Paviland Cave

By Rebecca McLoughlin

Paviland Cave or Goat’s Hole Cave as it is also known, is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in Britain, as it is home to the largest collection of upper Palaeolithic artefacts in Britain including the Red Lady of Paviland burial.

Goat’s Hole Cave is situated on the Gower peninsula in South Wales. The cave itself is an eroded cleft in the rock, on which the entrance leads to a twenty-two metre long passage way with a maximum width of six metres and with a height of ten metres which eventually tapers to the rear. Inside the ceiling is marked by a chimney which starts one third of the way up the wall on the east side. On the west side there are two depressions within the floor (RCHMW 2015). Physically it would have appeared very different to today with a large plain in front of it that has disappeared over time. It would have also been much further inland than where it can be found today due to erosion and rising sea levels. It may have been as far as seventy miles inland in Palaeolithic times.

The cave itself was first discovered to contain artefacts in 1822 when Daniel Davies and Rev John Davis decided to explore and found a collection of animal bones including that of a mammoth. Upon informing the owners of the land, the Talbots, another expedition was arranged including the oldest daughter of the family and further bones belonging to an elephant were discovered (Aldhouse-Green 2001).

Section of Paviland Cave (Wellcome Trust)

Upon these further discoveries the family contacted William Buckland who was a Professor of geology at Cambridge University and invited him to survey the site for himself. Arriving in January 1823 he spent a week excavating Goat’s Hole and made the discovery of a skeleton. Surrounded by shells small fragments of ivory rings and ivory rods, all stained with the same red ochre as the bones. Bones of mammoth and woolly rhino were also found during these early excavations. He did not believe that these were contemporary to the body and must have been evidence of the biblical flood and that they must not have made it onto the ark. It was almost complete and was stained in red ochre, having identified it as male during this time, he later changed his mind when he published his findings later that same year. The skeleton had now become the Red Lady of Paviland, who according to Buckland, was in fact a painted lady who had who had prostituted herself to a nearby Roman garrison (RCHMW 2015).

The Red Lady has been subject to numerous tests in order to figure out its age as well as who it may have been. When alive he would have been a healthy adult male, around 5 foot 11 and aged 25-30. With the development of radiocarbon dating in the 1940s it became possible to date the age of the bones but it was not attempted until the 1960s to date it scientifically. Kenneth Oakley published his findings and gave a result of 18,460BP which tied the skeleton to the end of the last Ice Age (Aldhouse-Green 2001).

Further studies in 1977 by John Campbell of the lithics found showed that it belonged in the Late Augancian period, around 40-28,000BP and again in 1989 a new and more plausible date suggested that he had died around 26,000 years ago in radiocarbon years (Aldhouse-Green 2001). Further testing in 2009, gave Red Lady of Paviland a new date of 33,000 years based on recalibrated radio carbon results (National Museum of Wales 2015). Therefore it is one of the oldest human burials in Western Europe to this date. And also DNA analysis has concluded that he has a sequence of DNA that fits within the commonest lineage in Europe (Aldhouse-Green 2001).

While Buckland found very few pieces of flint during his excavation, subsequent visits to the site yielded thousands more allowing it to be dated, many of which were found to predate the burial of the Red Lady during the excavations of George Sollas some 85 years later (Aldhouse-Green 2001).

Further study of the lithics found here has shown that material ranges from about 40,000BP to 13,000BP and includes Mousterian; leaf point; Aurignancian; Creswellian and final upper Palaeolithic phases. The majority however come from the Aurigancian period suggesting that it was most in use during this period. The sheer number of Palaeolithic material, such as scrapers and burins makes it one of the richest sources in Britain today. These finds are made up of both local and imported material as is evidenced by the red ochre which comes from local sources and flint that comes from further afield.

Other evidence found can be linked to the burial and include more than forty ivory rods and ring fragments as well as periwinkle shells. It was impossible to radiocarbon date the shells due to contamination but have been judged as being from the same time period and were interred with the body.

Recent finds connected with the site is the discovery of cave art by Dr George Nash in 2010. The carving is described as speared reindeer and is very faintly scratched into the cave wall. It is believed to have been done by someone who was right handed using a piece of flint. Comparisons to this find can be made to Creswell Crags were similar cave art of red deer appears. Dr Nash believes that the key to dating this artwork lies within the discovery of the flint tools in the 1950’s. While those at Creswell Crags have been dated to around 12,000- 14,000BC, it is possible that the carving found at Paviland may be of a similar age if not earlier. This find is in the process of being verified and officially dated (BBC 2010).

Bibliography.

Aldhouse-Green, S. (2001) Great Sites: Paviland Cave. British Archaeology 61. Available online: http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba61/feat3.shtml {Accessed 30/10/2015]

BBC (2010) Carving found in Gower cave could be oldest rock art Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-14272126 [Accessed 15/11/2015]

National Museum of Wales (2015) Dates on Human Bone: Radiocarbon dates. Available online: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/radiocarbon/analysis/1/ [Accessed 10/11/2015]

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (2015) Goat’s Hole Cave, Paviland. Available online: http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/300251/details/GOAT%27S+HOLE+CAVE%2C+PAVILAND/ [Accessed 23/10/2015]