Gerd-Christian Weniger

Neanderthal Museum

Our project is focused on bringing into light new field data from a number of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Upper Jarama and Sorbe River valleys (Guadalajara province, Spain), located within the southeastern foothills of the Central System mountain range (Iberian Peninsula). Our main goal revolves around human-environment interactions during the Late Pleistocene, and ultimately on population dynamics of the last Neandertals and first modern humans of inland Iberia.

The project started in 2006 under the direction of João Zilhão, with the co-direction of Diego E. Angelucci, Valentín Villaverde and Josefina Zapata, and has involved the excavation and study of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Murcia region: Cueva Antón (Mula valley), Finca Doña Martina and Abrigo de la Boja (Rambla Perea) and Cueva de los Aviones (along the Mediterranean coast near Cartagena). The project has seen the participation of researchers from several countries, as well as funding from distinct institutions – among them the Dirección General del Medio Natural de la Región de Murcia, the Municipality of Mula, the University of Murcia (and the institutions to which the researchers belong), the Fundación Séneca (Murcia), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain, the Leakey Foundation, the Museo de Arte Ibérico El Cigarralejo (Mula).