(ORDO NEWS) — At the southwestern tip of Eurasia lies the geological cul-de-sac known as the Iberian Peninsula.
With the majestic Pyrenees to the north and the Pillars of Hercules to the Straits of Gibraltar to the south, this peninsula includes part of France and all of Spain and Portugal.
It also hosts one of the highest concentrations of hominid sites on the planet. These are mostly Neanderthal sites dating back more than 10,000 years ago.
Almost in perfect relationship with these sites is another ancient concentration – a lot of dolmens.
These hominid sites and enigmatic megaliths are sources of both scientific knowledge and mythological culture, providing data and lore, respectively.
Perhaps by reconciling these seemingly opposing paradigms, new clues to human origins can be discovered, breaking through the thick fog of cultural prejudices and taboos that cloud understanding.
- Location of Axlor: The Question of Neanderthal Primitiveness
Throughout the cave systems of the peninsula, scientists are discovering early human sites that have brought revolutionary data over the past two decades.
Axlor is a Neanderthal site in the community of Dima, Biscay, a village in the autonomous Basque region.
This site dates back over 40,000 years ago and played an important role in changing the views on the primitiveness of the Neanderthals.
Hominid habitation in this area was so intense and prolonged that the ancient remains allowed scientists to build complex timelines and patterns of use, and what they found changed their understanding of the entire human subspecies.
For example, they were able to determine that these Neanderthals successfully adopted long-term hunting strategies over time, allowing them to fight the drastic climatic and environmental changes they experienced.
All of this research has challenged decades of assumptions that considered Neanderthals to be dumb animals with limited cognitive abilities.
In fact, these Neanderthals practiced resource management and did so with great success for thousands of years.
In addition, the game they hunted was extremely dangerous and difficult to kill, further pointing to complex, coordinated survival strategies.
- Cova Forada: Curious Neanderthal Remains and Artifacts
Cova Forada is another notable cave and Neanderthal site located in the Spanish province of Valencia, not far from the Mediterranean coast.
The site has yielded three major discoveries and is also exceptional due to extremely ancient dates dating back to the Middle Paleolithic (over 100,000 years ago).
One of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons ever found at this site, with many of the bones still attached to the spine, extremely rare and scientifically valuable.
More recently, another piece of evidence was found in the cave of Cova Forada in the form of a very ancient necklace.
The necklace is made almost exclusively from eagle claws, which were not much of a food source for these Neanderthals.
This indicates a certain degree of symbolic significance, just as numerous peoples today use the eagle as a symbol of supreme power.
- Cova Negra: Learning about Neanderthal hunting
In the province of Valencia, near the village of Xativa, there is another Neanderthal cave known as Cova Negra. This place is also incredibly ancient, the settlement dates back to the Middle Paleolithic.
This place is unique due to the large number of fast and small wild animals that were processed and eaten here, especially birds.
Neanderthals usually hunted big game, the biggest and most dangerous game imaginable.
But here, as well as in several other caves nearby, they chased, killed, butchered and ate eighteen different kinds of birds, the most common of which were pigeons and crows.
Another interesting note about Cova Negra is that of the seven different Neanderthals found in the cave, six were children and one was a teenager.
- Bolomorskaya Cave: Advanced Technology and Elephant Remains
Bolomor Cave near Tavernes de la Valdigna is another Valencian site where very ancient hominid remains have been discovered with significant implications.
The remains of four different Neanderthals have been found, but a notable aspect of the site is that sites date back to 350,000 years ago, as well as differences in tool design.
The conventional method of beading (the technique of chipping off the edges of the stone until the core remains intact) was not often used, and this suggests that it may have marked some degree of technological transition.
Many hearths are also currently being explored, some of which are lined with stone and date back to 250,000 years ago.
Perhaps the most puzzling find in the Bolomorskaya cave was that throughout the entire period of the existence of this place, young elephants were hunted and eaten.
It is hard to imagine that these elephant carcasses (along with many heavy ungulates) were brought to the cave by hand.
Keep in mind that it is not easy to get into the Bolomorskaya cave without having anything with you. It is a very steep slope 100 meters up the side of the cliff.
Despite the fact that these Neanderthals were six times stronger than Homo sapiens, it takes incredible efforts to bring a dead young elephant to this cave.
- Sidro Cave: Evidence for Cannibalism and Neanderthal Genetics
Remains in the Cidron Cave in the municipality of Pilon in Asturias, northwestern Spain were unexpectedly discovered in 1994.
About 13 Neanderthal remains were found along with 53 stone tools and an amazing gallery of petroglyphs.
There are very few non-hominid bones in the huge cave system, and they were all intentionally stacked in a small chamber.
Closer examination and careful analysis of the bones revealed a horrific reality. Unmistakable traces of cannibalism were found on the bones.
Forensic anthropologists determined “the presence of cut marks, scales, impact pits, conchoidal scars and adherent scales”.
Of all the fruits of knowledge plucked from this tree, perhaps the most intriguing are genetic anomalies and revelations.
For starters, the FOXP2 gene was discovered, and it is this genetic marker that geneticists identify with language in modern humans.
This is a direct hint that Neanderthals had speech and, therefore, developed communication, which again refutes previous assumptions about the primitive capabilities of hominids.
But, so to speak, the royal gem is the first-ever complete sequencing of the Neanderthal Y chromosome.
- Archaeogenetic anomalies of the Sidro Cave
The successful sequencing of the Y-chromosome of a Neanderthal from the Sidro Cave has raised more questions than answers.
Based on an uncertain interpretation of this single specimen, scientists are said to have stated that it indicates that Neanderthals descended from a common human ancestor 590,000 years ago.
But here it is necessary to raise a red flag of caution in interpretation due to several additional anomalies.
It is important to note that the Y chromosome is inherited exclusively from the father. So far, no hominin or hominin has passed on this chromosome.
This Y chromosome has never been identified in modern humans and is encoded by different MiHAs (minor histocompatibility antigens) that are at odds with those in modern humans.
What exactly all this means is far beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that it is rather strange and does not agree with existing ideas about Neanderthals, their supposed African origin or relationship with Homo sapiens.
- Definition of dolmens
What is a dolmen? A dolmen (also known as a cromlech) is an ancient megalithic structure, usually consisting of two or more huge upright stones that support a single, very huge, often flat stone.
In some cases, additional smaller stones or mounds of earth cover the entire structure, which in this case is classified as tumulus.
According to the generally accepted definition, most of them date from the early Neolithic period: 3000 – 4000 BC, and that their original function was burial.
However, the reality is that these structures are a great archaeological mystery.
There are very few, if any, peer-reviewed scientific reports of dolmen excavations that have provided definitive evidence of who, how, when, and for what purpose built these structures.
Compounding the mystery is the fact that they exist all over the planet, with the highest concentration observed in Korea, where there is an incredible number – more than 30,000 structures.
Western Europe (France, Spain, and the UK) and then the Levant are distant rivals to the Korean concentration of dolmens, which in itself may provide a clue.
- Studies on the concentration of hominin dolmens
The silver medal for the concentration of dolmens goes to France, or rather southwestern France, which leads to the Iberian Peninsula.
This region of France is another gold medal winner and is the highest concentration of Neanderthal sites on the planet.
This relationship continues in the Iberian Peninsula, where the largest concentration of Neanderthal sites is found in the Pyrenees.
It is a stone’s throw from the dense concentration of dolmens in the south of France and the southwest coast of Portugal, which is also in close proximity to the dense concentration of the previously mentioned Iberian dolmens.
Perhaps the Neanderthals, who were strong enough to drag young elephants onto a rock, had the strength to build these gigantic structures?
Resin, feathers, boiling oil and an angry crowd of anthropological conformists are used, but despite their fury, the simple fact remains: the stone cannot be dated by carbon (due to the apparent time distance between Neanderthals and dolmens), and more, there is no direct, published archaeological evidence identifying the builders of these structures.
In addition, the idea of Neanderthals is rapidly changing in the direction of increasing their capabilities and longevity, which contrasts sharply with all the dogmas about primitive hominids that still persist in the minds of the public.
But then again, that might be the whole point. In other words, it may turn out that excavations have been carried out, reports have been compiled, remains and artifacts have been exhumed that the public does not know about.
Of course, there are many unusual reports from the USA (late 19th and early 20th century) related to the excavation of mounds and the unique physical characteristics of the skeletons (which are now impossible to find).
- Dolmens of Antequera
The Iberian Peninsula is adorned with hundreds of dolmens, but a few stand out for their astronomical/geographical orientation, incredible size, and potential connection to the Paleolithic era.
The Menga Dolmen, located in the south of Spain near Antequera, is one of the most significant masterpieces of megalithic construction, based on a post and lintel construction with earthen cover.
This dolmen is notable for its enormous size, which exceeds the dimensions possible for corridor tombs, thanks to the use of an unprecedented solution of intermediate pillars.
In addition, the Tholos of El Romeral (different dolmens on the same site) complements these two dolmens with its own corridor and a dry-stone false dome.
Dolmen Menga and Tholos El Romeral have an anomalous orientation.
Archaeoastronomer Michael Hoskin, who analyzed the site, noted that the Menga dolmen is oriented towards a nearby mountain peak known as Peña de los Enamorados (interestingly, this mountain is also known as Montaña del Indio because it resembles the head of a Native American ).
This strange, lonely mountain rises steeply from the plain and contains the modern rock shelter of Matacabras, which has been found to contain rock art.
A similar orientation exists for the Tholos dolmen from El Romeral, which is oriented towards the mountains of El Torcal, which also hosts the Cave of the Bull (another site of rock art and early man) and is also oriented towards the midday sun on the winter solstice. El Torcal is notable for the vast, otherworldly karst landscape at its summit.
In addition, the Tholos El Romeral dolmen is located along the axis from the Menga dolmen to Peña de los Enamorados.
Thus, the Antequera dolmens are an ingenious, stylized and artificial landscape, intertwined and symbiotically connected with the surrounding natural formations and stars.
- Devil’s tower
At the southernmost tip of the peninsula, on the edge of the Strait of Gibraltar, are the ruins of the Devil’s Tower.
This name refers to an ancient stone watchtower that was destroyed in 1940 on purpose, allegedly because the tower interfered with the line of fire of World War II guns.
This was an order from General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane, since Gibraltar was then and is now technically a British Overseas Territory.
Digressing for a moment, it should be noted that similar ancient watchtowers with identical dry-stone construction exist in other anomalous megalithic sites around the world, such as Kulap in Peru, Malta and Sardinia in the Mediterranean, as well as in the Four Corners region to the south western USA.
In addition, during the war, the British military deliberately destroyed archaeological sites in Malta, and the Maltese Heritage claims that it was at this point that they somehow “lost” tens of thousands of mysterious human remains from underground chambers under the island.
Returning to the Pyrenean site, we note that in the immediate vicinity of this ancient watchtower there is a Paleolithic rock shelter, inside which in 1926 the archaeologist Dorothy Garrod discovered the skull of a Neanderthal.
It was the second such Neanderthal skull discovered in Gibraltar, it was located near the cache of stone tools and is now known as “Gibraltar-2” or “Devil’s Tower Child”.
The British authorities categorically state that the tower and the Paleolithic site are not connected, which is convenient for their version, since they deliberately destroyed the tower.
Keep in mind that it could not be an obstacle to a mobile gun battery.
- Myth” about Entilak
Yentilak (plural form of the name Yentil), according to the Basque mythology of the Pyrenees region, was a vanished race of hairy giants who were responsible for the construction of dolmens.
According to legend, the Entilak coexisted with the Basque people and even taught them metallurgy and agriculture.
While the Basque Homo sapiens lived in the river valleys and on the coast, the (archaic) Entilak lived high in the mountains in caves.
Although they are said to have coexisted peacefully to some extent, they were also seen as hostile, rebellious, and dangerous.
It was believed that they possessed great physical strength, could throw boulders from one mountain to another, and organized stone-throwing competitions, which are still held by modern Basques.
Tradition concludes that the Entilak, not wanting to develop and coexist any longer, retreated through the dolmens to the underworld.
It may very well be that the so-called myth of Gentilak, the high concentration of dolmens and the dense accumulation of Neanderthal sites are all remnants and memories of the same Paleolithic culture.
Why is there so little archaeological evidence about these structures that exist all over the planet? And why were ancient people forced to build these structures in the first place?
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