Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, published Tuesday in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, identifies Cova 338 at 2,235 meters as the most intensively used high-altitude prehistoric cave known in the Pyrenees.
- Excavations uncovered 23 hearths with crushed green fragments that show heat damage, indicating people purposefully processed a copper-rich mineral that likely is malachite.
- Radiocarbon dating places most activity between about 5,500 and 4,000 years ago, with another phase around 3,000 years ago, and overlapping hearths point to repeated visits over long gaps.
- Researchers also found a child's finger bone and a baby tooth plus shell and bear-tooth pendants, hinting at symbolic or funerary acts without yet proving how or whether the remains came from one individual.
- Lab tests to confirm the mineral and deeper digging continue this summer under restricted access, and the team argues the site shows planned mobility and resource use in the Pyrenees.