3,500-year-old bones of children unearthed in remote cave of Spain. Look inside
Hidden in a remote cave in eastern Spain sat the traces of ancient visitors. Some came and went, leaving only artifacts to mark their presence. But for others, particularly children, the cave became a final resting place.
Archaeologists first located the Cave of the Dead Man in 2008. Sitting in the Pyrenees mountains, the two-room cave was used as a tomb 3,500 years ago, the Autonomous University of Barcelona said in a June 20 news release.
Ever since its discovery, archaeologists have regularly returned to explore the cave.
This year, High Mountain Archaeology Group led the excavation. Digging into the dark brown soil, archaeologists unearthed a variety of artifacts 1,500 to 4,500 years old.
The most recent artifacts included ancient Roman pottery, some of which originated in North Africa, archaeologists said. A photo shows the broken tan-brown fragments.
Archaeologists also found numerous 3,500-year-old human remains linked to the roughly 125-year period when the cave was used as a tomb. Many of the bones belonged to children, but some were identified as elderly people.
Other recently found artifacts from the Bronze Age included a unique metal arrowhead, the university said. A photo shows the rusty arrow.
The oldest artifacts were bell-shaped pottery fragments dating back 4,500 years.
A student archaeologist with the High Mountain Archaeology Group, Annais Torres, shared a photo of the cave entrance in a June 22 post on X, formerly Twitter.
Archaeologists will continue studying their finds and hope to excavate more of the cave.
The Cave of the Dead Man is in Soriguera, a village in Catalonia that is a roughly 360-mile drive northeast from Madrid and near the border with Andorra and France.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and X post from @annais6towers.
This story was originally published June 24, 2024 at 3:51 PM with the headline "3,500-year-old bones of children unearthed in remote cave of Spain. Look inside."
