Post by L Roebuck on Aug 10, 2006 15:30:49 GMT -5
Time team bid to dig up secrets of Ice Age
SHEFFIELD University archaeologists are searching for clues about Ice Age artists who lived at Creswell Crags – the first major investigation at the site since the 1920s.
The team will work with experts from the British Museum at the site on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and in the Church Hole cave for the next two weeks.
The dig is hoping to unearth major finds from prehistoric times when hyenas, Neanderthals and human hunter-gatherers lived at the site.
The crags hit the headlines in 2003 and 2004 when archaeologists found the first, and currently only, known discoveries of Ice Age rock art in Britain, dated to 13,000 years old.
The discovery of cave art is the most important find from the era since the discovery of 500,000-year-old hominid remains from Boxgrove, West Sussex, in the mid-1990s.
Most rock art in Britain is thought to be around 8,000 years later than the Creswell discoveries, and typically occurs as a variety of engraved or pecked motifs on rock faces and boulders in open, non-cave situations.
The dig is being led by the University's Dr Paul Pettitt who said it was a fantastic opportunity to work at such an important site.
He said: "We know that Church Hole was excavated very rapidly by the Victorians in the 1870s and, as a result, very little is known about the animals and people who inhabited this cave during the Ice Age.
"Many of the bones and stone tools would have been thrown away and now lie within the Victorian spoil heap directly outside the cave's entrance.
"Our plan is to excavate this spoil heap and find the original Ice Age sediments below, which contain bones and other artefacts from the period.
"The excavation will considerably improve our understanding of the Ice Age geology of the crags and of the activities of our Ice Age ancestors in the region."
Jon Humble, from English Heritage, said: "The excavations are also likely to show just how much archaeology has developed in the last 80 years since the previous excavations.
"What were then considered of no interest are now crucial scientific clues to life in the gorge 13,000 years ago and more."
The museum at the crags will be running a series of activities alongside the excavation including regular tours to Church Hole and Robin Hood Cave.
Article: www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=1682947
SHEFFIELD University archaeologists are searching for clues about Ice Age artists who lived at Creswell Crags – the first major investigation at the site since the 1920s.
The team will work with experts from the British Museum at the site on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and in the Church Hole cave for the next two weeks.
The dig is hoping to unearth major finds from prehistoric times when hyenas, Neanderthals and human hunter-gatherers lived at the site.
The crags hit the headlines in 2003 and 2004 when archaeologists found the first, and currently only, known discoveries of Ice Age rock art in Britain, dated to 13,000 years old.
The discovery of cave art is the most important find from the era since the discovery of 500,000-year-old hominid remains from Boxgrove, West Sussex, in the mid-1990s.
Most rock art in Britain is thought to be around 8,000 years later than the Creswell discoveries, and typically occurs as a variety of engraved or pecked motifs on rock faces and boulders in open, non-cave situations.
The dig is being led by the University's Dr Paul Pettitt who said it was a fantastic opportunity to work at such an important site.
He said: "We know that Church Hole was excavated very rapidly by the Victorians in the 1870s and, as a result, very little is known about the animals and people who inhabited this cave during the Ice Age.
"Many of the bones and stone tools would have been thrown away and now lie within the Victorian spoil heap directly outside the cave's entrance.
"Our plan is to excavate this spoil heap and find the original Ice Age sediments below, which contain bones and other artefacts from the period.
"The excavation will considerably improve our understanding of the Ice Age geology of the crags and of the activities of our Ice Age ancestors in the region."
Jon Humble, from English Heritage, said: "The excavations are also likely to show just how much archaeology has developed in the last 80 years since the previous excavations.
"What were then considered of no interest are now crucial scientific clues to life in the gorge 13,000 years ago and more."
The museum at the crags will be running a series of activities alongside the excavation including regular tours to Church Hole and Robin Hood Cave.
Article: www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=1682947