High in the eastern Pyrenees mountains, at 2,235 meters above sea level, researchers discovered something unexpected in Cave 338. For thousands of years, people climbed this remote location to work with copper.
Inside the cave, scientists found fragments of malachite, a bright green mineral containing copper. The fragments were deliberately burned in 23 ancient fire pits, showing that this was not a simple campsite. People came here purposefully to work with metal.
Archaeologists found evidence of human activity spanning about 2,000 years, from roughly 6,000 to 4,000 years ago. This period included the Copper Age, when Europeans first began working with copper. Multiple layers of fire pits showed that different groups returned to the cave across many generations.
The discovery included other interesting finds: two ancient pendants made from a shell and a bear's tooth, dating to around 4,000 years ago. Researchers also found human remains, including a finger bone and a baby tooth from a child about 11 years old. This raises questions about whether people buried their dead at this high-altitude location.
The study, led by Professor Carlos Tornero of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, challenges old ideas about early humans. Scientists once thought high mountains were empty places that people only passed through. Cave 338 proves they were wrong. People organized their work in these extreme locations, returning repeatedly over centuries.