Balma de la Vall

The site was discovered in 1975 by members of the archaeology section of the Museu-Arxiu de Montblanc i Comarca, according to a note provided by a member of the Grup Excursionista Montblanc.

In 1976 a surface collection of the material was made and a permit was requested to excavate the complex. For various reasons, it could not be excavated until 1979, and the campaign focused on the upper and larger rock shelter (LV1), the place from which the first identified materials came. An occupation from the Bronze Age was documented. During 1980 the work on the two lower rock shelters began.

In 2011 the excavation and study work at the Balma de la Vall was reactivated. The new intervention at the shelter has made it possible to begin the extensive excavation work of the theoretical western sector of the lower shelter, and the beginning of the study of the archaeological material recovered during the intervention. The datings and the lithic material identified indicate an occupation of the cavity during the Upper Pleistocene.

The 2012 and 2013 campaigns confirmed the chronology framed within the final Upper Palaeolithic, with the recovery almost exclusively of lithic material due to the conservation problems of the faunal remains. In this intervention, the sedimentary deposit of the Balma was exhausted, reaching the geological substrate at a thickness of 1.5m depth.

As for faunal remains, a set of fragments corresponding to mammal bones was located. The faunal material was divided into two sets: the set of remains corresponding to the intact level of the site, of Palaeolithic chronology, and a whole series of remains corresponding to a disturbed surface level, where in addition to Palaeolithic elements there are remains from various periods. The species represented are quite common in Upper Palaeolithic settlements in Catalonia: deer, wild goats, rabbits and lynx.