Mineral deposits on a submerged bridge in a Spanish cave are helping researchers determine when ancient humans settled on Mediterranean islands like Mallorca.
An ancient, submerged bridge in a cave on the Spanish island of Mallorca is helping researchers determine when humans first settled on islands across the western Mediterranean Sea thousands of years ago. A new analysis of the 25-foot-long bridge inside Genovesa Cave has revealed that humans lived on Mallorca, one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, much earlier than previously believed.
“It was only in the past four years that we finally gathered the data needed to address this longstanding research topic and better estimate the arrival time of humans in Mallorca,” Onac said. Today, Genovesa Cave’s passages remain flooded as global sea levels rise. Onac and his colleagues studied a light-colored band on the submerged bridge within the cave as well as calcite encrustations that formed on the bridge during times when the sea level was higher and filled the cave.
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