Paviland
Cave and the 'Red Lady' A definitive Report. Edited by Stephen Aldhouse-Green.
Western Academic and Specialist Press: 2000;
314 pp; 131 illustrations; 111 tables; 38 plates; ISBN 0-9535418-1-9.
In January 1823, William Buckland discovered an ancient human burial
at Goat's Hole, Paviland, on the Gower Peninsula (Wales). The body was
stained with red ochre and was found in association with stone tools,
bone tools and animal bones. Buckland believed the skeleton to be that
of a young woman and as an adherent of the prevailing diluvial theory
of human antiquity, assigned it to a relatively recent period. Today,
we know this find as the Red Lady, in fact a male burial of Early Upper
Palaeolithic age, one of the most celebrated finds in the British Palaeolithic
record. The present volume offers, if such a thing is possible, 'a'
definitive report that summarises the past 175 years of research on
this site. It is divided into 12 chapters and several appendices, each
by different authors and each dealing with a different aspect of the
site.
In the first chapter Aldhouse Green introduces us to the various caves
in the Paviland area - Hound's Hole, Foxhole and, most importantly,
Goat's Hole - and provides details of the 1997 excavation, survey and
assessment, along with a resume of the stratigraphy remaining in the
caves. Concentrating on Goat's Hole, Green explains how the cave was
gradually filled by colluvial processes over a period extending back
into the Middle Pleistocene (a beach deposit within the sequence is
suggested to relate to high sea level conditions during the last interglacial),
but that human occupation was limited to the last 60kya or so.
While providing essential background, this first chapter rather hits
the ground running and assumes quite a high level of prior knowledge.
The relatively uninitiated can sometimes find themselves floundering
in a sea of new information. This is not an issue with Chapter 2 (by
Swainston and Brookes), for although very detailed and introducing a
huge cast of characters, it provides a very interesting summary of the
history of the site, giving a timetable of who was involved and what
contribution they made; a list that includes such luminaries as Buckland,
Vivian, Sollas & Breuil. The chapter concludes with a neat consideration
of the various biases that have affected the archaeological materials
from the site. Remarkably, several collectors obtained large numbers
of very small-sized finds; these are generally absent from most early
Palaeolithic collections, partly due to taphonomic processes but also
because of collector and excavation biases towards larger finds - clearly
not a problem when looking for small blade tools.
In Chapter 3 Lowe details the geological setting & development of
the Paviland Caves, the recent evolution of which is a combination of
marine and karstic dissolution processes, with today's caves representing
only a portion of original system. This paves the way for Chapter 4,
a multi-authored work dealing with the various 'hard-science' undertaken
during the preparation of the present volume. In it, Bowen reviews the
dating evidence, correlating the radiocarbon sequence with the Grip
and Gisp2 ice core data. He argues that the classic date of the Last
Glacial Maximum (21ka calendar years) is not strictly applicable at
the local scale & provides evidence that in South Wales this event
occurred earlier, ~23 ka, corresponding with Heinrich event 2. This
provides the context for his contention that human occupation fluctuated
according to climate and that the human occupation at Paviland falls
within Greenland interstadial 4. The calibrated radiocarbon date of
~29.9 kya for the Red Lady is only 61 years too old to be in this interstadial,
which given the resolution is practically contemporary. Pettitt follows
this with a summary of the wider c14 dating program carried out on organic
materials from the site. This reveals intermittent human presence during
the period 29-21ka (uncalibrated), and shows that a number of the famous
bone & ivory personal ornaments are much younger than the celebrated
burial. He also uses the C14 data to question some recent attempts to
provide mammalian bio-zones for the later Upper Pleistocene. The chapter
concludes with the results of two currently sexy techniques. Richards
summarises the results of his isotopic work, which reveals a 10-20%
marine component in the 'Red Lady's' diet, while Sykes's describes the
DNA analysis on the skeleton. Sikes reaches the key conclusion that
modern Europeans have a Palaeolithic pedigree and do not all descend
from a handful of Neolithic migrant farmers from the East.
Chapters 6 & 7 return to more traditional archaeological pursuits,
the finds. In 6, Swainstone describes the lithics, an exercise somewhat
hampered by the lack of detailed contextual information from many of
the collections. On typological grounds she identifies periodic human
presence from the Middle Palaeolithic onwards, with diagnostic artefacts
testifying to Aurignacian, Gravettian and Late Upper Palaeolithic occupations.
I personally found some of the technological conclusions less than convincing
(for example, the lack of cortex on the discoidal cores does not provide
prima facie evidence that they were introduced partly worked) but Swainston
has valiantly tried to make the best a less than ideal lot. In Chapter
7, Aldhouse-Green discusses the ivory and bone tool assemblages. These
too show an intermittent human presence, with tools dating from 29-21kya,
including the famous ivory pendant and spatulae; some pieces, including
broken ivory rods and broken bracelets' were apparently associated with
the burial. Aldhouse-Green suggests that the spatulae, shaped to resemble
elements of the female body, have an encoded meaning, much like the
better known East European figurines, and that their presence at Paviland
symbolically reflects 'a commonality of social discourse set against
the backdrop of climatic downturn' (p129). That Upper Palaeolithic societies
had extensive social networks, with trade links extending over 700km
or more, is well established, but the recent push to turn this into
evidence for a Eurasian communications network perhaps wishes the coca-cola
age of globalisation onto the Palaeolithic.
The bone remains from Goat's Hole are dealt with in the following two
chapters. In 8 Turner describes his analysis of 350 mammalian remains,
a mere fraction of what was originally collected. Based on such evidence
the danger of over-interpretation is high. Turner refutes the previously
claims for extensive human damage (Sollas), and treats the evidence
for burning and smashing for marrow with similar caution. Carnivore
activity is rather better represented, however, leaving the impression
that while a variety of agents were responsible for accumulating the
bone assemblage, the cave was not a major domestic site for humans.
Chapter 9 deals with the human remains, 3 individuals 2 of which are
Holocene in age, and essentially forms the core of the whole report
(perhaps this is the definitive bit). The Red Lady is confirmed as a
gracile young male, slightly more tropically adapted than recent Europeans,
but more cold adapted than recent Africans. All interesting enough,
but at 76 pages plus rather overdoing it.
Chapter 11 provides Aldhouse-Green's final interpretation of the site,
an overview of human occupation and a very useful summary of the evidence
for Early Upper Palaeolithic burials throughout Europe. Green sees the
site as mainly being used by carnivores until 29k, essentially hyenas,
but their decline around this time led to an increase in bears and subsequently
modern humans. The first modern humans to visit carried an Aurignacian
tool kit, their entry into Britain late in European terms and probably
reflecting Britain's liminal position in the UP world, followed by a
series of periodic Gravettian visits (including the burial at 26 kya).
He sees humans using the cave as a sacred place visited only on ritual
occasion, replete with magic wands, shamanistic ceremony and bear-worship.
Neanderthals had a limited presence prior to 30kya, and unlike modern
humans were apparently not deterred by the presence of hyaena shit in
the cave. The final chapter is intended to provide some perspective
on the previous one, being a review of social & ritual life among
Australian hunter-gatherers. It is an interesting and useful chapter,
but its inclusion as the final chapter of this book might raise a few
eyebrows.
Overall, this is a very good and highly detailed study of a key Palaeolithic
site. It contains a wealth of new and old information, a useful bibliography,
and, crucially, situates the site within a modern interpretative framework.
Once again Mary Earnshaw and WASP have done a fine job, with great production
values, a neat format and copious illustrations. At £40 for a
hardback report it represents fairly good value for money and anybody
interested in learning more about this important cave could do a lot
worse than starting here.
Mark
White
Department of Archaeology
University of Durham
Review Submitted: October 2002
The views expressed in this review are not
necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews Editor.
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