By rickyjames, Section News Posted on Sat Jun 14, 2003 at 03:30:57 PM PST
As reported in The Observer, archaeologists have discovered 12,000-year-old engravings carved by ancient Britons in a cave in Creswell Crags, Derbyshire. The depiction of the animals - which include a pair of birds - is the first example of prehistoric cave art in Britain. "If this is verified, it represents a wonderful discovery," said Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London. "There are fine examples of cave art in Spain and France but none has been found here - until now."
Update [2003-6-18 7:58:35 by rickyjames]:: Pictures...
As the team reveal in the journal Antiquity, they targeted Creswell Crags because its caves are known to have been occupied in palaeolithic times. In the nineteenth century, archaeologists discovered a 12,000-year-old bone needle in a cave called Church Hole. And it is in this cave that Bahn and Pettitt discovered the two engravings, both of a style similar to the cave art of France and Spain. As for the two birds carved on the wall of Church Hole, one appears to be a crane or swan, the other a bird of prey. The other engraving is probably of an ibex, an animal not thought to have existed in Britain. The engraving may represent a rare sighting of an ibex that had strayed from southwest Europe.
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