Red Lady of Paviland

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.