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Two new sites with hominid, palaeolithic and faunal remains from the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene in Murcia, S.E. Spain, are presented in the light of recent ongoing excavations and multidisciplinary research. The article outlines the origins and development of the research project with reference to aspects of field strategy and methodology, and comments upon the significant hominid and middle palaeolithic findings.Keywords: Neanderthal remains, middle.palaeolithic artifacts, uranium-thorium determinations, electron spin resonance determinationsThe sites: their setting, history and significance Two new sites in Murcia (south-east Spain) with late Middle/early Upper Pleistocene human and faunal remains, and middle palaeolithic Mousterian industries are being excavated by us under the aegis of a Spanish government major research project (DGICYT PB92-0971) ~. The two sites lie in strongly contrasting habitats 90 km apart (Fig. 1).Sima de las Palomas (~) is a nearvertical natural karstic shaft, 18 m deep (Figs.l, 4), on the southern slopes of an isolated hill of Triassic limestone called Cabezo Gordo, which rises sharply to 312 m in the middle of a coastal plain almost at sea level, behind a large lagoon of the Mediterranean Sea known as the Mar Menor. The top of the shaft lies at 120 m above sea level and overlooks the plain to the south. A hundred years ago, iron miners entered the cave and dug out most of the breccia that filled it, leaving behind only an 18 metre-high column of breccia against its rear wall 2.The breccia comprises cemented soil (lutite, silt and sand) containing abundant angular frost-shattered scree and large slabs or blocks, fallen or washed down the shaft, which hamper stratigraphical interpretation of the still unexcavated 16.5 m of the column, although there appear

In SE Spain, recent excavations in the Orce basin and at Cueva Victoria indicate presence of both hominids and hominid activity from the Plio-Pleistocene boundary and early Lower Pleistocene.