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Ten carved stones discovered in England a few years ago date back to the last Ice Age. The researchers discovered the ten works of art from the Ice Age between 2014 and 2018 in a former home in Varines, in the south-east of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. A team of archaeologists from University of Newcastle and the Natural History Museum examined the “artistic designs” engraved on these limestone ice age works of art. Their research concludes that these purely artistic artifacts were made by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age.
Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, located between England and France. This autonomous dependency of the United Kingdom is well known for its fusion of British and French cultures. The ten works of Ice Age art were recovered from a cluster of hearths, pits, cobblestones, and thousands of flints and tools. Taken together, all of these artifacts show just how important art was to what the team of researchers call “the ancient toolbox of the Magdalenian pioneers,” said Dr. Ed Blinkhorn, senior geoarchaeologist at the University. College of London and director of excavations at the site.
The Jersey excavation site where the Magdalenian stone slabs were found. ( Natural History Museum )
Ice Age Art: Creating Symbolic Relationships With New Places
Dr Blikhorn and his team of researchers published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE . Their article describes the original discovery of ten ancient stone slabs in an area believed to have been used as a home by a local community. These stones are considered “the earliest known evidence of artistic expression” in the British Isles. They are believed to have been carved by the Magdalenian people, an early hunter-gatherer culture that existed 23,000 to 14,000 years ago. Similar carved stones have been found at Magdalenian sites in Spain, Portugal and France. This is the first time that such artefacts have been discovered in the UK.
A “drawing” of a wild cow found at the Jersey site. The right side of the image isolates the representation of the animal, so that it can be seen as an individual creature. (S Bello / Natural History Museum )
In an article from IndependentDr Chantal Conneller of the University of Newcastle said the fragments provide “rare evidence of ancient artistic expression” and that the people of Varines are likely to have been “pioneer colonizers of the area and that the creation of engraved objects in new settlements may have been a way of creating symbolic relationships with new places. ”
Works of the Ice Age were purely artistic
The geometric designs in these Ice Age works of art are largely made up of curved markings that were made with repeated incisions using sharp stone tools. In the new article, the researchers say the rows are unlikely to be the result of some function or process. And while some of the designs are far too abstract to identify, some are believed to depict animals, landscapes, and people. And because two distinctly different types of markings are present on the faces of the stones, they offer archaeologists new perspectives on the different artistic processes that were required to create the designs.
Another stone slab showing the geometric lines characteristic of the Magdalenians. ( Natural History Museum )
Dr Conneller explains, however, that the designs were only “briefly seen by their creators” because the soft stone engraving creates a powder in the incisions making them visible, but only for a short time. Interpreting the stones in this context, the act of engraving itself was perhaps more meaningful than the object itself. Further, microscopic analysis indicated that many of the curved lines and concentric designs appear to have been made by ‘layered or repeated incisions’, which, according to Dr Silvia Bello, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, proves that they were “a form of pure artistic expression.”
The implications of Britain’s oldest Ice Age works
The Pleistocene epoch is generally defined as beginning about 2.6 million years ago and lasting until about 11,700 years ago. The last ice age, which occurred around this time, created glaciers that covered huge parts of our planet. Dr Conneller said the discovery and accurate interpretation of the ten Ice Age carved art slabs is very important to the archaeological community. Indeed, they were created at a time when people were beginning to migrate north at the end of the last ice age, which was followed by the start of the Holocene, the present geological epoch.
Today Jersey is known for its beaches, cliff-side paths, inland valleys and historic castles. However, these new Ice Age artifacts, according to an interview in the Daily mail with Louise Downie, Director of Conservation and Experience for Heritage Jersey , add thousands of years to Jersey’s rich art history, currently comprised primarily of Celtic carvings and 14th century church murals.
Top image: The most complete of ten Ice Age works of art found in Jersey in the Channel Islands, dating back 15,000 years. Source: Natural History Museum
By Ashley Cowie
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