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<< Text Pages >> La Cova Gran - Cave or Rock Shelter in Spain in Cataluña

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 11 April 2010  Page Views: 6160

Natural PlacesSite Name: La Cova Gran
Country: Spain
NOTE: This site is 5.635 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Cataluña Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
 Nearest Village: Les Avellanes-Santa Linya
Latitude: 41.925947N  Longitude: 0.811844E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Cave or Rock Shelter in Cataluña. La Cova Gran is located in the pre-Pyrenees mountain ranges, near to the town of Balaguer. The access to the archaeological site is easy, but the landscape is quite rugged and wild, with deep ravines and sheer cliffs.

The vegetation is a good example of Mediterranean forest, with deciduous trees. The fauna is typical of the Mediterranean ecosystem (wild boar, fox, roe deer). The site is also located in a natural refuge for aquatic and migratory birds. Bird watching in the area is excellent.

This impressive rock-shelter is located in the pre-Pyrenean sierras, in a secondary valley of the Noguera-Pallaresa river, that allows easy access to the Ebro basin and to the Pyrenean mountains.

The surrounding landscape is quite rugged with deep ravines and sheer cliffs. The settlement is placed in the middle of a small, short and narrow canyon that was occupied repeatedly by Tardiglacial hunter-gatherers.

Source: UAB.es

Note: Archaeologists find clues to the appearance of modern humans
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Nearby Images from Flickr
(6021) Llacs de LLeida (Catalunya)
Barranc de Sant Miquel des del Tren dels Llacs - Pantà de Camarasa
308 020 at Emb. de Camarasa
Cova Gran de Santa Linya 6
Cova Gran de Santa Linya 5
Cova Gran de Santa Linya 4

The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.


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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 6.1km ESE 116° Cova del Tabac* Cave or Rock Shelter
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 18.3km ENE 59° Dolmen Lloella del Llop 2* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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"La Cova Gran" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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When did the first 'modern' human beings appear in the Iberian Peninsula? by Andy B on Sunday, 11 April 2010
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Research carried out by a group of archaeologists from the Centre for Prehistoric Archaeological Heritage Studies of the Universitat Autňnoma de Barcelona (Spain) has contributed to stirring up scientific debate about the appearance of the first "modern" human beings on the Iberian Peninsula and their possible bearing on the extinction of the Neanderthals. The samples obtained at Cova Gran using Carbon 14 dating refer to a period of between 34,000 and 32,000 years in which this biological replacement in the Western Mediterranean can be located in time, although the study regards as relative the use of Carbon 14 for dating materials from the period of transition of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period (40,000 and 30,000). The results also support the hypothesis that there was neither interaction nor coexistence between the two species.

The work, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, was coordinated by Rafael Mora, Professor of Prehistory and Director of the CEPAP-UAB. Jorge Martínez-Moreno, a researcher at the CEPAP-UAB and Ignacio de la Torre, Lecturer Institute of Archaeology of University College, London also took part in the project.

Cova Gran is a large shelter discovered in 2002, located in the area of Les Avellanes-Santa Linya -La Noguera- and is one of the rare European archaeological sites to enable the study of what is known in Paleoanthropology as "transitions" or critical phases in which transformations and remodelling that are essential for reconstructing the history of our species can be detected.

The investigators from the UAB have worked on an area of 60 metres squared, excavating a large area which has enabled them to reconstruct the way in which the people who inhabited the shelter lived. This system of working is not usual in archaeology since excavations are generally restricted to smaller earth movements. They have been able to recover archaeological materials from the Middle Palaeolithic attributable to Homo neanderthalensis, and from the Upper Palaeolithic, which corresponds to Homo sapiens, separated by sterile strata of sediment which allows their differentiation.

The exceptional conditions of conservation of these archaeological remains, which have remained unaffected by biological and geological changes, have meant that the materials used by each of these species has been conserved without the need for significant earth movements, contrary to that which has been indicated in other archaeological sites. This detailed analysis of the tool remains recovered allows major differences to be observed in the way in which they were made, implying that they were made by different species.

This is something that has also been recognised in other sites in Western Europe, and it goes to strengthen the hypothesis that the two species neither lived together nor interacted with each other, although they may have lived in the same geographical area during the period from 40,000 to 30,000 years, which is generally referred to as the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic "transition".

Cova Gran was occupied successively by Neanderthals and "modern" humans in small groups of 15 to 20 people with a similar lifestyle: hunting, gathering, making tools for their daily activities and obtaining and processing food for which the use of fire was essential. In spite of this, each species used very different techniques and primary materials.

Among the remains found that are attributable to Homo sapiens are several perforated sea snail shells, generally considered to be an indicator of the distribution of the species throughout Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe. They also denote the existence of a symbolic language and cognitive capacities for which there is no evidence during the Middle Palaeolithic These objects indicate that Homo sapiens travelled widely across lands from the Mediterranean coast to the Pyrenean foothills, a distance of over 150 kilometres, although the researchers do not rule out the existen

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Archaeologists find clues to the appearance of modern humans by Andy B on Sunday, 11 April 2010
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New findings from an excavation site in Spain are generating heated debate among palaeontologists and archaeologists about precisely when the Neanderthals disappeared and were replaced by the first anatomically modern human beings. The research, carried out by a team from the Centre for Prehistoric Archaeological Heritage Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and published in the Journal of Human Evolution, pinpoints the transition to between 34,000 and 32,000 years ago, and supports the hypothesis that that the two species did not interact or coexist.

The archaeologists carried out their research at a site called Cova Gran in the south-eastern Pyrenees in Catalonia, Spain, that was inhabited by Neanderthals and modern humans at different times in the past. Covering a total surface area of 2,500 square metres, Cova Gran is a rarity for archaeologists; sites of this 'transitionary' type are crucial to palaeontologists and archaeologists as they offer them a chance to trace the development of the human species.

The research team excavated a large area of Cova Gran, enabling them to reconstruct the way that previous inhabitants lived. Many exceptionally well preserved materials including tools were discovered from both the Middle Palaeolithic (300,000 to 30,000 years ago) and Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 to 10,000 years ago periods, allowing the different species involved to be identified from the ways in which the tools were made. Differences in the construction of the tools imply that they were made by different species.

The results from Cova Gran, which were obtained by Carbon 14 (C14) dating, show that the area was inhabited by different types of human, including Neanderthals and 'modern' humans, at different periods of prehistory. Their lifestyles were similar in many ways: they hunted, gathered, made tools and used fire. But they employed very different techniques and materials in their day-to-day lives. The C14 dating process showed that remains at the site are between 34,000 and 32,000 years old, the time when it is believed that Neanderthals became extinct and modern humans took their place.

This backs up evidence from excavations in other European sites where similar results have been noted, furthering evidence that the two species did not interact although they may have inhabited the same area 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, which is generally referred to as the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition period.

Other finds at Cova Gran include perforated sea-snail shells. These ornaments signify the existence of cognitive capacities for which there is, as yet, no evidence during the Middle Palaeolithic period. As well as offering us clues to their social structures and identity, the existence of the perforated shells indicates that Homo sapiens may have travelled widely and had social networks in which objects of this type would have circulated.

Source: http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=31952

Thanks to coldrum
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