Biological Sciences: Radiocarbon Dating of Proto-Solutrean in Wales

Abstract

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that in South-West Britain, Proto-Solutrean points and Aurignacoid artefacts were being made long after they had been superseded in France.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.