Above the Tree Line with Neanderthals

High in the southern Alps, at an elevation where weather can turn quickly and oxygen thins, a cave opens onto steep terrain. For decades, Caverna Generosa was known mainly as a bear cave. The floor yielded hundreds of bear bones, teeth, and skulls, the remains of generations of hibernating animals.

Lithic artifacts from Caverna Generosa. (1) possibly retouched debordant flake; (2) Levallois point; (3) Convex simple scraper on a Levallois flake; (4,5) Flakes issued from surface‐type exploitation; (6) Short Levallois flake; (7) Distal flake fragment; (8) Distal fragment of unidirectional flake; (9) Fragment of a small debordant flake; (10) Proximal flake fragment; (11) Mesial fragment of a limestone flake. Credit: Journal of Quaternary Science (2026). DOI: 10.1002/jqs.70048

Mixed quietly among them were 16 stone tools.

A new reassessment¹ of this material argues that these few artifacts carry outsized weight. They suggest that Neanderthals were not just valley dwellers who occasionally wandered uphill. They were planners who moved through high-altitude landscapes with prepared, reusable toolkits, anticipating needs far from their usual residential zones.

The study, led by Delpiano and colleagues, reframes Caverna Generosa not as a camp, but as a waypoint in a broader seasonal and logistical system.