Morning Sun

Morning Sun is a story set in Gibralter forty thousand years ago but it is a story that speaks to us today. It is the tale of someone who is not us but in a strange way is part of many of us. This is the story of of a Neanderthal man’s struggle to survive.

Transcript

Morning Sun

Why is the land so small now and the sea so cold? My father’s father told me once that the land was much bigger and there were trees everywhere. There were bison, deer, and gazelles. I can't remember seeing an animal bigger than a rabbit for many seasons. He told me that in one day the women could gather enough nuts and berries to last many days. There are few nut trees now, and the berries do not taste as good. The big animals have gone, and the sea has eaten the forest.

I have no one to keep me warm at night but this pig skin that smells of dung. That’s another animal that has left. We hunted pigs, big hairy things with little horns in their mouths. They were brave fighters and to kill one was dangerous and difficult. We would wait until the sky had struck the ground with light and set the bush on fire. We would build a great bonfire and go and hunt the pigs. That night all the families would feast on pig and fruit. We laughed and the old people would tell stories. On a night like that was when I first saw Morning Sun. She made my insides dance with happiness.

I wonder where the pigs are now? Maybe, they have gone to where the new men are. The ones who walk like me but aren't me. I do not like them, I think they have taken the animals and the land. Now, I am sitting here, all alone, on a stone in front of the big cave. 

I am tired now, old and tired. My hands ache and my insides make fearful noises and let out smells that make me cough. There have been so many moons since my woman lay down in the cave and I thought she was sleeping but she didn't wake up and was like all the old people who sleep forever. Itook her to the back of the cave and left her there. I covered her body with flowers. The white ones with a sun in the centre. They were her favourite. I sat there thinking about many things for two days. I left her where our children slept the long sleep and I placed flowers on them as well. 

We had many happy times together in the early days. Her name was Morning Sun and she always woke me up with a smile just as the sun does. We would go and hunt together, gather fruit and we would make children. Our first child had such a happy time. He was beautiful and had eyes that seemed to smile. I would watch Morning Sun feed him and my heart filled with joy, once I cried and said that dust was in my eyes. Morning Sun smiled at me, it was so beautiful. I have no words for how I felt at the moment but it was the opposite of how we both felt when our child did not wake up one morning and had gone cold in the night. Many of the children of the other families who lived in the caves were like that. I don’t know why. Even the old woman, who knew much about herbs didn’t know why the children were dying.

Eventually, I left the darkness and returned to the front of the cave. Outside the wind is shouting angry words. I don’t know what they mean but I know anger. I am angry with the land for going away, angry at me people for going to sleep and not waking up and angry that I am alone. 

I hope it will rain soon. It hasn’t rained for a long time and the wind has not sung but instead, it shouts and whistles. It covers everything in sand that gets into my eyes and mouth. 

I caught a rabbit this morning. It was old and tired like me and didn't put up much of a fight. It didn't see me as I was hiding and it had come to the stream for water and I threw a rock at it. Its head was crushed and it lost a lot of blood and the inside of the head was all over the place. Which is a shame as I like to eat the inside of the head and drink the blood but it was a rabbit and it tasted good and it was the first meat I have had in a long time. Now I mainly live off berries and nuts, I think that's why my insides hurt a lot. 

Father’s father told me that his Father and his father’s father also had lived in this cave and as far as he knew all our family going back in uncountable numbers had lived in the cave and life was not always easy. He told me of the black cloud that came and how before the cloud came the sea became angry and it was so angry that it left and the fish had no water to swim in and were flapping about on the sand and the children ran down and gathered up the fish but that made the sea even angrier and it came back in a big wave and it swept the children away and they never saw them again. The sky was so sad that it went black and the cloud’s tears were black and they covered the land with their sadness. It was sad for a very long time and it was cold, the trees and the bushes had no berries and nuts and lots of our people went to sleep and didn’t wake up. It might have been because they had no food or just sadness that so many of the children were taken away by the sea. 

I have never seen such a thing as the black tears of the clouds. He told me that one day the black clouds left and it stopped being cold and once again the berries and nuts returned and so did the animals. Even the big cows with the huge horns came back but never in the same number and although the sea was no longer angry, it was slowly getting fatter and fatter and that’s when it swallowed the forest and many of the animals went away again. I don’t know where to go. 

My people made new people and we slowly grew in numbers again but there are many empty caves on our mountain and It has been three moons since I saw another person who looked like me. Sometimes, I can see other people walking on two legs like me at the bottom of the mountain. It was a shock to see them and I was going to go down the mountain and talk to them but as they got closer I could see they were not the same. They were ugly with flat faces and long legs. Their bodies were not furry and they had skin in the colours of the trees and bushes. I do not know why they did that. I hid behind my rock at the front of the cave and then they left. 

 When I was young there were still a lot of my people here on the mountain but slowly they seemed to vanish. Their skins would turn red and spotted as if they were covered in red berries. They became very hot to touch and then they went to sleep and then they went cold. They never woke up. Lots of my people went like that. My woman was waiting for our new child to be born and the pain came and went on for a long time and then the baby did not come out and she screamed in pain and then she went cold. 

When I returned to the front of the cave. I used my stone which has a pointed edge to scratch a line in the wall. There are many scratches there, one for each member of my family that I have taken to the back of the cave. 

I don't know who will take me there when my day comes to sleep forever.

Unesco Headquarters Lecture Theatre Madrid Spain. July 15th 2016

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming today. I am Professor Fernandes. Today we are announcing that the Gorham Cave complex in Gibraltar is to become a World Heritage Site. It is a significant and almost unique example of the Neanderthal occupation that we have ever found. The research teams have unearthed hundreds of stone tools, fossilised skeletons of Neanderthals and even mysterious symbols scratched onto the cave wall of one cave. It is the only example of Neanderthal cave art we have found in the area and we have no idea what it means but it shows an understanding of the passing of time. In the same cave as the line drawing, we found skeletons which had been deliberately placed at the back of the cave indicating some sort of burial ritual. However, one skeleton was found near the mouth of the cave and had been wrapped in what we believe was a wild boar skin. It is probable that this was the last occupied site for Neandertals prior to their extinction and as such will help us find answers to the many questions concerning the demise of homo sapiens closest relatives.

Jeff Price September 2024