Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:11:56.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The first Welshman: excavations at Pontnewydd

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

H. Stephen Green
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Pontnewydd Cave lies in the Elwy Valley, near the western edge of the Vale of Clywd (FIG. 1), six km north-west of the modern town of Denbigh. The site first became well-known through the successive investigations of the nineteenth-century geologists Professors William Boyd Dawkins and T. H. McKenny Hughes, the latter working with the Reverend D. R. Thomas, then Vicar of Cefn. Boyd Dawkins' s excavations at the site (1874, 286–7; 1880, 192) yielded a fauna which included hippopotamus, but no artifacts were observed. The work of Hughes & Thomas (1874; Hughes, 1887) seems to have been confined principally to scouring Boyd Dawkins' s dumps, and yielded not only fauna but also evidence of the presence of man in the form both of artifacts and of a human molar tooth, since lost. This molar has long excited interest on account of its description by Busk (in Hughes & Thomas, 1874, 390) as being ‘of very large size’ and looking ‘quite as ancient as the rest [of the fauna]’. One of the many research aims of the current investigation was, therefore, to examine the possibility that the cave was a site where human remains might be found in association with an archaeological industry.

Type
Articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 215 , November 1981 , pp. 184 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Binford, L. R. 1978. Nunamiut ethnoarchaeology (London).Google Scholar
Birdsell, J. B. 1968.Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter-gatherers, in (eds) Lee, R. B. & Vore, I. D., Man the hunter (Chicago), 220-40.Google Scholar
Bordes, F. 1961. Typologie du paléolithique ancien et moyen (Bordeaux).Google Scholar
Bosinski, G. 1967. Die Mittelpaläolithischen Funde in Westlichen Mitteleuropa. Fundamenta A/4 (Cologne & Graz).Google Scholar
Bowbn, D. Q. 1978. Quaternary geology (Oxford).Google Scholar
Bowbn, D. Q. 1980. The Quaternary of the United Kingdom, in (ed.) Owen, T. R., United Kingdom: introduction to general geology and guides to excursions. Int. Geol. Congress, Paris, 1980. Inst. Geol. Sci. London, 88–91.Google Scholar
Bradley, B. & Sampson, C. G.. 1978.Artifacts from the Cottages Site, in (ed.) Sampson, C. G., Palaeo-ecology and archaeology of an Acheulian site at Caddington, England (Dallas), 83–137.Google Scholar
Collins, D. 1976. The geography of the European Lower Palaeolithic, Colloque X, IX Congrès UISPP, Nice, 165-65.Google Scholar
Bowbn, D. Q. 1977. Das Altpalāolithikum in England, Ethno. Archäeol. Z., 18, 63–71.Google Scholar
Cook, S. F. 1972. Prehistoric demography, Addison-Wesley module in Anthropology, No. 16, 12–18.Google Scholar
Dawkins, W. B. 1874. Cave hunting (London).Google Scholar
Cook, S. F. 1880. Early man in Britain (London).Google Scholar
Embleton, C. 1960. The Elwy river system, Denbighshire, Geog.J., CXXVI, 318-34.Google Scholar
Embleton, C. 1970.North-Eastern Wales, in (ed.) Lewis, C., The glaciations of Wales and adjoining regions (London), 59–82.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R. G. & Matthews, R. K.. 1978. The marine oxygen isotope record in pleistocene coral, Barbados, West Indies, Quaternary Research, X, 181-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gascoyne, M. 1981. Chronology and climate of the Middle and Late Pleistocene from Speleothems in caves in North-West England, Quaternary Newsletter, 34, 36-7.Google Scholar
Green, H. s. 1981.The stone age cave archaeology of South Wales, in (ed.) Bull, P., Limestones and caves of Wales (Norwich), in press.Google Scholar
Green, H. S., Stringer, C. B., Colcutt, S. N., Currant, A. P., Huxtable, J., Schwarcz, H. P. & Bevins, R. E.. 1981. Pontnewydd Cave, Wales, UK: a new middle pleistocene hominid site, Nature, in press.Google Scholar
Greenly, E. 1919. The geology of Anglesey [Mem. Geol. Surv. London).Google Scholar
Harmon, R. S. & Thompson, P.. 1978. Late Pleistocene palaeoclimates of North America as inferred from stable isotope studies of speleothems. Quaternary Research, IX, 54–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, T. Mck, H.. 1887. On the drifts of the Vale of Clwyd and their relation to the caves and cave-deposits, Q. F. Geol. Soc, XLIH, 73–120.Google Scholar
Hughes, T. Mck, H.. & Thomas, D. R.. 1874. On the occurrence of felstone implements of the Le Moustier type in Pontnewydd Cave, near Cefn, St Asaph, F. Anthrop. Inst., III, 387-90.Google Scholar
Jennings, J. N. 1979. Man and other animals in Australian caves and shelters, Trans. British Cave Research Assoc, 6, III (Oct, 1979)1 93–I30.Google Scholar
Jones, P. R. 1980. Experimental butchery with modern stone tools and its relevance for palaeolithic archaeology, World Archaeology, 12, 153-65.Google Scholar
Kallay, J. 1970.Osobitosti zubl Krapinskih Neander-talaca (Peculiarities of Krapina Neanderthal teeth), in (ed.) Malez, M., Krapina 1899-1969 (Jugo-slavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti, Zagreb), 165-76 (with English summary).Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. 1980. Experimental determination of stone tool uses: a microwear analysis (Chicago).Google Scholar
Kukla, K. J. 1977. Pleistocene land-sea correlations, I. Europe, Earth-Science Reviews, 13, 307-74.Google Scholar
Loose, H. 1975. Pleistocene Rhinocerotidae of W. Europe. . ., Scr. Geol., XXX, 1–59.Google Scholar
Lumley, H. de. 1975.Cultural evolution in France in its palaeoecological setting during the Middle Pleistocene, in (eds) Butzer, K. W. & Isaac, G. L., After the Australophithecines (The Hague), 745–808.Google Scholar
Mcburney, C. B. M. 1965.The Old Stone Age in Wales, in (eds) Foster, I. L. & Daniel, G., Prehistoric and Early Wales (London), 17–34.Google Scholar
Mitchell, G. F., Penny, L. F., Shotton, F. W. & West, R. G.. 1973. A correlation of quaternary deposits in the British Isles. Geol. Soc. London, Special report No. 4.Google Scholar
Murchison, C. 1868. Palaeontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer, Vol. II (London).Google Scholar
Ninkovich, D. & Shackleton, N. J.. 1975 Distribution, stratigraphie position and age of Ash Layer ‘L’, in the Panama Basin region, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 27, 20–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penck, A. & Bruckner, E., 1909. Die Alpen in Eiszeitalter (Leipzig).Google Scholar
Roe, D. A. 1964. The British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, Proc. Prehist. Soc, XXX, 245-67.Google Scholar
Roe, D. A. 1981. The Lower and Middle Patoeolithic periods in Britain (London).Google Scholar
Schwarcz, H. P. 1980. Absolute age determination of archaeological sites by uranium series dating of travertines, Archaeometry, 22, 3–24.Google Scholar
Scott, K. 1980. Two hunting episodes of Middle Palaeolithic Age at La Cotte de Saint-Brelade, Jersey, World Archaeology, 12, 137-52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackleton, N. J. 1969. The last Interglacial in the marine and terrestrial records, Proc. Roy. Soc. Land., B, 174, 135-54.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N. J. & Opdyke, N. D.. 1973. Oxygen isotope and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy of equatorial Pacific core V28-238, Quaternary Research, 3, 39–55.Google Scholar
Shotton, F. W. 1976. Amplification of the Wolstonian Stage of the British Pleistocene, Geol. Mag., 133, 241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, F. H. 1976. The neanderthal remains from Krapina: a descriptive and comparative study (University of Tennessee Report of Investigations, No. 15).Google Scholar
Stringer, C. B., HOWELL, F. C. & Melentis, J. K.. 1979. The significance of the fossil hominid from Petra-lona, Greece, y. Archaeol. Sci, 6, 235-53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, A. J. 1974. Pleistocene history of the British vertebrate fauna, Cambridge Phil. Soc. Biological Reviews, 49, 225-66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutcliffe, A. J. 1976. The British glacial-interglacial sequence, Quaternary Newsletter, No. 18 (Feb. 1976), 1–7.Google Scholar
Tuffreau, A. 1976a. Les civilizations du Paléolithique inférieur dans la région parisienne et en Normandie, in (ed.) Lumley, H.de, La Préhistoire Française, III (Paris), 947-55.Google Scholar
Tuffreau, A. 1976b. Les civilizations du Paléolithique inférieur en Artois et dans le Cambrésis, in (ed.) Lumley, H.de, La Préhistoire Francaise, III (Paris), 964-70.Google Scholar
Vandermeersch, B. 1978. Etude préliminaire du crâne humain du gisement paléolithique de Biache-Saint-Vaast, Bull. Assoc. Française pour l’Etude du Quaternaire, 65-6.Google Scholar
Walker, P. L. 1978. Butchering and stone tool function, American Antiquity, 43, IV, 710-15.Google Scholar
Wintle, A. G. 1980. Thermoluminescence dating: a review of recent applications to non-pottery materials, Archaeometry, 22, 113-22.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. J. 1968. Lower palaeolithic archaeology in Britain (London).Google Scholar
Wymer, J. J. 1977. The archaeology of man in the British Quaternary, in (ed.) Shotton, F. W., British Quaternary studies: recent advances (Oxford), 93–106.Google Scholar
Yellen, J. E. 1977. Archaeological approaches to the present (New York).Google Scholar