The 3Cat game show Atrapa’m si pots echoes IPHES-CERCA's research at the Cudó cave

The 3Cat game show Atrapa’m si pots recently dedicated one of its questions to the research that IPHES-CERCA is conducting at the Cudó cave, located in the municipality of Mont-ral (Alt Camp), thereby bringing research on Catalan prehistory to a prime-time audience. The question referred to the discovery, announced in 2020, of the remains of a leopard (Panthera pardus) approximately 24,000 years old. These remains belong to one of the last specimens to inhabit the Prades Mountains before the disappearance of most large Pleistocene carnivores from the Iberian Peninsula. The find, made during excavations led by Josep Maria Vergès, led to the recovery of a humerus and a radius in an exceptional state of preservation.

The Cudó cave is a key site for understanding the last hunter-gatherer populations of the Upper Paleolithic in southern Catalonia. Research by IPHES-CERCA has documented occasional occupations by Homo sapiens between 31,000 and 10,000 years ago, as well as the coexistence of these human groups with large predators such as leopards. The feature of this research on a popular show like Atrapa’m si pots highlights the growing social interest in the archaeological and paleontological heritage of the region.

You can watch the program through this link starting from the 34:50 mark.