Analysis Finds 15,000-Year-Old Human Art in Wales' Bacon Hole Cave
Updated
Updated · Scientific American · Jun 2
Analysis Finds 15,000-Year-Old Human Art in Wales' Bacon Hole Cave
3 articles · Updated · Scientific American · Jun 2
Summary
A 2022-2024 archaeological study concluded that red markings in Bacon Hole cave were likely made by prehistoric humans at least 15,000 years ago, overturning decades of claims that they were natural stains.
High-definition photography, color-filter analysis and spectroscopy showed the lines were painted with hematite pigment, not formed by nearby iron oxide deposits in the rock.
Images also found roughly 10 red lines spaced evenly in a deliberate pattern, strengthening the case that the markings were structured artwork rather than geological features.
The findings, published in Quaternary, largely vindicate William Sollas and Henri Breuil, who first documented the marks in 1912 before later skepticism and graffiti complicated study of the site.
How did modern technology prove that dismissed markings are Britain's oldest known prehistoric art?
Could these ancient parallel lines represent a lost system of symbolic communication from the Ice Age?
After a century of debate, what message did our 17,100-year-old ancestors leave on this Welsh cave wall?
Britain's Oldest Cave Art Confirmed: 17,100-Year-Old Bacon Hole Markings Rewrite UK Prehistory
Overview
A new study has confirmed that Britain's oldest known cave art—eleven parallel red lines in Bacon Hole, south Wales—was created by humans around 17,100 years ago. First discovered in 1912 and celebrated as a major prehistoric find, the markings were later dismissed as natural mineral stains in 1928 and ignored for nearly a century. Using advanced scientific techniques, researchers have now proven their human origin, overturning decades of skepticism. This rediscovery not only restores Bacon Hole’s significance in Ice Age art but also highlights the evolving understanding of early human symbolic expression in Britain.