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Rediscovered Late Upper Palaeolithic Painted Imagery at Bacon Hole, Gower Peninsula, South Wales

George H. Nash Orcid Logo, Hipólito Collado Orcid Logo, Hugo Gomes Orcid Logo, Sara Garcês Orcid Logo, Virginia Lattao, Pierluigi Rosina Orcid Logo, Elena Marrocchino Orcid Logo, Negar Eftekhari Orcid Logo, Barbara Oosterwijk Orcid Logo, Alistair W. G. Pike, Dirk L. Hoffmann, Christopher D. Standish Orcid Logo, John Hiemstra Orcid Logo, Qingfeng Shao

Quaternary, Volume: 9, Issue: 3, Start page: 43

Swansea University Author: John Hiemstra Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/quat9030043

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 surfac...

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Published in: Quaternary
ISSN: 2571-550X
Published: MDPI AG 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa72014
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.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Issue: 3
Start Page: 43