Minister for Heritage, the Hon Professor John Cortes, inaugurated the Flint Gallery at the Gibraltar National Museum last Friday.  The Gallery commemorates the centenary of the discovery of the Devil’s Tower Neanderthal child (popularly known as Flint) in 1926. 

The opening was an important part of a range of events planned for the course of this year. A new image of Flint was revealed, produced by leading world palaeoartist Mauricio Antón, based on information provided by the Gibraltar National Museum. 

The new gallery will also reveal a sculpture of a juvenile Eagle Owl in threat posture. It aims to recreate a moment going back 100 thousand years, when a Neanderthal caught a young Eagle Owl in the Neanderthals’ Grotto. A replica of the remains of the owl, found unusually in anatomical connection with only the powerful talons missing, will be exhibited alongside. It is thought that the talons may have been taken for adornment.  Eagle Owls still live in Gibraltar today, 100,000 years later.

Also on show is a red deer antler also found in the deposits, and a reconstruction of a flock of Iberian Magpies whose prehistoric occurrence in Europe was first established from the work at Gorham’s.