Red Lady of Paviland
Partial skeleton buried c. 33,000 BP in County of Swansea, Wales / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Red Lady of Paviland is the name of an almost complete skeleton, which was found in a cave about 20 miles (32 km) from Swansea, in 1823. It was the first time, there was a scientific publication on the find of an anatomically modern man.[1] The skeleton turned out to be 33.000 years old, and was probably among the first people on the British Isles.[2]
The skeleton was painted with red ochre. As pearls and ivory was found nearby, the skeleton was first thought to be that of a woman. William Buckland who found it, thought that it must have been that of a witch or a prosititute during the Roman Era Britain. In 1968, radiocarbo dating was done, and the skeleton was found to be about 22.000 years old.[3] The man had been bout 21, at the time of his death. The age of 22.000 years was problematic though: it meant that the British Isles would have been settled during a time when it was very cold.[1] Another dating was done in 1989; it found an age of 33.000 years.[2] Another dating, done in 2008, gave an age of 33.000 years.[3] 33.000 years ago, there was one of the warmer periods of the ice age.
Today , the skeleton is kept at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.