A grant from the Diputació de Tarragona improves the protection of the prehistoric site of Cova de les Borres de la Febró

Cova de les Borres de la Febró now benefits from a fully repaired and upgraded protective cover, an intervention that strengthens the preservation of this important prehistoric site located in the headwaters of the Siurana River. The works were made possible thanks to a €10,000 earmarked grant awarded by the Diputació de Tarragona to IPHES-CERCA in 2025 to co-finance the repair of the structure.

The remaining funding was provided through the four-year archaeological and palaeontological research project Evolució paleoambiental i poblament prehistòric a les conques dels rius Francolí, Gaià, Siurana i rieres del Camp de Tarragona (CLT009/22/000064), promoted by the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The intervention has corrected the construction defects affecting the original cover, which was installed in 2021 through a Leader rural development project promoted by the Ajuntament de la Febró. To carry out these improvements, a new technical project was commissioned from Enginyeria Marimón, which prepared a technical report valued at €18,865 aimed at optimising the structural elements of the installation.

IPHES-CERCA managed the tendering process, while the company Corriols i Senderons S.L. carried out the works. The project has recently been completed, concluding a particularly complex intervention due to the site’s location and challenging terrain conditions.

An engineering challenge in a highly valuable heritage landscape

Cova de les Borres is located within the karst canyon at the headwaters of the Siurana River, an area of outstanding archaeological and natural significance. The imposing Triassic limestone cliffs, combined with difficult access conditions and the re-expansion of Mediterranean mountain forests over former agricultural landscapes, make any intervention a major logistical and technical challenge.

Despite these difficulties, the new infrastructure provides enhanced protection for the site and creates optimal conditions for the scientific work planned over the coming years. The area protected by the cover measures approximately 24 metres in length and 12 metres in width.

A key site for understanding the last hunter-gatherers

Cova de les Borres preserves an important archaeological record dating between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago, during the final stages of the Upper Pleistocene. Excavations have uncovered exceptionally rich lithic assemblages, including numerous microlithic artefacts characteristic of the human groups that inhabited the region during this period.

Large-scale excavations carried out to date have documented abundant archaeological structures that may correspond to domestic architectural features, providing exceptional insights into the dwelling practices of the last hunter-gatherer communities of the Prades Mountains.

The protection of the site now opens up new research opportunities. The exploration of the covered area will also make it possible to document occupations corresponding to the transition between the last hunter-gatherer groups and the first farming and herding communities. In parallel, deep stratigraphic test pits may reveal even older deposits containing remains from the Upper Palaeolithic and potentially the Middle Palaeolithic.

The site’s scientific potential is extraordinary. The sedimentary sequence at Cova de les Borres exceeds 20 metres in thickness, offering the prospect of decades of research into the archaeological and palaeoecological history of the Prades Mountains.

A training excavation site with a promising future

The improved conservation and working conditions also strengthen the role of Cova de les Borres as a training excavation site. The research team includes staff from several research institutions and universities, including IPHES-CERCA, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

Last week, the archaeological field season for this year came to an end after running from 25 May to 6 June. During this campaign, work focused primarily on cleaning excavation areas and opening new test trenches within the protected surface in order to identify more recent archaeological assemblages.

The areas excavated since 2012 had been significantly affected by former mountain farming activities. Thanks to the newly protected area, researchers now hope to identify well-preserved Mesolithic and Neolithic levels. The presence of such occupations is suggested by numerous finds recovered during surface surveys carried out in the headwaters of the Siurana River by Salvador Vilaseca and Albert Prunera in the mid-twentieth century.

The repair of the cover therefore represents a strategic action to ensure the preservation of one of the most promising archaeological sites in southern Catalonia and to secure its scientific investigation for decades to come.