Strictly speaking not really a Neolithic find, but the technology used to create the rock-art described here continued in use and was that used to make inscribed motifs such as those at Skara Brae in Orkney.
Dr George Nash of the University of Bristol has discovered a small engraved carving of a stylised reindeer on a vertical rock surface in a limestone cave on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. The decorated panel was partially-covered by deposits which have subsequently been dated using Uranium Series dating technology.
Dr George Nash of the University of Bristol has discovered a small engraved carving of a stylised reindeer on a vertical rock surface in a limestone cave on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. The decorated panel was partially-covered by deposits which have subsequently been dated using Uranium Series dating technology.
The cave has previously given-up Palaeolithic flint tools, and now some of the oldest rock art in Britain, discovered by the eagle-eyed archaeologist who was revisting the cave after an earlier explotation. This is only the second example of genuine Pleistocene rock art to be found in the British Isles (the depsosit which had formed over the reindeer has been dated to c 12,752 +/- 600 BP). Stylistically the carving might be as much as 30,000 years old.
This rock art is really, really important. Not because the image itself is well-drawn (it is a simple engraved, stylised form) but because it demonstrates that modern humans were in Wales some time during the last Ice Age. Somehow, they managed to eke-out a living in the frozen waste, equipped with little more than wood and flint tools, and somebody took the time to carve a little image. Any evidence for a human presence from this period is extremely rare. Dr Nash has made the kind of discovery that many archaeologists can only dream of.
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