Ice Age Britain: Finding the First Homo sapiens

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over 45,000 years ago, Ice Age Britain was undergoing a transformation.

The first modern humans, Homo sapiens, were arriving and beginning to settle in the British Isles. Their evolutionary predecessors, the Neanderthals, were on their way to extinction. Until now we have known very little about this period. But that might be about to change with the discovery of a new centre of Stone Age archeology in South West Wales.

Wogan Cavern, situated underneath Pembroke Castle, was the ideal place for newly-arrived prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities to dwell and is littered with stone tools, bones and other hallmark remains of ancient human settlement. In this special on-location episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes went to visit the cavern and speak to the archeologists who uncovered it, Dr. Rob Dinnis and Dr. Jennifer French.

This episode was produced by Joseph Knight and edited by Aidan Lonergan

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're enjoying all the content in this episode and the rest of the ancient series,
0:03.8	then why not join me on a trip uncovering Pompeii and Herculaneum alongside the legendary
0:09.2	archaeologist Dr. Sophie Hay. You'll get exclusive access to the Vesuvian sites,
0:14.3	a Plontis and the Bay of Naples. To book now or find out more about this and other historical
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0:24.0	When were you last treated to something truly remarkable?
0:30.0	Like perfectly pink wrestling and duck breast.
0:32.0	Crisp outside succulent. like perfectly pink dressing and duck breast.
0:33.0	Crisp outside succulent inside, bathed in a rich cherry and red wine sauce.
0:40.0	With a little more on the side of course. With pressing and duck, a special dinner for two is simpler than you may think.
0:47.0	Download our free recipe book.
0:49.0	Just search Gressing and Duck and make meal times divine. Roughly 45,000 years ago, deep in the Stone Age, a major shift was happening in Britain.
1:11.8	The first modern humans, Homo sapiens, were arriving. Their
1:15.6	predecessors, the Neanderthals, were nearing extinction. It's a really important time in British
1:21.7	prehistory, and yet it's one that we know very
1:24.3	little about from surviving archaeology. But that might all be about to change because of
1:29.9	an incredible new site in southwest Wales. Directly underneath the heart of Pembroke
1:35.6	castle is a massive cavern. In the castle's medieval heyday, this space was a
1:41.1	storage ladder, but long before the Middle Ages when this space was a storage ladder, but long before the Middle Ages, when this space was natural,
1:46.0	this was an ideal site for prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities living in this area of the world
1:51.4	tens of thousands of years ago.
1:54.1	And over the summer of 2023, a team of archaeologists led by Dr Rob Dinis and Dr Jennifer French
	...

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