Portal de Alhama de Murcia
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The exhibition 'Cueva Victoria.
Out of Africa ', produced by the Ministry of Culture and Portavocía, tomorrow arrives at the Archaeological Museum Los Baños de Alhama de Murcia.
The show was already seen last year in the Archaeological Museum of Murcia, where it received the visit of more than 15,000 people, and later in the municipal museums of Cartagena and Mazarrón.
The inauguration will take place at 20:30 hours with a conference and a guided tour by one of the curators of the exhibition, paleontologist Gregorio Romero, who will explain the richness of this deposit located in the Hill of San Ginés de la Jara (Cartagena) that was a haven of hyenas and where fossils of more than 90 species of vertebrates have been found with an antiquity that reaches 900,000 years.
The Director General of Cultural Property, Maria Comas, stated that "from the Ministry work in a coordinated way with the municipalities of our Region to complement the cultural offer in the municipalities and that the exhibitions produced by Culture, as in this case the Cave Victoria, can be enjoyed by as many people as possible and thus better understand the wealth of our heritage. "
"Victoria Cave is one of the most important deposits in our region and for experts is a key place for the reconstruction of the lower Pleistocene faunas thanks to the great variety of fossils," Comas explained.
In fact, it is recognized as a place of geological heritage of international interest.
This deposit also helps to explain the dispersion of the first hominids that came from Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar.
In fact, it is the only one in Europe with representation of the African baboon Theropithecus oswaldi, from which you can see in the exhibition some dental pieces and a reproduction of his skull.
Another finding that has made the deposit a reference to explain this dispersion in the south of the Peninsula is the fossil phalange of the left hand of a hominid, in addition to other remains in study.
The fossil wealth of Victoria Cave corresponds to the inner Pleistocene.
It was at that time when it opened to the outside, being occupied by hyenas who established there their den to feed their puppies.
In the cavity fossils of diverse origin have been found, although the majority correspond to corpses of animals that were transported by the hyenas, sometimes from several kilometers of distance.
The result is a complete record of the fauna of this period of the Quaternary among which stand out the African fauna.
A list that includes large herbivores such as horses, deer, gamos, bovines, rhinoceroses and elephants, who lived with carnivores like tigers, panthers, lynxes, bears or wild dogs.
Toots were added toads, turtles, porcupines, rabbits, sea urchins, bats and numerous birds.
In the Archaeological Museum Los Baños de Alhama de Murcia you can see until next May 28 a selection of fossils of many of these species, accompanied by illustrations and some reproductions to better understand how these animals were.
Likewise, the exhibition provides data on the history of the cave as an iron and manganese mine, as it was the miners who discovered Cueva Victoria at the end of the 19th century.
Source: CARM
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