2019 is a milestone year for the Gibraltar National Museum and its team of researchers: it is thirty years since the start of the current excavations at Gorham’s Cave. To mark the occasion the 2019 Calpe Conference will aim to review all the archaeological work which the Gibraltar National Museum has carried out since 1989.
This work has gone beyond the research on Neanderthals at Gorham’s Cave. It has included the first urban excavations ever carried out in Gibraltar and significant examples of restoration of medieval and post-medieval monuments, such as the Moorish Baths, Tower of Homage and St. Jago’s Arch. The key participants in this long journey will gather in Gibraltar to tell this story, which in effect will be a synthesis of the history of Gibraltar.
Other researchers have worked on historical subjects in parallel, particularly on the recent history of Gibraltar and the Gibraltarians and they have been invited to form part of the conference, which will bring the Gibraltar story practically to the present day. The period has also seen the development of heritage legislation, culminating with the Heritage Act of 2018, and heritage management procedures. It also saw the inscription of Gibraltar’s first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In addition, the conference aims to situate this history in the geographical context of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa and international speakers have been invited to add to the comprehensive Gibraltarian contribution. This Gibraltarian contribution is reflected in thirteen of the twenty papers that will be presented, the highest proportion for any Calpe Conference. Commenting on the programme Minister for Heritage, the Hon Professor John Cortes, himself a researcher, reflected on the disproportionate contribution made by Gibraltarians, which he said “was a reflection of the quality of the academic skills and abilities of Gibraltarians”. The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia will deliver an address on the Gibraltarian identity and close the conference.
The Calpe Conference will be held at the University of Gibraltar from Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st September. Persons wishing to register for this exciting milestone conference can do so by writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or by calling the museum on 200 74289. Registration is free for local residents of Gibraltar.
Calpe 2019 Programme
Archaeological and Heritage Research in Gibraltar: the past thirty years
In the Context of Iberia and North Africa
Thursday 19th September
09:15 Official Opening by Minister Professor John Cortes
09:30 Clive Finlayson, The Gibraltar National Museum and University of Gibraltar
The last thirty years: an overview
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Alex Menez, The Gibraltar National Museum and University of Gibraltar
Petrified bones and the Devil’s Tower: on the origin of geology, palaeontology, and archaeology in Gibraltar.
12:00 Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal, Universidad de Huelva, Spain El patrimonio geológico del Cuaternario de Gibraltar
13:00 Lunch
14:30 Geraldine Finlayson, The Gibraltar National Museum and University of Gibraltar
An overview of Neanderthal research in Gibraltar in the last 30 years
15:30 Stewart Finlayson, The Gibraltar National Museum and Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom
A review of Late Pleistocene ecology and cave research in the last 30 years
16:30 Tea
1700 Robert Sala-Ramos, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
Evolution of the hominin settlement in the Ain Beni Mathar - Guefait basin, Eastern Morocco.
18:00 Sergio Ripoll López, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain. El arte rupestre del fin del mundo...
Friday 20th September
09:30 Francisco Giles Guzman, The Gibraltar National Museum and Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
The recent prehistory of Gibraltar: archaeological and palaeo-genetic context
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Arturo Morales-Muñiz and Eufrasia Roselló-Izquierdo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
20,000 years of fishing in the Strait: an overview of aquatic resource exploitation along the Gibraltar and northern Alborán Sea shores
12:00 Antonio M. Sáez Romero, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Una caverna sagrada en los confines del mundo mediterráneo antiguo. Balance y resultados de tres décadas de investigaciones en el santuario fenicio de Gorham's Cave
13:00 Lunch
14:30 Juan Blanquez and Lourdes Roldan, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
Renovadas propuestas paleo topográficas, arqueológicas y cronológicas del Campo de Gibraltar: el paisaje cultural de Carteia
15:30 José María Gutierrez López, Museo Municipal de Villamartín, Cádiz, Spain
Marinid Gibraltar. Synthesis and perspectives after 30 years of archaeological research.
16:30 Tea
17:00 Manuel Jaen Candón, The Gibraltar National Museum
Restoring Gibraltar’s medieval and post-medieval monuments
Saturday 21st September
09:00 David Abulafia, The University of Cambridge, UK and the University of Gibraltar.
Passages Through the Straits: Material and Documentary Evidence
10:00 Coffee
10:30 Darren Fa, The University of Gibraltar
The creation of the ‘Key to the Mediterranean’: the post-1704 fortification of Gibraltar.
11:30 Matthias Strohn, Buckingham University, United Kingdom
From the Great Siege to Operation Felix. The role of the German military in the history of Gibraltar
12:30 Dominic López, Government Archaeologist, HM Government of Gibraltar.
Thirty years of Cultural Heritage asset management
13:30 Lunch
15:00 Larry Sawchuk, University of Toronto, Canada
Gibraltar – My Research Paradox: Past and Present Intertwined
16:00 Tea
16:30 Tom Finlayson, former Government Archivist, HM Government of Gibraltar
Looking back over forty years of research into British Gibraltar
17:30 Joseph Garcia, Deputy Chief Minister, HM Government of Gibraltar
The origins and development of the Gibraltarian identity
