A set of red markings hidden inside a cave on Wales’ Gower Peninsula has been confirmed as the oldest known prehistoric art in Britain, overturning more than a century of uncertainty surrounding the discovery.
The artwork, found in a side chamber of Bacon Hole cave near Swansea, consists of ten horizontal red lines painted onto the rock surface. First discovered in 1912, the markings were later dismissed by archaeologists who believed they were the result of naturally occurring mineral deposits rather than human activity.
Now new scientific analysis has changed that understanding.
Using uranium-thorium dating techniques, researchers tested mineral deposits that formed over the pigment and determined that the artwork is at least 17,100 years old. The results show the markings are among the earliest examples of cave art in north-western Europe and are also the oldest discovered in Britain.
For decades, the paintings were largely ignored. Layers of calcite obscured much of the pigment, and earlier interpretations discouraged further investigation. It wasn’t until 2022 that archaeologists returned to the site and started a detailed study of the markings.
Dr. George Nash, a prehistoric art specialist who ran the research, said the discovery provides an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the region at the end of the last Ice Age. Modern observers in contrast regard the markings as art, but he believes they may have served a more practical or symbolic function.
Their meaning, however, is yet to be determined.
The lines might have been used as communication, recording events, marking visits or bringing information to people who used the cave. Whatever their purpose was, the significance to the people who created them was lost over thousands of years.
The landscape around Bacon Hole would have looked very different when the markings were painted. What is now the Bristol Channel was then a great expanse of land connecting Wales to south-west England. Herds of mammoth, bison, horse, elk and reindeer roamed the area, drawing groups of hunter-gatherers who moved through in search of food.
The importance of the Gower coastline was recognised by archaeologists for tens of thousands of years and a number of caves were found to hold evidence of human activity. Stone tools from several sites suggest that prehistoric communities visited the area much more than once.
Researchers also believe there might be more art hiding in Bacon Hole itself. Later graffiti painted by a fisherman in the nineteenth century in another part of the cave may camouflage older images beneath it, so even more prehistoric remains may remain hidden from view.
The study was carried out by an international team of specialists working with organisations including the National Trust, Swansea University, the University of Southampton and the Bradshaw Foundation.
Archaeologists’ findings, however, are more than a re-examination of one of the previous great discoveries. They are a rare and tangible connection to people who lived in Britain more than 17 millennia ago and provide us with new insight into how they marked, interpreted and interacted with the world around them.
Header Image Credit : George Nash
Sources : First Art
