The Bontnewydd palaeolithic site (), also known in its
unmutated form as Pontnewydd (
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...
: 'New bridge'), is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
near
St Asaph
St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a city and community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355, making it the second-smallest city in Britain in terms of population and urban ...
,
Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. It is one of only three sites in Britain to have produced fossils of ancient species of humans (together with
Boxgrove
Boxgrove is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about north east of the city of Chichester. The village is just south of the A285 road which follows the line of the ...
and
Swanscombe
Swanscombe /ˈswɒnzkəm/ is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford.
History
Prehistory
Bone fragment ...
) and the only one with fossils of a classic
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...
. It is located a few yards east of the
River Elwy
The River Elwy (''Afon Elwy'' in Welsh) is a river in Wales forming a tributary to the River Clwyd. The source of the river is sometimes said to be on the northern flank of Moel Seisiog, south-east of Llanrwst, at Ordnance Survey grid refer ...
, near the hamlet of Bontnewydd, near
Cefn Meiriadog
Cefn Meiriadog (sometimes Cefnmeriadog) is a rural community in Denbighshire, Wales, just south-west of the city of St Asaph. The boundary of the community on three sides is the river Elwy, which here forms the county boundary with Conwy County ...
, Denbighshire.
Palaeolithic site
Bontnewydd was excavated from 1978 by a team from the
University of Wales
, latin_name =
, image =
, caption = Coat of Arms
, motto = cy, Goreu Awen Gwirionedd
, mottoeng = The Best Inspiration is Truth
, established =
,
, type = Confederal, non-member ...
, led by Dr. Stephen Aldhouse Green. Teeth and part of a jawbone from a
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...
boy approximately eleven years old were dated to 230,000 years ago.
Seventeen teeth from at least five individuals were found.
The teeth show evidence of
taurodontism, enlarged pulp cavities and short roots, which is characteristic of
Neanderthals
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While ...
, and although it is not unique to them it is one of the reasons that the species was identified as Neanderthal.
In Britain, the wolf ''Canis lupus'' was the only canid species present from
Marine Isotope Stage 7 (243,000 years before present), with the oldest record from Pontnewydd Cave.
The site is also important for its
Mammoth steppe
During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was the Earth's most extensive biome. It spanned from Spain eastward across Eurasia to Canada and from the arctic islands southward to China. The mammoth step ...
fauna, such as
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...
and
woolly rhinoceros
The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...
, dating to between around 41,000 and 28,000 years ago.
[Pettit and White, pp. 377-81]
See also
*
Prehistoric Wales
*
Prehistoric Britain
Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints prob ...
*
List of human evolution fossils
*
List of Neanderthal sites
This is a list of archeological sites where remains or tools of Neanderthals were found.
Europe
Belgium
* Schmerling Caves, Engis
* Naulette
* Scladina
* Spy-sur-l'Orneau
* Veldwezelt-Hezerwater
France
* Vaucluse, Bau de l'Aubesier
* Biache- ...
*
List of prehistoric structures in Great Britain
Citations
Sources
*
*
* (alt )
{{Homo neanderthalensis, state=expanded
Archaeological sites in Denbighshire
Stone Age sites in Wales
Neanderthal sites
Scheduled monuments in Denbighshire