Paviland Research Articles

New Hydroxyproline Radiocarbon Dates from Sungir, Russia, Confirm Early Mid Upper Palaeolithic Burials in Eurasia

Sungir (Russia) is a key Mid-Upper Palaeolithic site in Eurasia, containing several spectacular burials that disclose early evidence for complex burial rites in the form of a range of grave goods deposited along with the dead. Dating has been particularly challenging, with multiple radiocarbon dates ranging from 19,160±270 to 28,800±240 BP for burials that are believed to be closely similar in age. There are disparities in the radiocarbon dates of human bones, faunal remains and charcoal found on the floor of burials [1], [2], [3]. Our approach has been to develop compound-specific methods using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to separate single amino acids, such as hydroxyproline, and thereby avoid the known human contamination on the bones themselves. Previously, we applied this technique to obtain radiocarbon dates of ∼30,000 BP for Sungir 2, Sungir 3 and a mammoth bone from the occupation levels of the site [4]. The single amino acid radiocarbon dates were in good agreement with each other compared to all the dates previously reported, supporting their reliability. Here we report new hydroxyproline dates for two more human burials from the same site, Sungir 1 and Sungir 4. All five hydroxyproline dates reported are statistically indistinguishable and support an identical age for the group. The results suggest that compound-specific radiocarbon analysis should be considered seriously as the method of choice when precious archaeological remains are to be dated because they give a demonstrably contaminant-free radiocarbon age. The new ages are, together with the previously dated ‘Red Lady of Paviland’ human in the British Isles, the earliest for Mid Upper Palaeolithic burial behaviour in Eurasia, and point to the precocious appearance of this form of rite in Europe Russia.

Book review: Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of The Red Lady of Paviland

Book review: Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of The Red Lady of Paviland

Book review: Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland. Marianne Sommer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007, xii + 398 pp, list of archives consulted, 14 figures, 2 appendices.

In Bones and Ochre, author Marianne Sommer, a historian of science, aims to address her discipline’s neglect of paleoanthropology and prehistoric archeology (11). Sommer situates her book among other recent works in the history of science, such as Keller (2000), Secord (2000), and Daston (2000; 2004), as well as those which contextualize the anthropological sciences, including Hammond (1980), Bowler (1986), and Delisle (2007). Drawing on both published and archival sources, Sommer takes on the large task of tracing the history of paleoanthropology through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as she follows the changing biography of the “Red Lady of Paviland.” She uses this ochre-stained fossil skeleton and its role (along with that of associated artifacts) as an “anthropological object,” at once a natural, material object and meaningful concept (6), to demonstrate the historically contingent nature of anthropological interpretation, as the Red Lady’s age, sex, ethnicity, and place in human history shift multiple times from discovery in 1823 to the present day.

:Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland

:Bones and Ochre: The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland

John Traherne, FSA and William Buckland's ‘Red Lady’: An Archaeological Perspective

Previously unpublished correspondence and a re-analysis of events call into question William Buckland's description of his excavation of Paviland Cave in 1823, and illustrate why his interpretation of it changed prior to publication in Reliquiae Diluvianae. Buckland appears to have manipulated the archaeological evidence from Paviland in order to support his ‘Diluvial’ theory. A synthesis of the documentary evidence also illustrates the unrecognized contribution made by John Traherne, FSA and others to the development of Buckland's Paviland story. This paper suggests that modern descriptions and interpretations of Paviland continue to be incorrectly influenced by a reliance on Reliquiae Diluvianae and that the reinterpretation of early archaeological excavations might benefit as much from the application of critical historiographical analyses as from the application of new scientific or theoretical methodologies.

Bones and ochre: the curious afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland

Introduction Part One: William Buckland (1784-1856), an Ancient British Witch, and the Question of Human Antiquity 1. William Buckland (1784-1856) 2. Man among the Cannibalistic Hyena? 3. The Romance of the Witch of Paviland 4. Buckland Accused 5. Man as a Crocodile Superior? 6. The Holy Order of Nature and Society Conclusion: The Red Is No Fossil Man Part Two: William Sollas (1849-1936), a Cro-Magnon Man, and Issues of Human Evolution 7. William Sollas (1849-1936) 8. Ancient Hunters and Their Modern Representatives 9. The Red Is a Cro-Magnon Man 10. Human Evolution as Trunkless Tree 11. The Evolutionary Versus the Historical Model 12. The Moral Authority of Nature Conclusion: Turbulent Times for an Old Lady Part Three: An Interdisciplinary Team, an Early Upper Paleolithic Shaman, and a Definitive Report 13. The Paviland Project and Its Results 14. There is Magic at Work 15. Visualizing Paviland Cave 16. The End of the Red Lady's Story--A Definitive Report? Conclusion: An Unfinished Life Postscript Appendix A: Archaeological and Geological Series Appendix B: Schematized Views of Human Evolution Notes References Index

‘An amusing account of a cave in Wales’: William Buckland (1784–1856) and the Red Lady of Paviland

In 1823 the first Reader of Geology at Oxford University, William Buckland (1784–1856), unearthed the human skeleton known as the ‘Red Lady’ in Paviland cave, south Wales. While the Red Lady is valued today as a central testimony of early Upper Palaeolithic humans in Britain, Buckland considered the skeleton as of postdiluvian age, meaning from after the biblical Deluge. Rather than viewing Buckland as either obscurantist or as having worked entirely within ordinary scientific practice, the paper focuses on how he managed to create an institutional and conceptual space for his geology at one of the centres for the education of the Anglican clergy, and on the impact the sometimes paradoxical demands had on his interpretation of prehistoric human relics, the Red Lady in particular. Buckland was famous if not notorious for his peculiar humour, the distracting and cathartic qualities of which, it will be argued, served as strategy in the advancement of unorthodox ideas or for glossing over inconsistencies.

Book Review: Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’: a definitive report

Book Review: Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’: a definitive report

Biological Sciences: Radiocarbon Dating of Proto-Solutrean in Wales

IN his report on radiocarbon evidence of the age of the Irish Sea Glaciation in the Vale of Clwyd1, Rowlands expressed surprise that the radiocarbon dating of a mammoth carpal from deposits in Ffynnon Beuno cave containing “Aurignacian and Proto-Solutrean artefacts” was only 18,000±1,400−1,200 yr BP (Birm.−146); because, on the basis of comparison with the radiocarbon ages of such industries in France, the dating was expected to be 10,000 yr older. I believe that he will be reassured to hear that a fossil bone found in the same archaeological context at another Welsh site proved to be of almost identical antiquity. In 1968, the radiocarbon age of collagen extracted from the skeleton of Paviland Man, preserved in the University Museum, Oxford, was measured by Richard Burleigh in the British Museum Research Laboratory, and the result he obtained was: 18,460±340 yr BP (BM−374). In reporting this date of the “Red Lady of Paviland”2 I pointed out that the records of excavation at the site (Goat's Hole) showed that the human skeleton was associated with remains of mammoth and with Upper Palaeolithic artefacts including types identified by D. A. E. Garrod as Final Aurignacian and Proto-Solutrean. Some archaeologists were surprised that the Paviland dating was not higher, but I was sufficiently sure of its reliability to infer provisionally that in South-West Britain, Proto-Solutrean points and Aurignacoid artefacts were being made long after they had been superseded in France. In the forthcoming Catalogue of Fossil Hominids, Part 2 (Europe), I have therefore indicated the cultural horizon of Paviland Man as late Proto-Solutrean.

Paviland cave, the “Red Lady”, the Deluge, and William Buckland

Paviland cave, the “Red Lady”, the Deluge, and William Buckland

Man and Bear in Europe

The faunal environment of man, as is well known, has profoundly affected his mental as well as his physical life. The Altamira and other animal-drawings made by Palaeolithic man, whether regarded as disinterested efforts at pure art or as magical symbols intended to ensure success in the chase, are sufficient evidence of the extent to which the cave bear, the bison, the mammoth, and other great beasts figured in the minds of their human contemporaries. Professor Othenio Abel considers that Mousterian man associated certain cult-conceptions with the bears he had killed, and kindred ideas are still found in remote parts of the world. Finds of actual bear remains in more or less clear association with human remains or artifacts are of course numerous. Confining ourselves to Great Britain, bones attributed to Ursus spelaeus were ‘ very common ’ at Paviland cave, Glamorgan, which yielded also artifacts covering the period from Mousterian to the end of Aurignacian times. Cat’s Hole, Long Hole, and Hoyle’s Mouth, all in South Wales ; Kent’s cavern in Devonshire ; King Arthur’s cave in the Wye valley ; Aveline’s Hole, Gough’s cave, and Wookey Hole in the Mendips ; Ffynnon Beuno cave in the vale of Clwyd ; the Victoria cave in Yorkshire ; Creswell Crags and Langwith cave in Derbyshire ; are other sites which have yielded both remains of bear and human artifacts of various periods.

Speleologists in South Wales

THE fourth annual conference of the British Speleological Association will be held at Swansea on August 5–9. In the preliminary programme it is announced that the meetings and administrative organization will be housed in the buildings of the University College of Swansea, while the students’ hostel has been placed at the disposal of visitors. The Conference will meet under the presidency of Dr. R. R. Marett, rector of Exeter College, Oxford, whose work in the exploration of the Moustenan cave of St. Brelade, Jersey, is familiar to all students of palæolithic man. August 6 will be devoted to cave exploration, when the members of the Association will be divided into two bodies, one, the archæological section, visiting such famous archæological sites as Bacon's Hole, Paviland Cave, in which was found the well-known Paviland skeleton, and many years ago the late Prof. Sollas claimed to have discovered palæolithic painting, the Long Hole and others. Visits to the museum of the Royal Institution of South Wales and the Caermarthen Museum have also been arranged. The second section on this and succeeding days will engage in pot-holing, visiting Dan-yr-Ogof, Craig-yr-Nos, Penwyll, Porth-yr-Ogof, Wills caves, and others, all of noted difficulty of access. In addition to Dr. Marett's presidential address, a lecture will be given by Prof. T. Neville George, professor of geology in University College, Swansea, and a number of papers on speleological subjects have been arranged. The conference will be preceded by a camp at Lamb's Leer in the Mendips, where a camp held at Easter last discovered a new rift chasm, descending to a depth of 260 ft. below ground. This and other discoveries here of the south regional members of the Association will be reported at the Conference.

Paviland Cave: An Aurignacian Station in Wales.

Paviland Cave: An Aurignacian Station in Wales.