ARCHIVED - Torre Pacheco seeks solution for half built palaeontology museum
Professor Michael Walker joins the Mayor in lobbying for completion of the museum near Cabezo Gordo
The Mayor of Torre Pacheco, Antonio León, has held a meeting with Rosa María Campillo, the new head of Cultural Heritage in the regional government of Murcia, to discuss the future of the unfinished building which was designed to house a Museum of Palaeontology and Human Evolution close to the mountain of Cabezo Gordo.
Accompanying them on a visit to the incomplete project was Professor Michael Walker, who has led the digs at Cabezo Gordo and made important discoveries about early hominids at the Sima de las Palomas site. A Professor Emeritus at the University of Murcia, Professor Walker has pioneered work in an area where the remains of hominids dating from up to 150,000 years ago have been found.
He first visited the Sima de las Palomas in 1990, a year before the first fossilized remains of Neanderthal Man were found there, and in January 1991 made a written recommendation to the regional archaeological authorities urging them to organize an excavation there. When it took place a Neanderthal jawbone was found and this fuelled further excavations.
Due largely to Professor Walker’s dedication, the Sima de las Palomas is now regarded as the most important Neanderthal archaeological site in the Mediterranean regions of Spain and the second most important hominid fossil site in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, and in 2016 he was honoured as an Hijo Adoptivo of Torre Pacheco.
Work to build the museum began in 2007 but ground to a halt as long ago as 2013, and it is now hoped that decisions can be made to reinitiate the project.