Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:09:06.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paviland Cave: contextualizing the ‘Red Lady’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Stephen Aldhouse-Green  and
Paul Pettitt
Stephen Aldhouse-Green
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities & Science, University of Wales College Newport, Caerleon Campus, P.O. Box 179, Newport NP6 1YG, Wales, s.h.aldhouse-green@newport.ac.uk
Paul Pettitt*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3Qj, England
*
Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Paviland is the richest Early Upper Palaeolithic site in the British Isles and has produced Britain's only ceremonial burial (the ‘Red Lady’) of that age. Excavations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, combined with the action of the sea, have removed virtually all of the cave's sedimentary sequence. A new, definitive study of the site and its finds, together with over 40 radiocarbon dates, shows that Paviland currently holds the key to our understanding of the chronology of human activity and settlement from c. 30,000 to 21,000 years ago. The age of the ‘Red Lady’ is also finally resolved at c. 26,000 b.p.

Keywords

WalesPaviland Caveburial14C datesAurignacian‘Red Lady of Paviland’
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 278 , December 1998 , pp. 756 - 772
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. 1993. Lithic finds, in Godbold, S. & Turner, R.C., Second Severn Crossing. Archaeological Response: phase 1 — the Intertidal Zone in Wales: 45–7. Cardiff: Cadw.Google Scholar
Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. 1996a. Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’ — new research, in Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. (ed.), Explaining the unexplainable: Art, ritual and death in prehistory: 6–7. Cardiff: National Museums and Galleries of Wales.Google Scholar
Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. 1996b. Hoyle’s Mouth and Little Hoyle caves, Archaeology in Wales 36: 70–71.Google Scholar
Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. 1997. The Paviland research project: the field assessment. Archaeology in Wales 37: 3–12.Google Scholar
Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R. (Ed.) forthcoming. Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’: a definitive report. Newport: University of Wales College, Newport & National Museums and Galleries of Wales.Google Scholar
Aldhouse-Green, S.H.R., Scott, K., Schwarcz, H.P., Grün, R., Housley, R., Rae, A., Bevins, R. & Redknap, M. 1995. Coygan Cave, Laugharne, south Wales — a Mousterian site and hyaena den: a report on the University of Cambridge excavations, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61: 37–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alekseev, N.A. 1997. Shamans and their religious practices, in Balzer, M.M. (ed.), Shamanic worlds: rituals and lore of Siberia and Central Asia: 49–109. New York (NY): North Castle Books.Google Scholar
Allard, M. 1985. Etat de la question sur le Paléolithique supérieur on Mayenne. Les Grottes de Thorigné-en-Charnie et de Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 80: 322–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allsworth-Jones, P. 1986. The Szeletian and the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Allsworth-Jones, P. 1990. The Szeletian and the stratigraphic: succession in Central Europe and adjacent areas: main trends, recent results and problems for resolution, in Mellars, P. (ed.), The emergence of modern humans: an archaeological perspective: 160–242. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Apsimon, A.M. 1986. Picken’s Hole, Compton Bishop, Somerset: early Devensian bear and wolf den, and Middle Devensian hyaena den and palaeolithic site, in Collcutt 1986: 55–6.Google Scholar
Bader, O. 1978. Sungir Upper Palaeolithic site. Moscow: NAUKA.Google Scholar
Barton, N., Roberts, A.J. & Roe, D.A. (ed.). 1991. The Late Glacial in northwest Europe: human adaptation and environmental change at the end of the Pleistocene. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 77.Google Scholar
Barton, R.N.E. & Roberts, A. 1996. Reviewing the British Late Upper Palaeolithic: new evidence for chronological patterning in the Lateglacial record, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 15: 245–65.Google Scholar
Bosselin, B. & Djindjian, F. 1994. La chronologie du Gravettien français, Préhistoire Européenne 6: 77–115.Google Scholar
Bowen, D.Q. 1970. The palaeoenvironment of the ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland, Antiquity 44: 134–6.Google Scholar
Buckland, W. 1823. Reliquiae Diluvianae. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.B. 1977. The Upper Palaeolithic of Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.B. 1986. Hiatus and continuity in the British Upper Palaeolithic: a view from the Antipodes, in Roe, (ed.): 7–42.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.B. & Sampson, C.G. 1971. A new analysis of Kent’s Cavern, Devonshire, England. Eugene (OR): University of Oregon. Anthropological Papers.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., Head, J. & Magee, J. 1996. Beyond the radiocarbon limit in Australian archaeology and Quaternary research, Antiquity 70: 543–52.Google Scholar
Collcutt, S.N. 1984. The sediments, in Green 1984: 31–76. (Ed.). 1986. The Palaeolithic of Britain and its neighbours: recent trends. Sheffield: University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Currant, A. & Jacobi, R. 1997. Vertebrate faunas from the British Late Pleistocene and the chronology of human settlement, Quaternary Newsletter 82: 1–8.Google Scholar
David, A. 1990. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic settlement in Wales with special reference to Dyfed. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
David, A. 1991. Late Glacial archaeological residues from Wales: a selection, in Barton, et al. 1991: 141–59.Google Scholar
Delibrias, G., Gullier, M.T. & Labeyrie, J. 1971. Gif natural radiocarbon measurements VI, Radiocarbon 13: 213–54.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1961. Images and symbols: studies in religious symbolism. New York (NY): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Evans-Wentz, W.Y. 1981. Cuchama and sacred mountains. Chicago (IL): Swallow Press.Google Scholar
Flood, J. 1990. Archaeology of the Dreamtime. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1991. The social context for European Palaeolithic art, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57: 3–15.Google Scholar
Garrod, D.A.E. 1926. The Upper Palaeolithic age in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Geyh, M.A. & Schlüchter, C. 1997. Calibration of the 14C timescale above 30,000 years BP. Unpublished paper presented at the 16th Radiocarbon Conference in Groningen.Google Scholar
Goslar, T., Hercman, H., Lauritzen, S.-E. & Pazdur, A. 1997. Comparison of radiocarbon and U/Th dates of speleothems. Unpublished paper presented at the 16th Radiocarbon Conference in Groningen.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J., Hedges, R.E.M., Law, I.A. & Perry, C. 1986. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 4, Archaeometry 28: 206–21.Google Scholar
Green, H.S. 1984. Pontnewydd Cave: a Lower Palaeolithic Hominid Site in Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Green, H.S. 1986a. The Palaeolithic settlement of Wales research project 1978–1985, in Collcutt, (ed.): 36–42.Google Scholar
Green, H.S. 1986b. Excavations at Little Hoyle (Longbury Bank), Wales, in 1984, in Roe, (ed.): 99–119.Google Scholar
Green, H.S. 1989. Some recent archaeological and faunal discoveries from the Severn Levels, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 36: 187–99.Google Scholar
Green, S. 1991. The Palaeolithic and its Quaternary context, in Manley, J., Grenter, S. & Gale, F. (ed.), The archaeology of Clwyd: 26–46. Mold: Clwyd County Council.Google Scholar
Green, S. & Walker, E. 1991. Ice Age hunters: Neanderthals and Early Modern humans in Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Grimes, W.F. 1939. Guide to the collection illustrating the prehistory of Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Gvozdover, M. 1995. Art of the mammoth hunters: the finds from Avdeevo. Oxford: Oxbow. Monograph 49.Google Scholar
Haesarts, P. & De Heinzelin, J. 1979. Le site paléolithique de Maisières-Canal. Brugge: de Tempel. Dissertationes Gandenses Archaeologicae.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Law, I.A. & Gowlett, J.A.J. 1987. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 6, Archaeometry 29: 289–306.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Law, I.A. & Bronk, C.R. 1989a. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 9, Archaeometry 31: 207–34 Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Law, I.A., Bronk, C.R. & Housley, R.A. 1989b. The Oxford accelerator mass spectrometry facility: technical developments in routine dating, Archaeometry 31: 99–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Bronk, C.R. & Van Klinken, G.J. 1991. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 12, Archaeometry 33: 121–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Humm, M.J., Foreman, J., Van Klinken, G.J. & Bronk, C.R. 1992. Developments in sample combustion to carbon dioxide, and in the Oxford AMS carbon dioxide ion source system. Radiocarbon 34: 306–11.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Pettitt, P. B., Ramsey, C.B. & Van Klinken, G.J. 1996. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 22, Archaeometry 38: 391–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Pettitt, P. B., Ramsey, C.B. & Van Klinken, G.J. 1997. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 23, Archaeometry 39: 247–62.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Pettitt, P. B., Ramsey, C.B. & Van Klinken, G.J. 1998. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 26, Archaeometry 40: 437–55.Google Scholar
Hori, T. 1968. Folk religion in Japan: continuity and change. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Housley, R.A., Gamble, C.S., Street, M. & Pettitt, P. 1997. Radiocarbon evidence for the Lateglacial recolonisation of Northern Europe, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63: 25–54.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1980. The Upper Palaeolithic of Britain with special reference to Wales, in Taylor, J.A. (ed.), Culture and environment in prehistoric Wales: 15–100. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 76.Google Scholar
Juris, O. & Weninger, B. 1997. Extension of the 14C calibration curve to 40,000 BP by synchronising Greenland 18O/16O ice cores and North Atlantic foraminifera profiles. Unpublished paper presented at the 16th Radiocarbon Conference in Groningen.Google Scholar
Klíma, B. 1987. Mladopaleoliticky trojhrob z Dolnich Vĕstoniv, Archeologické Rozhledy 39: 241–54.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, J.K. & Kozlowski, S.K. 1996. Le Paléolithique en Pologne. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.Google Scholar
Laj, G., Mazaud, A. & Duplessey, J.C. 1996. Geomagnetic intensity and 14C abundance in the atmosphere and ocean during the last 50 kyr, Geophysical Research Letters 23: 2045–8.Google Scholar
Law, I.A. & Hedges, R.E.M. 1989. A semi-automated bone pre-treatment system and the pretreatment of older and contaminated samples, Proceedings of the 13th International Radiocarbon Conference, Radiocarbon 31: 247–53.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. & Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1964. Chronologie des grottes d’Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne), Gallia Préhistoire 7: 1–64.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1981. Believing and seeing: symbolic meanings in southern San rock paintings. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1991. Wrestling with analogy: a methodological dilemma in palaeolithic art research, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57(1): 149–62.Google Scholar
Lister, A.M. 1991. Late Glacial mammoths in Britain, in Barton, et al. 1991: 51–9.Google Scholar
Lourandos, H. 1997. Continent of hunter-gatherers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McComb, P. 1989. Upper Palaeolithic osseous artifacts from Britain and Belgium: an inventory and technological description. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 481.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. A. & Bricker, H.M. 1986. Radiocarbon accelerator dating in the earlier Upper Palaeolithic, in Gowlett, J.A.J. & Hedges, R.E.M. (ed.), Archaeological results from accelerator dating: 73–80. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Molleson, T., & Burleigh, R. 1978. A new date for Goat’s Hole Cave, Antiquity 52: 143–5.Google Scholar
Monnier, J.L. 1991. La préhistoire de Bretagne et d’Armorique. Lucon: Jean-Paul Gisserot.Google Scholar
Oakley, K.P. 1968. The date of the ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland, Antiquity 42: 306–7.Google Scholar
Oakley, K.P. 1971. Radiocarbon dating of the proto-Solutrean in Wales, Nature 231: 112.Google Scholar
Oliva, M. 1996. Mladopaleoliticky hrob Brno II jako prispevek k pocatkum samanismu, Archeologické Rozhledy 48: 353–83.Google Scholar
Oliva, M. 1997. Les sites pavloviens près de Predinosti, Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae Sociales 82: 3–64.Google Scholar
Otte, M. 1979. Le Paléolithique Supérieur Ancien en Belgique. Bruxelles: Musées d’Art et d’Histoire.Google Scholar
Otte, M. 1981. Le Gravettien en Europe Centrale. Brugge: De Tempel.Google Scholar
Otte, M. & Straus, L.G. 1995. Le Trou Magrite: Fouilles 1991–1992. Liège: Université de Liège. ERAUL 69.Google Scholar
Rippon, S. 1996. Gwent Levels: the evolution of a wetland landscape. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Roe, D.A. (ed.). 1986. Studiesin the Upper Palaeolithic of Britain and northwest Europe. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 296.Google Scholar
Sagghi, C., Schmider, B. & Chantres, F. 1985. Du Solutréen en Ile-de-France: le gisement de Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières (Essonne), Comptes-Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences 301: 243–6.Google Scholar
Schmider, B. 1990. The last Pleniglacial in the Paris Basin, in Soffer, O. & Gamble, C. (ed.), The world at 18.000 BP 1: High latitudes: 41–53. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1997. The mutability of Upper Palaeolithic art in Central and Eastern Europe: patterning and significance, in Conkoy, M., Soffer, O., Stratmann, D. & Jablonski, N.G. (ed.), Beyond art: Pleistocene image and symbol: 239–61. San Francisco (CA): California Academy of Sciences. Memoir 23.Google Scholar
Sollas, W. J. 1913. Paviland Cave: an Aurignacian station in Wales, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 43: 325–74.Google Scholar
Sonneville-Bordes, D. de. 1960. Le Paléolithique Supérieur eu Perigord. Bordeaux : Delmas.Google Scholar
Straw, A. 1996. The Quaternary record of Kent’s Cavern, Quaternary Newsletter 80: 17–25.Google Scholar
Svoboda, J. V. Ložek & Vlček, E. 1996. Hunters between East and West: the Palaeolithic of Moravia. London: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trinkaus, E. Forthcoming. Late Pleistocene and Holocene human remains from Paviland Cave, in Aldhouse-Green, (ed.), forthcoming.Google Scholar
Turner, A. Forthcoming. The Paviland Cave vertebrate assemblage, in Aldhouse-Green, (ed.), forthcoming.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. 1998. Middle and Upper Palaeolithic environments and the calibration of 14C dates beyond 10,000 BP, Antiquity 72: 26–33.Google Scholar
Vasilevich, G.M. 1963. Early concepts about the universe among the Evenks, in Michael, H.N. (ed.), Studies in Siberian shamanism: 46–83. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Vitebsky, P. 1995. The shaman. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Vivian, O. 1912. Cave hunting notes. Notebook compiled by Odo Vivian (later Lord Swansea), currently on loan to Swansea Museum.Google Scholar
White, R. 1993. Technological and social dimensions of ‘Aurignacian age’ body ornament across Europe, in Knecht, H., Pike-Tay, A. & White, R. (ed.), Before Lascaux: the complex record of the Early Upper Palaeolithic: 279–99. London: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Wymer, J.J. 1996. The Welsh Lower Palaeolithic survey. A supplement to the English rivers Palaeolithic survey. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar
Zilhao, J. 1993. Le passage du Paléolithique moven au Paléolithique supérieur dans le Portugal, in Cabrera Valdes, V. (ed.), El origen del hombre moderno en el suroeste de Europa: 127–45. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.Google Scholar