Students big find (From Penarth Times)

Students big find

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered 5,000-year-old human remains in a cave near Wenvoe.

Archaeology students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) made the find while working on a dig at Goldsland Wood near the village.

The students excavated remains of seven humans in a large pit in the mouth of a cave while taking part in the Goldsland Caves Research project which is run jointly by Dr Rick Peterson from UCLan and Professor Stephen Aldhouse-Green from the University of Wales, Newport.

The remains were found with a flint saw-blade and other stone tools, pieces of pottery, a bone pin, part of a jet bead and belt fastening.

They were found by students studying on the BSc (Hons) Archaeology course working on the site as one of their four-week placements on archaeological research projects.

Dr Rick Peterson, of UCLan, said: "The style of pottery and the flint saw-blade suggested that the remains date to around 3000 BC, which means they are over 5,000 years old.

"We also discovered a smaller pit containing the ash from a cremation pyre, but little sign of the cremated body or any evidence where the cremation took place.

"Other human remains have been discovered in caves roughly around this period, from the Neolithic or New Stone Age, but almost all of them were identified years after excavation.

"The Goldsland caves have never been excavated before. We went there hoping to find undisturbed evidence for whatever ritual took place 5,000 years ago that led to people's bones being put in caves - and we seem to have found it."

Dr Peterson explained: "At the moment our understanding of these rituals is that first the large pit was dug, probably to make the small cave mouth look much bigger and more impressive.

"Then the dead were placed in the pit with some of their possessions such as pottery and stone tools. Then once the bodies had become skeletons it seems that most of the bones were then moved to other ritual sites, like the nearby chambered tomb of St Lythans.

"The pit containing the ash from a cremation is evidence for a different sort of rite - although it probably took place around the same time.