Overview
- An international team, publishing Tuesday in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, reports that Cova 338 at 2,235 meters saw intense, recurrent prehistoric use.
- The dig uncovered 23 hearths filled with crushed green fragments that show heat damage consistent with deliberate processing, and the material resembles malachite pending lab confirmation.
- Radiocarbon dates place the most intensive phases of activity roughly between 5,500 and 3,000 years ago, with distinct layers that point to repeat visits separated by long gaps.
- Finds include a child’s finger bone and a baby tooth plus two pendants—a marine shell and a perforated brown bear tooth—though any funerary use remains unproven.
- Researchers plan deeper excavation and mineral tests this summer, and the protected, foot-access site could reshape views of Copper Age resource use in Europe’s high mountains.