5,500-Year-Old High-Altitude Copper Site Reveals Repeated Mountain Trips

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Archaeologists studying a cave high in the Pyrenees have found evidence that prehistoric people repeatedly made demanding trips into the mountains beginning about 5,500 years ago. The cave sits 2,235 meters above sea level, and excavations have uncovered numerous hearths containing crushed and burned green mineral fragments that resemble malachite, a copper-rich mineral that can be processed to obtain copper. The mineral identification is still being confirmed, so the evidence is best described as a possible early high-altitude copper processing or mining site. The hearths belong to separate occupation layers and show that the cave was reused many times over roughly two thousand years rather than occupied continuously. The discoveries also include a shell pendant, a bear-tooth pendant, and human remains from at least one child. Those finds suggest the cave had uses beyond processing minerals, although researchers do not yet know exactly why the child remains were there. The site is especially interesting because it challenges the older idea that prehistoric communities only visited high mountain environments briefly. Instead, the archaeological evidence points to repeated, planned trips into a difficult landscape, with people returning again and again because the location was valuable to them. Further excavation and analysis are expected to clarify where the green mineral came from and exactly how it was processed.