Early Humans in Britain – Evidence Found in a Cave Under Welsh Castle
A bat-ridden cave under a castle in Wales revealed extremely early evidence of the presence of prehistoric humans. The object found there date back to the last ice age and suggest these Home sapience were among the first to dwell in Britain.
Wogan Cavern – Among the Most Important Caves for Archeology
Wogan Cavern beneath Pembroke Castle in southwest Wales is the site of ongoing excavations. A great number of artifacts were discovered there, helping detail thousands of years of history. Therefore, the place is considered to be among the most important caves for archeology in Britain.
800 years ago, a wall was built that shut the mouth of the cave, and the cave is accessible thanks to a spiral staircase from the castle above. During the Middle Ages, the cave was used as a storeroom, and it contains lots of artifacts from the Roman period too.
Signs of Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers
Evidence is strong that the cave was also inhabited by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the middle of the last Ice Age. Although no prehistoric human skeletons were discovered, there were some stone tools found at the site in 2022, whose analysis confirms that they were crafted by some of the earliest representatives of Homo sapiens to settle in Britain. Other than these tools, the cave also contains the bones of reindeer, wild horses, and woolly mammoths, suggesting that a lot of feasts took place in the cave.
Too little is known about when Homo sapiens came to Britain and the way they lived. Scientists know even less about the history of Neanderthals, the close cousins of Homo sapiens, in Britain.
Great Expectations for the Expedition in Summer 2023
More excavations will be done at the cave under the Welsh castle in the summer of 2023, and hopefully, some questions about this period in human history will be answered.
Dr. Rob Dinnis, an archaeologist from the University of Aberdeen and co-leader of the project, considers Wogan Cavern to be a “remarkable site” that will help scientists try to answer the questions such as when exactly Homo sapiens arrived in Britain, from where they arrived, and how they lived during the Ice Age.
Dr. Dinnis is impressed by how much the archeologists found, given how little they excavated. He thinks that they’ve barely scratched the surface, and he’s wondering if evidence of even earlier occupation by the Neanderthals will be discovered.