Professor Geraldine Finlayson

Research Interest

Dr Geraldine Finlayson is the Managing Director and Director of Heritage and Environmental Services at the Gibraltar National Museum, and World Heritage Site Coordinator of the Gorham’s Cave Complex, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gibraltar.

Her research has continued to focus on the spatio-temporal distribution patterns of vegetation and animals, and the relationships between climate, vegetation landscape features and biodiversity mainly within the Iberian Peninsula during the Quaternary. She is co-director of the excavations at Gorham’s Cave Complex and her main work has focussed on the influence of climate on vegetation and bird distribution, and Neanderthal behaviour and has published widely in these fields.

A keen nature photographer, she has used her images to support her research.

Other research interests include the study and protection of submerged heritage through her work as Director of the Underwater Research Unit (URU) of the Gibraltar National Museum, and the cultural influences on the development of Gibraltarian cuisine, which reflects the long history of trade and migration, particularly in the Mediterranean – especially Malta and Genoa – as well as Morocco and other parts for North Africa.

Selected Publications

Finlayson, C., Rodríguez Vidal, J., Finlayson, G.  (2014).  Gibraltar Neanderthal caves and landscape: a natural laboratory and archive.  2014 Calpe Conference – In the footsteps of the ancestors: a universal heritage of everyone, Gibraltar

Rosell, J., Blasco, R., Sánchez-Marco, A., Finlayson, S., Finlayson, G., Negro, J. J., Giles Pacheco, F., Rodríguez-Vidal, J., Finlayson, C. (2014).  Pigeons and choughs, a usual resource for the Neanderthals in Gibraltar.  UISPP XVII World Congress; 09/2014

Finlayson, G., Finlayson, S. (2015).  The Bird People: what birds tell us about the Neanderthals.  2015 Calpe Conference – Redefining the Neanderthals, Gibraltar.

Rodríguez Vidal, J., Cáceres, L. M., Gómes, P., Finlayson, C., Finlayson, G. (2015).  Plio-Pleistocene archive of highstand sea-cave markers in the Rock of Gibraltar.  Progress in Quaternary archives studies in the Iberian Peninsula, Seville, Spain;

Finlayson, G., Finlayson, S., Giles Guzmán, F.  (2016).  Neanderthals in the landscape – ecological patterns in a Mediterranean Serengeti.  2016 Calpe Conference: Past Worlds: Neanderthal and Modern Human Response to Climate and Environment Change, Gibraltar.