Explore the arrival of Homo sapiens in Ice Age Britain and the excavation of a new Stone Age archaeological site in South West Wales. Discover the significance of Wogan Cavern, rich with ancient human settlement remains. Learn about extracting ancient DNA from soil sediments, ice age landscapes, and the variety of artifacts uncovered in the excavation process.
The discovery of Wogan Cavern in South West Wales provides valuable evidence of early Homo sapiens settlement in Ice Age Britain.
Excavation in caves requires a meticulous approach to preserve contextual data and understand prehistoric human activities.
Deep dives
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Exciting Archaeological Discoveries in Wogan Cavern
Archaeologists led by Dr. Rob Dennis and Dr. Jennifer French recently conducted an excavation in Wogan Cavern in southwest Wales. The cavern, located beneath Pembroke Castle, has provided a unique opportunity to uncover evidence of Britain's first Homo sapiens and possibly even Neanderthal occupation. The layers of the cave reveal ice age deposits, stone tools, animal bones, and remnants of early human activity, shedding light on prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities.
The Importance of Meticulous Excavation in Caves
The excavation process in caves requires a slow and deliberate approach to preserve the integrity of the site and understand how sedimentary layers and archaeological artifacts relate to each other. Caves provide excellent preservation conditions for organic materials and offer valuable insights into human and animal activities. Careful excavation ensures that crucial contextual data is captured, allowing researchers to answer essential questions about the past.
Insights from Wogan Cavern's Archaeological Finds
The ongoing excavation in Wogan Cavern has yielded various artifacts, including stone tools and animal bone fragments. The bone analysis provides a glimpse into the ice age fauna, with evidence of reindeer and other large herbivores. Additionally, small lithic flakes reveal aspects of tool production and reworking, contributing to a deeper understanding of the activities and technologies of early Homo sapiens. These findings also align with materials discovered at the famous Paviland cave nearby.
Roughly 40,000 years ago, Ice Age Britain was undergoing a transformation.
The first modern humans, Homo sapiens, were arriving and beginning to settle in the British Isles. Their evolutionary predecessors, the Neanderthals, were on their way to extinction. Until now we have known very little about this period. But that might be about to change with the discovery of a new centre of Stone Age archeology in South West Wales.
Wogan Cavern, situated underneath Pembroke Castle, was the ideal place for newly-arrived prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities to dwell and is littered with stone tools, bones and other hallmark remains of ancient human settlement. In this special on-location episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes went to visit the cavern and speak to the archeologists who uncovered it, Dr. Rob Dinnis and Dr. Jennifer French.
This episode was produced by Joseph Knight and edited by Aidan Lonergan
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