The MARQ has concluded the excavation campaign at the Cova del Randero de Pedreguer with new findings that place the enclave as one of the most extensive and interesting archaeological sites in terms of approaching the hunter-gatherer groups who populated the eastern peninsular during the Magdalenian period.
In the last two excavation campaigns, it has been established that that the cave was inhabited at least 17,000 years ago. in an area not only close to the mouth, as previously thought, but also inland. This year, moreover, human bones and a flat, pointed, polished rod have been found. made entirely from animal rib, used to hold the hair or clothing worn by one of those buried in this cavity around 2,700 BC.
The work of the fifteenth and final season of archaeological excavations in Pedreguer began on 18 August. This project is part of the Archaeological Excavations Plan of the Provincial Council of Alicantedirected from MARQ by Consuelo Roca de Togoresand co-managed by the specialists and PhDs Jorge A. Solerexpert on the Neolithic period, and Elisa DomènechThe research was carried out within the framework of an agreement signed between the provincial institution and the town council. The campaign has been carried out within the framework of the agreement signed between the provincial institution and the town council.
The Vice-President and Member of Parliament for Culture, Julia Parraconfirmed his support for maintaining research in the Cova del Randero and stated that it is an enclave "important from an archaeological point of view in which, thanks to institutional collaboration, for yet another year new data has come to light that allows us to discover the development of Palaeolithic and Neolithic communities in the east of the peninsula and their way of life".
In the research team of this cave, in addition to the co-directors and specialists in different disciplines, Archaeology students participate every year from different universities such as Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the universities of Murcia and Alicante, with a work plan adapted to the measures established by the health authorities.
This year's scientific results will be published, documenting the remains of a household attached to the Early Neolithic EpicardialThe first groups to start with a production economy, cultivating cereals and tending herds of sheep and goats, date back to around 5,000 BC.
Around 4,500 BC, the Cova del Randero also reveals a extensive seasonal use of spacewhere different activities are generated according to the internal environment; from stabling of livestockThe traces of a possible enclosure that could have been used to separate the adult animals from the young were found; as well as traces of pastoralist habitatThe site also documented a post footprint that could have been used to support some kind of wooden structure, as well as the finding of a large ceramic vessel The organic analyses carried out have revealed its culinary, lighting and even hygienic use.
The immediately adjoining gallery was used by the shepherds as a meat processing landfill. It has documented a huge amount of animal skeletal remains with bone markings, mainly from sheep and goats, but also cattle, pigs and wild species.
In the late Neolithic period, the cavity was used exclusively as a funerary spacerepresented by the discovery of human skeletal remains, together with fragments of ceramic vessels, shell pendants and arrowheads made of flint, materials corresponding to the trousseaus and offerings accompanying the deceased.
The good results obtained in previous campaigns have led to the participation of the excavation team of the Cova de Randero in two international congresses on the Neolithic worldThe VII International Congress of the Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, held in Seville, and the Early Neolithic of Europe held in Barcelona.
