Recent and ongoing fieldwork at Bacon Hole, located on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, is being conducted by an international team of researchers. This work includes pigment analysis and a chronometric dating programme focused on a vertical painted surface within a side chamber. The painted surface is considered a product of human agency, specifically applied haematite. Originally identified in 1912 by Professor William Sollas and Henri Breuil as Palaeolithic cave art, the painted panel was dismissed by 1928. In September 2022, the painted surface, along with other potential paintings, was rediscovered. In April 2023, the First Art team sampled the pigments for organic residues, while a team from the University of Southampton collected samples from several calcite flows overlying the painted surface for uranium-thorium dating. As a scientific control for the initial dating programme, the First Art team, in collaboration with scientists from Nanjing Normal University, conducted a second round of sample collecting and analysis in May 2024. This paper presents a discussion of the history and archaeological significance of the site, along with the results of the pigment and dating analysis carried out in April 2023 and May 2024.
Rediscovered Late Upper Palaeolithic Painted Imagery at Bacon Hole, Gower Peninsula, South Wales
Lattao V.;Rosina P.;Marrocchino E.;Eftekhari N.;
2026
Abstract
Recent and ongoing fieldwork at Bacon Hole, located on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, is being conducted by an international team of researchers. This work includes pigment analysis and a chronometric dating programme focused on a vertical painted surface within a side chamber. The painted surface is considered a product of human agency, specifically applied haematite. Originally identified in 1912 by Professor William Sollas and Henri Breuil as Palaeolithic cave art, the painted panel was dismissed by 1928. In September 2022, the painted surface, along with other potential paintings, was rediscovered. In April 2023, the First Art team sampled the pigments for organic residues, while a team from the University of Southampton collected samples from several calcite flows overlying the painted surface for uranium-thorium dating. As a scientific control for the initial dating programme, the First Art team, in collaboration with scientists from Nanjing Normal University, conducted a second round of sample collecting and analysis in May 2024. This paper presents a discussion of the history and archaeological significance of the site, along with the results of the pigment and dating analysis carried out in April 2023 and May 2024.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
