Forbes' Quarry
| Forbes' Quarry | |
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Entrance to Forbes' Quarry cave showing a World War II pillbox
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| Location | North face of the Rock of Gibraltar, Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Gibraltar |
| Coordinates | 36°08′48″N 5°20′48″W / 36.146716°N 5.346641°WCoordinates: 36°08′48″N 5°20′48″W / 36.146716°N 5.346641°W |
| Length | 22 cm (8.7 in) |
| Geology | Limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
Forbes' Quarry is located on the northern face of the Rock of Gibraltar within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The area was quarried during the 19th century to supply stone for reinforcing the fortress' military installations. In the course of the quarrying, a limestone cave was found. The second ever Neanderthal discovery was made within this cave when Cpt. Edmund Flint found the skull of an adult female Neanderthal in 1848.
Forbes' Quarry borrows its name from an 18th-century military installation located directly above the cave and known as Forbes' Battery.
An ancient skull (specimen name Gibraltar 1) was found within Forbes' Quarry by Captain Edmund Flint of the Royal Navy in 1848. Being the secretary of the Gibraltar Museum Society (formerly the Gibraltar Scientific Society), he presented his find to the society on 3 March 1848. This was only the second Neanderthal fossil ever found. The skull had unusual features, but its significance as a representative of an extinct human species was not realised until 1864, eight years after the 1856 discovery of the more extensive assemblage of Neanderthal remains in the Neander Valley of Germany that eventually became the type specimen and source of the name of the species Homo neanderthalensis. The Forbes' Quarry skull attracted the attention of prominent scientists in Great Britain when it was presented at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in September 1864. Charles Darwin had long been curious about the skull, but was too ill to attend the meeting, so geologist Charles Lyell and anthropologist Hugh Falconer arranged to bring the skull to his residence so he could examine it. In a letter, Darwin described the skull as "wonderful".
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