Historias del mar – Sala del Agua

ENGLISH:

Next to the Mediterranean Sea have emerged the most ancient civilizations. Today we believe that the last Neanderthals lived in the vicinity of the  ‘Mar Menor’ subjected to the progressive fluctuations of the sea level. During the first Neolithic settlements of the modern man ( 2,500 years BCE) , there was a rise that flooded lowlands.

After that there was a descent of the water level with a total or partial desiccation of the lagoon and 10,000 years ago a humid atmosphere with periodical flooding, allowed the hunters and fishers from the mountain areas to visit the marshes.

During the succeeding Phoenician, Greek and Roman colonisation, the perimeter of the lagoon, 30 kilometres bigger, provided good conditions of navigability and a high commercial activity was developed. Between 8th and 13th century, during the Arab domination, the level of the water gradually  dropped; over the year 1700 it was only 20 or 30 centimetres higher than the current.