Long-term human adaptation to the climatic changes is a crucial debate in the Paleoanthropological studies. Possibily, one of the most important climatic changes was produced in the European continent between 15,000 to 8,000 years BP.  The Pyrenee Mountain Range is a biogeographical unit that connects the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of Europe, and a geographic landscape in which this process can be understood better. From an archaeological perspective, however, these mountains seem to show different and divergent prehistoric paths.  

During the Ice Age, the human occupation along the North face of the Pyrenees is well known thanks the impressive archaeological heritage recovered in caves sites such as Niaux or Mas d’Azil. Surprisingly the other side of the Pyrenees seems to be an “uninhabited” region. This divergence between the north and south sides has been explained as the result of the ice masses accumulated during the Plesitocene.   Under this perspective, the Pyrenees can be considered a natural border that impeded the communication between these two nearby areas, very similar in geographic and ecological terms. 

The deglaciation process affected the landscape, fauna and flora around the world. The new climatic conditions characteristic of the Holocene, equally, affected the hunter-gatherer’s lifestyle. In fact, the Mesolithic has been defined as epoch of “crisis”.  The differences in the archaeological record observed between the two north / south regions of the Pyrennees, seems to continue into the Holocene.   

La Cova Gran is a recently discovered archaeological site in the south Pyrenees (Catalonia, Spain) and excavated by Rafael Mora, Paloma Gonzalez-Marcen and Jorge Martinez at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. They believe that the settlement of la Cova Gran can contribute to the understanding the changes produced between the Late Glacial and Early Holocene and how theses changes had affected the hunter-gatherer groups. This settlement can permit the analysis of whether the Pyrenees were an impassable border in the Pleistocene.   
Preliminary test-pits have revealed a long archeo-stratigraphic sequence that can be attributed to the transition from Paleolithic-Mesolithic. The presence of lithic artifacts, bones and hearths suggest that this site can help to understand the evolutionary changes produced in the hunter-gatherers between 15,000-8,000 years B.P.  

The fieldwork methodology will combine the excavation of large surfaces, sampling and test surveying. The goal is to explore the archaeological potential of this settlement.