Rare 8,000-Year-Old Rock Shelter Captures a Turning Point in Human History

Archaeologists in Catalonia uncovered rare, well-preserved layers at Coves del Fem, a rock shelter in northeastern Spain.

The finds include hearths, storage pits, pottery, flint tools, animal bones, and plant remains from Mesolithic and Early Neolithic occupations.

The site offers unusually intact evidence of the transition from hunter-gatherer lifeways to early farming communities in northeastern Iberia.

Researchers say it helps fill a major gap in the region’s prehistory and better trace the Neolithization process.