Spanish Archaeologists Identify 23 Hearths at 5,500-Year-Old Pyrenees Copper Smelting Site
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 1
Spanish Archaeologists Identify 23 Hearths at 5,500-Year-Old Pyrenees Copper Smelting Site
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 1
Twenty-three hearths in a prehistoric Pyrenees cave point to a possible copper smelting site, with most dating back 4,000 to 5,500 years, Spanish archaeologists reported in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
Crushed green mineral fragments inside the hearths appear to have been burned while other materials showed no thermal damage, leading the team to suspect malachite—a copper-bearing mineral—was processed there.
Excavations carried out from 2021 to 2023 also uncovered two prehistoric pendants, a human finger bone and a baby tooth from a child about 11 years old, suggesting the cave saw more frequent human use than previously thought.
Researchers called the findings preliminary and are still testing the mineral fragments, while deeper layers may yet reveal burials and clarify the cave's role in prehistoric mining and metallurgy.