ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A new study from the University of New Mexico suggests humans inhabited Mallorca, Spain over 1,000 years earlier than initially thought. Researchers said Mallorca was one of the last western islands in the Mediterranean to be colonized but the study led by the University of South Florida and UNM shows humans inhabited the island significantly earlier than they originally thought.
The date was calculated by studying limestone that formed on a 25-foot submerged bridge. Researchers then took rock samples from that structure and used “uranium-series dating” to discover exactly how many years old the man-made bridge was.
“That’s when it became exciting… Is when we put all our findings together and we found out that we could pinpoint when this bridge was constructed,” said Senior UNM Research Scientist Victor Polyak.
This study was supported by several National Science Foundation Grants and involved extensive fieldwork spanning almost 15 years.
