Pyrenees cave reveals 4,000 years of copper work at extreme altitude

In a high-altitude Pyrenees cave (2,235 m) called Cova 338, archaeologists found 23 fire pits, malachite fragments, pottery, bones, and ornaments—plus remains of a child—showing repeated, organized visits over more than 4,000 years (from the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age). The site appears to have been used to heat and process copper-bearing rock, not necessarily smelted there, indicating sophisticated resource extraction and knowledge transfer in an otherwise remote location. Future work aims to confirm ore sources and the full metallurgical sequence.