Red Lady of Paviland

This article is about the Welsh skeleton. For other uses, see Red Lady.

Red "Lady" of Paviland
"Dynes" Goch Pafiland (Welsh)
Remains as seen from the feet
MaterialBone
Period/culturePaleolithic era
Discovered1823
Goat's Hole Cave, Gower Peninsula, Wales
Discovered byWilliam Buckland

The Red "Lady" of Paviland (Welsh: "Dynes" Goch Pafiland)[1] is an Upper Paleolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BP (approximately 31,000 BCE).[2][3] The bones were discovered in 1823 by William Buckland in an archaeological dig at Goat's Hole Cave (Paviland cave) which is a limestone cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea in south Wales.[3] Buckland believed the skeleton was a Roman era female. Later, William Solace examined Goat's Cave Paviland in 1912. There, Solace found flint arrow heads and tools and correctly concluded that the skeleton was in fact a male hunter-gatherer or warrior during the last Ice Age.[4]

Goat's Hole was occupied throughout prehistory. Artefacts are predominantly Aurignacian, but also include examples from the earlier Mousterian, and later Gravettian and Creswellian periods.[5] The site is the oldest known ceremonial burial in Western Europe.[6]

There have been calls to return the red skeleton of Paviland to Wales where it was discovered and also specifically to Swansea.[7][4]

  1. ^ "BBC - Cymru - Hanes - Themau - Cymru cyn Cristnogaeth". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  2. ^ Richards, M. P.; Trinkaus, E. (September 2009). "Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 106 (38): 16034–16039. Bibcode:2009PNAS..10616034R. doi:10.1073/pnas.0903821106. PMC 2752538. PMID 19706482.
  3. ^ a b "Ancient skeleton was 'even older'". BBC News. 30 October 2007. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Red Lady of Paviland: Should remains come back to Wales?". BBC News. 13 January 2023. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Aldhouse-Green was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Callaway, Ewen (2 May 2012). "Archaeology: Date with history". Nature. 485 (7396): 27–29. Bibcode:2012Natur.485...27C. doi:10.1038/485027a. PMID 22552075.
  7. ^ "Buried treasure: calls for important Welsh artefacts to be brought back home". Nation.Cymru. 25 September 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2022.