Cathole Cave is around 2km North from the present coastline of the Gower Peninsula in Southwest Wales and sits around 30 metres above current sea level. This site has been the subject of multiple excavations and research, beginning in 1864 through to the present, and has produced archaeological finds spanning at least 30,000 years from the Palaeolithic to Medieval periods. It also contains a rare example of British Palaeolithic cave art.
The main South entrance of the cave leads to a gallery which has two branching side chambers. The North chamber leads West to an antechamber and the second, now blocked, cave entrance. The Northeast chamber leads to a mostly inaccessible second gallery. Most of the artefacts were found in an unidentified layer of sediment, whose dimensions remain unknown, which covers the bedrock cave floor. Excavation in the main gallery produced a small bronze age assemblage of flint and metal tools and pottery alongside a larger collection of palaeolithic animal bones. This included bones from mammoth, woolly rhino, red deer and giant deer, A further collection of contemporary animal bones were discovered in the cave entrance and added reindeer, arctic and red fox, tundra vole and brown bear to the included species. A Creswellian lithics assemblage (Later Upper Palaeolithic), Mesolithic artefacts and further Bronze Age artefacts were also found here. The Bronze Age finds included bones of domestic animals (pig, sheep, and goat) as well as a bronze axe, flint tools, pottery, and possible evidence of burial from 2 human skulls. Sherds of Medieval pottery were also found in the top sediment of the cave.
Arguably the most important element of Cathole cave is the palaeolithic engraving found Northeast of the main gallery. This engraving depicts a reindeer with stylistic resemblances to contemporary reindeer engravings throughout Northwest Europe. The engraving measures c.15cm by 11cm and was made using a flint ‘awl-like’ tool. From Uranium series dating conducted on the flowstone formed over the engraving it was concluded its latest possible date was c.12,500-14,500 years ago. It is therefore the first recorded instance of Welsh Pleistocene rock art and only the second of its kind in Britain to have been scientifically dated.
1864 was the first recorded instance of excavation at Cathole Cave and was conducted by Colonel E.R. Wood. This research occurred in the main gallery and produced the large faunal assemblage here. The second episode occurred almost 100 years later in 1958, headed by archaeologist Charles McBurney of Cambridge University. 4 trenches were dug in the entrance and produced a variety of artefacts from the Pleistocene to Bronze ages. A 1968 excavation by John Campbell built upon this and confirmed the presence of Mesolithic material in the assemblage.
The engraving was not discovered until 2010 by members of the Clifton Antiquarian Club. This was following a previous attempt to discover rock art here in 2007, which found only bear claw marks and an unconfirmed geometric pattern North of the main chamber. A 2011 3D imaging survey of the cave was completed before the final excavation instance in 2012 by Cadw, who dug a small trench in the rear of the cave to facilitate the construction of a grille to protect the archaeology here.
Though much of the site is now generally inaccessible due to the grille and cave formation, further research may be beneficial in understanding the use of the cave across time; specifically, whether a connection with the nearby Neolithic Parc Cwn chambered tomb exists, considering the presence of contemporary human remains.
Context: Welsh Palaeolithic
The Palaeolithic, also known as the ‘Old Stone Age’ is an era defined by the advent and use of lithic technology by hominids. This period sits within the Pleistocene or ‘Ice Age’ global epoch which lasted from around 2.5 million to 10,000 years before present and contained multiple dramatic climate shifts. Mainland Europe’s Palaeolithic occurred around 1.4 million to 10,000 years ago, but as an era defined by hominin behaviours and presence, the span of the Palaeolithic differs between locations.
The earliest evidence of Welsh hominins comes from Neanderthal remains dated to around 230,000 years ago. However, due to climactic changes in this period, Wales was only occupied intermittently. The first modern human remains found in Wales, known as ‘the Red Lady of Paviland’, date to between 33,000 – 34,000 years ago but the area would later be abandoned between 21,000 to 13,000 years ago. This includes artefacts from one of the last phases of the era, the Early Upper Palaeolithic (38,000-27,000 years before present). Humans in this period continued to rely on lithic technologies and operated in mobile hunter-gatherer social units which were capable of cultural complexities such as ritual burials and art.
Sources include:
Cadw Scheduled Monument GM349 https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/sam/FullReport?lang=&id=1010
Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust HER PRN 00231w https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=GGAT00231w
Green, S. & E. Walker. (1991) Ice Age Hunters (NMW Cardiff).
Nash, G. (2019) ‘Animal Magic: The discovery of Upper Palaeolithic Parietal art in Cathole Cave, Gower Peninsula, South Wales,’ in Wild things: Recent advances in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic research. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 133–143.
Nash, G. et al. (2012) 'A discovery of possible Upper Palaeolithic parietal art in Cathole Cave, Gower Peninsula, South Wales', in Proceedings of Bristol University Spelaeological Society. 25 (3), 327-336.
RCAHMW, Glamorgan Inventory vol.I (1976), p.19-20.
B. Irvine, April 2023
This record was enhanced by B. Irvine (University of Southampton) as part of an MA/MSc work placement with RCAHMW (January to May 2023).