{"id":55678,"date":"2021-09-02T13:05:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T11:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.icac.cat\/en\/?p=55678"},"modified":"2021-09-03T10:57:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T08:57:56","slug":"new-archaeological-works-in-the-prehistoric-cave-338-in-the-pyrenees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/actualitat\/noticies\/2021\/new-archaeological-works-in-the-prehistoric-cave-338-in-the-pyrenees\/","title":{"rendered":"New archaeological works in the prehistoric cave 338 in the Pyrenees"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team led by\u00a0IPHES\u00a0is carrying out an\u00a0archaeological intervention in cave 338<\/strong> (or “Catau\u00a0de\u00a0l’Os”), located at 2,250 m, in a strategic enclave of the Pyrenees, a halfway between the N\u00faria valley and the top of Puigmal, the highest peak in the area.<\/p>\n

From August 26 to September 6, a team from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) and the Prehistory Area of \u200b\u200bthe Rovira i Virgili University (URV), under the direction of Carles Tornero and Eudald Carbonell, is leading an\u00a0extensive\u00a0excavation in prehistoric cave 338, in the Catalan Park Natural Cap\u00e7aleres\u00a0del Ter y del\u00a0Freser (Queralbs), within the framework of a research project in collaboration with the Catalan Institute of Classical Archeology (ICAC).<\/p>\n

More than 10 years of\u00a0GIAP\u00a0archaeological\u00a0research\u00a0in\u00a0the Pyrenees\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Previous archaeological works by GIAP\u00a0<\/a>team, led by\u00a0Josep Maria\u00a0<\/strong>Palet<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(current director of the Institute), together with\u00a0H\u00e8ctor\u00a0<\/strong>A. Orengo<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arnau Garcia-\u00a0Molsosa<\/a>, documented for the first time in 2012 the occupation of cave 338 in the Middle Neolithic in the 4th millennium BC,\u00a0an extraordinary finding\u00a0<\/strong>that represented the oldest documented human occupation in the N\u00faria Valley to date.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The archaeological campaign was part of the InterAmbAr <\/a>research project (2010-2012), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, and coordinated with the Paleoenvironment R&D subproject of the CSIC (led by Ramon Juli\u00e0, Jaume Almera Institute of Earth Sciences – CSIC, and Santi Riera, from SERP-UB).<\/p>\n

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GIAP\u00a0team identified the cave in the N\u00faria valley in 2012, and it was documented in the Middle Neolithic, reoccupied in the late medieval phase.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The results on human occupation in the N\u00faria and Coma de Vaca valleys led to new landscape archeology projects in these high-altitude spots, with the inclusion of\u00a0palaeoenvironmental\u00a0studies\u00a0and new interventions in which many other points of interest were investigated, showing the deep anthropization of these spaces for about 7,000 years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In this context, and\u00a0within the framework of the SUMA project, ICAC and\u00a0IPHES\u00a0organized a\u00a0<\/strong>joint intervention<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in 2017<\/strong>, co-directed by\u00a0Josep Maria\u00a0Palet<\/a>,\u00a0L\u00eddia\u00a0Colominas<\/a>\u00a0and Tania Polonio from the\u00a0GIAP<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0team.\u00a0In this intervention, different diagnostic studies were carried out in the deposits, and the existence of important prehistoric occupations at the entrance of the cave could be corroborated.<\/p>\n

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ICAC-IPHES team in the joint archaeological intervention in cave 338 or “Catau de l’Os”, in 2018. Photo: ICAC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Check out more information about the results of this joint intervention here:\u00a0“Hem\u00a0posat\u00a0les bases per\u00a0patrimonialitzar\u00a0l’arqueologia\u00a0de N\u00faria”<\/a>\u00a0(ICAC, January 12, 2018).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In search of the first human populations in the Pyrenees<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The remains recovered in the cave (among others, combustion basins for the exploitation of malachite, charred vegetable fuel, fragments of the consumed animals, or pieces of hand-made ceramic vases) indicate the use of the cavity from the Middle Neolithic to the Middle Ages; that is, for about 5,500 years.<\/p>\n

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Archaeological works in the prehistoric cave 338 (Queralbs, Catalan Pyrenees). Photo: ICAC, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historically,\u00a0the area where cave 338 is located has been closely linked to the livestock use\u00a0<\/strong>of the extensive surrounding meadows during the summer season, as a natural refuge for the shepherds who accompanied the flocks, generally sheep.<\/p>\n

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One of the purposes of the current archaeological intervention is to know the use that the cavity had by the first human populations that used it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One of the working hypotheses of the current intervention is to test whether the first prehistoric occupations documented in the cave were already associated with this livestock activity in high mountain areas and to corroborate whether this cavity could have other functions and uses.<\/p>\n

Other prehistoric archaeological sites documented at a similar height and in other areas of the Pyrenees are located in small shelters or structures with stone foundations in the open air, usually with archaeological records poorly preserved due to the acidity of the soils and the greater exposure of their deposits out in the open.\u00a0The good conservation observed in cave 338 makes\u00a0the\u00a0recovery of a unique and exceptional record at this height\u00a0<\/strong>probable.<\/p>\n

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Archaeological remains of a Neolithic home fire in Aigols Podrits II (Cap\u00e7alera del Freser). Photo: ICAC, 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the archaeological excavation, the project includes a plan for the protection of the cavity for safeguarding, as well as the dissemination of the scientific results, resources that will be useful for the\u00a0Natural Park Cap\u00e7aleres\u00a0del Ter i del\u00a0Freser.<\/p>\n

The ICAC has already developed different\u00a0transfer and dissemination activities\u00a0<\/strong>to\u00a0value the archaeological heritage of this area of the Pyrenees<\/a>, based on the results of the more\u00a0than ten archaeological campaigns carried out in this area by the GIAP research team.\u00a0A good example is the\u00a0archaeo-tracks<\/a><\/strong>, designed by\u00a0Josep Maria\u00a0Palet<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pau Olmos<\/a>, available as\u00a0tracks with archaeological interest<\/a>\u00a0in the Natural Park Cap\u00e7aleres\u00a0del Ter i del\u00a0Freser since 2018.<\/p>\n

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Members of the GIAP team doing archaeological survey work in the valley Coma de Vaca (Queralbs, Catalan Pyrenees). Photo: ICAC, 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2021 archaeological excavation is carried out within the framework of the quadrennial project ‘Arrels prehist\u00f2riques de la transhum\u00e0ncia a l’Alt Ripoll\u00e8s: projecte arqueol\u00f2gic 2018-2021’ (CLT009\/18\/00048), with the funding of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Queralbs City Council;\u00a0under the direction of archaeologists Carles Tornero (postdoctoral researcher Mar\u00eda de Maeztu at\u00a0IPHES) and Eudald Carbonell (professor of Prehistory at the URV and researcher at the same center).<\/p>\n

Project ‘Arrels’ is co-directed by Carles Tornero and Eudald Carbonell, from IPHES, and has the participation of the ICAC, with GIAP researchers Josep Maria Palet<\/a>, L\u00eddia Colominas<\/a>, Pau Olmos<\/a>\u00a0y Tania Polonio.<\/p>\n

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Amb el suport de<\/h6>\n

\"Logo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team led by\u00a0IPHES\u00a0is carrying out an\u00a0archaeological intervention in cave 338 (or “Catau\u00a0de\u00a0l’Os”), located at 2,250 m, in a strategic enclave of the Pyrenees, a halfway between the N\u00faria valley and the top of Puigmal, the highest peak in the area. From August 26 to September 6, a team from the Catalan Institute of Human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":55646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[328,342,334,336,322,333],"tags":[782,239,783,781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55696,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55678\/revisions\/55696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icac.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}