Chert reveals changes in human mobility during the Upper Paleolithic in the southern Pyrenees
IPHES-CERCA leads the research of more of 3,000 lithic tools recovered from the Cova Gran de Santa Linya site (Lleida), which shows how anatomically modern human communities modified the selection, management, and circulation of chert in response to techn
The analysis of more than 3,000 lithic tools from the Cova Gran de Santa Linya site (Les Avellanes-Santa Linya, Lleida) shows that the anatomically modern human communities that occupied the southern Pyrenees during the Upper Paleolithic exclusively used chert to manufacture their tools.
The results, published in the journal Quaternary International, indicate that the selection of raw materials was closely linked to technological changes, the organization of mobility, and the way these groups related to the landscape.
The research, led by the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), the Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), and the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), in collaboration with the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), focuses on an exceptional archaeological sequence that documents repeated human occupations from the transition between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic until the Lateglacial period.
The team has analyzed cores and retouched tools from 19 archaeological levels of Cova Gran, dated between approximately 13,500 and 39,000 years ago, using an archaeopetrological approach that allows recognizing the sedimentary origin of the chert artifacts and proposing potential procurement zones.
The study distinguishes two main groups of chert used recurrently: evaporitic varieties (formed in saline environments), with a wide distribution in the pre-Pyrenean environment, and lacustrine varieties (originated in ancient lakes), present in different areas of the Ebro Depression and of very high quality.
Although the primary sources of supply remained stable, the researchers document a progressive shift toward the majority use of lacustrine chert starting from the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 years ago.
This shift coincides with a reorganization of lithic technology toward the manufacture of small-sized tools, such as scrapers, truncations, and projectiles.
Long-distance chert
One of the most relevant results of this study is the identification of marine-origin chert, coming from areas located more than 100 km away from the site, including zones on the northern slope of the Pyrenees and possibly southwestern France.
The identification of long-distance chert coincides with the coldest phases documented at the site, indicating greater population mobility through the Pyrenean territory or sustained contact networks over time.
"The presence of long-distance chert in the form of retouched elements indicates that it was likely introduced into the Cova Gran site as part of toolkits or sets of multifunctional tools that traveled with these populations during their displacements," the authors point out.
The Cova Gran de Santa Linya site is thus consolidated as a key site for studying human interactions with the landscape on the southern face of the Pyrenees.
Its long archaeological sequence allows observing how, within the same territory, the dynamics of chert procurement and management change based on the technological, social, and cultural choices of prehistoric populations.
Reference
Sánchez-Martínez, J., Rafart-Vidal, E., Benito-Calvo, A., Martínez-Moreno, J., & Sánchez de la Torre, M. (2026). Variations in human ecodynamics in the southern Pyrenees: chert procurement and use at Cova Gran de Santa Linya during the Upper Paleolithic. Quaternary International, 771, 110312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2026.110312