6K Years Ago, They Climbed a Mountain to Get at Metal

High in Spain's Pyrenees, a cave packed with green stones is rewriting what archaeologists thought they knew about prehistoric life in the mountains. A new study argues the site, 7,300 feet up in Girona province, was a seasonal copper-smelting camp used on and off for more than 4,000 years, per Live Science. Inside, researchers found human remains, animal bones, broken pottery, charcoal, fireplaces—and nearly 200 fragments of a vivid green mineral they say is likely malachite, a copper ore not native to the cave. Many pieces show signs of deliberate burning, suggesting people hauled the rock and fuel up specifically to extract copper.

Radiocarbon dating points to occupation as early as 5000 BC, with especially heavy use between 3600 and 2400 BC, the heart of Europe's Copper Age, as described in a study published Tuesday in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. Personal items—a pierced bear tooth and a shell pendant—plus a child's tooth and a finger bone hint that the cave doubled as a burial space, per Popular Science. The team says the find is the first clear evidence of intensive, high-altitude prehistoric activity in the Pyrenees and suggests the mountains were central to how ancient communities moved and sourced raw materials, not an ignored frontier. Further analysis aims to confirm the green mineral's identity and clarify exactly how copper was produced there.