Blurs

On the rugged Gower Peninsula in South Wales, a cave overlooking the Bristol Channel has become the focus of a remarkable archaeological rediscovery.  Inside Bacon Hole Cave, faint red markings on the rock wall have now been identified as deliberate prehistoric artwork dating to approximately 17,100 years ago. The researchers dated calcite deposits associated with and overlying the painted surface, allowing them to establish chronological constraints on the artwork. Uranium–thorium dating of the calcite deposits produced a result of approximately 17,100 years, which helps provide the age constraint for the artwork. If the dating is correct, Bacon Hole contains the oldest known rock art in Britain, transforming what was once considered little more than an obscure Welsh cave into one of the country's most significant prehistoric sites. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the story is that the markings were not newly discovered. They had been there for more than a century. A Cave ...