Red Lady of Paviland
Red Lady of Paviland is the name of an almost complete skeleton, which was found in a cave about 20 miles (32 km) from Swansea, in 1823. It was the first time, there was a scientific publication on the find of an anatomically modern man.[1] The skeleton turned out to be 33.000 years old, and was probably among the first people on the British Isles.[2]
The skeleton was painted with red ochre. As pearls and ivory was found nearby, the skeleton was first thought to be that of a woman. William Buckland who found it, thought that it must have been that of a witch or a prosititute during the Roman Era Britain. In 1968, radiocarbo dating was done, and the skeleton was found to be about 22.000 years old.[3] The man had been bout 21, at the time of his death. The age of 22.000 years was problematic though: it meant that the British Isles would have been settled during a time when it was very cold.[1] Another dating was done in 1989; it found an age of 33.000 years.[2] Another dating, done in 2008, gave an age of 33.000 years.[3] 33.000 years ago, there was one of the warmer periods of the ice age.
Today , the skeleton is kept at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.
Other websites
- Great Sites: Paviland Cave. Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine In: archaeologyuk.org, accessed 29th May 2016
- The oldest known buried remains in Britain. (with illustrations) In: bradshawfoundation. com, accessed 3rd September 2015
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 William Buckland: Reliquiæ Diluvianæ; or, observations on the organic remains contained in caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel, and on other geological phenomena, attesting the action of an universal deluge. John Murray, London 1823, S. 82–98.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ewen Callaway: Archaeology: Date with history. In: Nature, Vol.485, 2012, pp. 27–29, doi:10.1038/485027a
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kenneth P. Oakley: The date of the „Red Lady“ of Paviland. In: Antiquity. volume 42, Nr. 168, 1968, pp. 306–307, .