uncovered.
Gibraltar has proved a treasure trove for modern neanderthal hunters. The first neanderthal bones discovered were those of a woman, found in a quarry in Gibraltar in 1848. And in 1997, archaeologists working in a cave on the Rock discovered the remains of what they believe was a neanderthal meal of mussels, pistachio and tortoise cooked up more than 30,000 years ago.
More recent findings have suggested neanderthals brought shellfish and other food to their caves before crafting simple tools to break them apart and prepare them.
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