An archaeological campaign finds 40.000-year-old Neanderthal tools in Cova del Trader in Cubelles
The archaeological excavations by the Seminar on Prehistoric Studies and Research of the University of Barcelona (SERP) at the site of Cova del Trader, in Cubelles (Garraf), have found tools from more than 40.000 years ago, made by Neanderthal populations. These works enabled finding excavation levels that could correspond to the transition between Neanderthals and the first Homo sapiens. The archaeological site of Cova del Trader is now added to other SERP excavations in the littoral area of Baix Penedès, Garraf and Baix Llobregat (Castelldefels, Sitges, Calafell, Cunit…) and shows the importance of this geographical area for the study of human population from 43.000 and 37.000 years ago and the research on how and when the Neanderthals disappeared.
The archaeological excavations by the Seminar on Prehistoric Studies and Research of the University of Barcelona (SERP) at the site of Cova del Trader, in Cubelles (Garraf), have found tools from more than 40.000 years ago, made by Neanderthal populations. These works enabled finding excavation levels that could correspond to the transition between Neanderthals and the first Homo sapiens. The archaeological site of Cova del Trader is now added to other SERP excavations in the littoral area of Baix Penedès, Garraf and Baix Llobregat (Castelldefels, Sitges, Calafell, Cunit…) and shows the importance of this geographical area for the study of human population from 43.000 and 37.000 years ago and the research on how and when the Neanderthals disappeared.
“Fifteen years ago this area in the south of Llobregat was considered empty as for Pleistocene sites, that is more than 12.000 years, while now this area is seen as the center of Eneolithic and Paleolitic population” says the archaeologist Artur Cebrià. At this moment, the SERP project Substitucions Humanes i Transformacionis Econòmiques al Penedès-Garraf, -led by Josep M. Fullola, professor of Prehistory at the University of Barcelona- is digging in the archaeological sites of la Balma de la Griera and Cova Foradada, in Calafell and Avenc de Sant Antoni in Cunit, with funds from research projects funded by the Archaeological and Paleontology Service of Generalitat de Catalunya and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. These findings in the Cova del Trader complete and strengthen the information collected so far and opens the possibility to find Pleistocene remains in some small cavities and caverns in the littoral part of Baix Penedès.
The excavation in cova del Trader was performed by the archaeologists affiliated to SERP-UB: Artur Cebrià, Mireia Pedro, Xavier Oms and Juan I. Morales, with the support of the City Council of Cubelles. Before these excavations took place, the site was known for the interventions of the late fifties in the 20th century by Joan Bellmut and the Archaeology Section of the Center of Studies of the Library-Museum Víctor Balaguer in Vilanova i la Geltrú.
Materials from those works were stored in the fund of the Library-Museum and had remains that proved the use of the cave as a funerary place during early Prehistory periods, between 4.000 and 2.000 a.C