New methods of dating have dated what is said to be human bone collagen at Paviland to ca. 30000 BC. It is very hard to argue against these kinds of chronological materials, even though the radiocarbon dating game has been shifting its data continuously ever since it was initially applied to artefacts and bones as a chronological tool.
We are VERY skeptical that humans in that era had the kind of red ochre burial found at Paviland, which has no comparable anywhere in the world at that date. We think something is very flawed with this data.
See
Red Lady of Paviland (in interim identified as a male)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lady_of_Paviland
Higham, et al., The
earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in north-western Europe,
Nature 479, 521–524 (24 November
2011),
R.M.
Jacobi, T.F.G. Higham, The
‘‘Red Lady’’ ages gracefully: new ultrafiltration AMS determinations from
Paviland, Journal of Human
Evolution 55 (2008) 898–907 http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/adler/JHE
55(5)/11. Jacobi & Higham 2008 JHE.pdf
Olaf Jöris, Martin Street,
At
the end of the 14C time scale -- the Middle to Upper Paleolithic record of
western Eurasia, Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit des Römisch-Germanischen
Zentralmuseums, Schloß Monrepos, Neuwied.
Journal of Human Evolution 55 (2008) 782–802 http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/adler/JHE
55(5)/4. Joris & Street 2008 JHE.pdf.
B. Wohlfarth et
al. in
Pitfalls
in the AMS radiocarbon-dating of terrestrial macrofossils, Journal of Quaternary Science, Volume
13, Issue 2, pages 137–145, March/April 1998 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291099-1417%28199803/04%2913:2%3C137::AID-JQS352%3E3.0.CO;2-6/abstract.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ old posting follows _______
This material was originally posted at LexiLine (687 and 689) and then at LexiLine Journal #27-L - 2002 : Paviland Cave - Serpens Caput - South Wales
I have uploaded
paviland.gif and
paviland.tif
to the Ancient Britain Files.
http://www.archaeology.co.uk/issues/ca160/ca160.htm
http://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/oistage3/Secure/OIS-3i.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/wales/paviland.shtml
http://scarab.newport.ac.uk/pavi/paviland.html
http://intarch.ac.uk/antiquity/a-green.html
As noted at
http://www.adonde.com.pe/fundacion5000/AfarLuc1.htm
"PAVILAND CAVEIN FACT
Location: Wales
This limestone cave was home to what has become known as "The Red Lady of Paviland". The remains of this young man (originally thought to be a woman) were stained with red ochre - perhaps indication of religious beliefs. This young man was also found with stone, bones and ivory tools as well as with many types of animal bones. When this cave was originally found the remains inside of it were explained by the Big Flood. The animal remains found within the cave were thought to have been swept into the cave by the flood waters and the skeleton was thought to have been buried there after the waters retreated and "man" settled in England. "
As noted at http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/genetic2.htm:
"A bone from an earlier modern human, buried at the Paviland Cave in Wales 26,000 years ago [that is totally false], just one or two thousand years after Neanderthals had vanished, has also yielded a control-region sequence matching those of present-day people. But the researchers who extracted this sequence are uncertain whether it is genuinely ancient or might instead have come from a living person who handled the bone (Sykes, 2000). "Read again "the DNA matches present-day people" - So there you have it - the DNA sequence is MODERN and the radiocarbon people have botched it terribly again.
The reason that artifacts are found at Paviland is that Merlin (Aesculapius) kept his souvenirs here of his worldwide journey with the Argonauts - this includes the ancient African necklace, pieces of ivory (from Africa) and mastodon bone, which he probably brought with him from Siberia, and many other artifacts of his voyage. Perhaps he also kept some old human skulls there which he brought from elsewhere on his voyage.
For a picture of the African necklace found at Paviland see
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/paviland_cave.html
All mainstream dating of the things found at Paviland is thus totally unreliable and mostly false.
As noted at
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba61/feat3.shtml:
"... confirmed the burial site by finding a spread of ochre associated with ivory rods parallel to the cave wall, and added to our understanding of how the body - which was incomplete at the time of discovery probably because of marine erosion - had been interred. The bones were deeply stained with red ochre, and the grave goods - ivory rod and bracelet fragments, and perforated periwinkle shells - were all similarly stained."As stated at
http://www.croydoncavingclub.org.uk/Archive/Pelobates/069/S07.htm
all evidence for alleged ancient human occupation in the United Kingdom prior to the ice age comes from only four places: Paviland, Kent's Cavern, Gough's Cave and Creswell Crags - all of which I have shown to be megalithic sites in ca. 3117 BC.
Mainstream archaeologists have erred terribly here and genetic DNA evidence denies the veracity of their conclusions entirely.
If we were to believe the archaeologists' dating, we then had one human here from about 26,000 BC - surviving the period of glaciation together with Mastodon bones (in England ?!!!) and an African necklace - and then nothing until 20,0000 years later. This is all just wishful thinking by the archaeologists. In fact, the glaciation eliminated all traces of human occupation in the North and everything we find of human habitation is after that period.
[Update September 26, 2006]
The issue of Paviland is important, not just for our megalithic research. If we accept the radiocarbon date of ca. 25,000 years ago for the burial at Paviland, then this is the OLDEST human ever found in Europe - which stretches the imagination a bit.
It would mean that the shaman's burial took place prior to the ice age, survived a vast cover of ice intact, together with Mastodon bones and an African necklace and many other artifacts. Pretty farfetched really.
Here is what is written at
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/paviland_cave.html
"Paviland CaveSo, that is the - not undisputed - theory.
In 1823, the first recorded discovery of fossil human remains took place at Goat's Hole Cave in Paviland on the Gower peninsula of South Wales. The excavator, Rev. William Buckland initially thought that it was the remains of a woman, probably of a Roman prostitute or witch. It was later discovered that they were the remains of a man, but the name "Red Lady of Paviland" is still used.
The remains were discovered buried in red clay in the cave. It was the first evidence of a ritual burial where a young man was buried and covered in red ochre and accompanied by grave goods mad out of bone, antler, and ivory. The remains date back to about 26,000 b.p. Paviland is the richest Early Upper Paleolithic site in the British Isles and is the only ceremonial burial of the Aurignacian age. This site, with over 40 radiocarbon dates, holds our understanding of the chronology of human activity and settlement from about 30,000 - 21,000 years ago.
The Red Lady of Paviland was buried with ivory ornaments and perforated sea-shell necklaces among other items.
Sources
Stephen Aldhouse-Green and Paul Pettitt, "Paviland Cave:
Contextualizing the `Red Lady." Antiquity."
What speaks against this date?
1. We otherwise have no record of human burial prior to about 8000 BC anywhere, and certainly not in the sophistication found at Paviland.
2. The DNA analysis indicates the man is "modern", i.e. post-ice age.
3. The bones were soaked with red ochre - are we getting the radiocarbon date of something in the red ochre?
4. There are no records otherwise of Mastodons in the UK here - so Mastodon bones or ivory here were brought here from elsewhere in an age where travel to Mastodon-areas was possible by boat - this puts the date at no earlier than about 4000 BC.
5. The African Necklace finds no counterpart in 25,000 BC but would be well suited to the date I set to Paviland, which is ca. 3000 BC.
6. The burial involved a "shaman", "sorcerer" or "witch" - and, indeed, the first of this kind of burial ever found on earth. We have no records of such shamans in Europe prior to the ice age. But we do have a legend in the UK of a great shaman in remote days - his name was handed down to us as Merlin of legend and locally as "Mother Meldrum", a witch who lived part of the year on one cave (IMO Paviland - summer) and part of the year in another cave (IMO
Kents Cavern - winter). See
www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/Resources/Downloads/exmoor_access_l.pdf
where it is written:
"Stories about witches include Mother Meldrum, who lived in a cave near Tarr Steps in the summer and in another cave in the Valley of Rocks during the winter ".(One cave on the Exmoor Coast - now assigned as the cave of Mother Meldrum by locals - is as good as inaccessible. See
http://www.geocities.com/exmoorwalker/. Another alleged and doubtful
location for the summer residence is found at
http://www.westcountrynow.com/main/itineraries/tours_lornadoone.cfm
where it is written:
"From Dunster take a drive to Exford en-route you will see DunkeryThe Valley of Rocks is described at
Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor. The Beacon, used by the Doones
[Latvian Udeni - the "water people", i.e. Tautha de Danaan] to light
the way to their encampment, is now marked by a cairn of stones
[megalithic !]. Exford is situated on the banks of the river Exe and
is overlooked by high moorland. This is the parish where Tom Faggus
contrived to join forces with a group of men sent to apprehend him,
tricked them into emptying their guns and the robbed them at the
point of his own. From here you can travel south to Dulverton which
lies on the river Barle and has many old buildings of interest and
is also home of the Exmoor National Park Visitor Centre. All Saints
Church has a set of stained glass windows donated by Sir George
Williams, the founder of the YMCA, who was born at nearby Ashway
Farm. The ancient clapper bridge and Tarr Steps are probably of Iron
Age origins. This was the summer home of Mother Meldrum, the wise
woman of the story who warned John Ridd against the Doones."
www.moorlandrover.co.uk/exmoor.htm:
"Our first stop this morning is the ancient clapper bridge at TARRAn area prone to flooding is not a very likely area for an ancient residence - the ancients were smarter than that.
Steps on the River BARLE. From the ancient ridge road across
Sandyway and Fyldon we have distant views of the whole of North
Devon. A narrow coastal road takes us via Lee Abbey and Mother
MELDRUM'S CAVE into the VALLEY OF ROCKS. LYNTON – scene of a flood
disaster in 1952 – is on the agenda and we pause for tea beside the
river at WATERSMEET. "
7. The bones found are "singular" - why if there was an ancient
community here has nothing else been found from that period. Why are
all the rest of the finds in this area from a period ca. 3000 BC?
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