A mysterious ancient settlement has been discovered surprisingly high in the Pyrenean mountains in Spain.
Documented in a new study, the prehistoric cave known as Cova 338 sits 2,235m (7,333ft) above sea level, in the Núria Valley – making it the highest altitude dwelling of its kind to date in this area.
For decades, archaeologists have thought that areas above 2,000m (6,562ft) were only used by people passing through. But the new discovery suggests that, over the course of 5,000 years (between the 5th and 1st millennia BC), multiple populations actually occupied the caves here for long periods of time.
What’s strange about this, however, is that the occupation wasn’t continuous. In fact, archaeological dating suggests there were periods of abandonment before people returned – evidence, the researchers claim, that the periods of occupation were pre-planned.
Excavations of the cave took place between 2021 and 2023, led by scientists at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), in Spain.
Here, they discovered the remains of fires and animal bones, ceramic fragments and even two pendants: one from a marine shell and one from a brown bear tooth.
The cave also contained a collection of green minerals, which the researchers think are likely malachite – a copper carbonate mineral – suggesting some of the earliest evidence of copper extraction in Western Europe.
The study suggests these minerals were brought into the cave for fragmenting and processing, indicating systematised exploitation in the high mountain environment.
Given how organised all these activities were, the researchers think people came to live at this site at particular times in history to carry out specific tasks.
“The mountain was not a barrier, but an active place within the economic and territorial organization of prehistoric communities,” said co-author of the study Dr Eudald Carbonell, researcher at IPHES-CERCA.
Lead author Carlos Tornero, professor in the Department of Prehistory at the UAB, said: “For a long time, these spaces were assumed to be marginal. What we document here is recurrent occupation, with complex activities and a clear exploitation of mineral resources.”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
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