Britain's Oldest Art

Creswell Crags, located on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border, is a limestone gorge honeycombed with caves and smaller fissures, and was among the most northerly places on earth to have been visited by our ancient ancestors, a story that is unique on a European and World Scale. In 2003 Britain's first Ice Age cave art was discovered at Creswell Crags by Paul Bahn, Paul Pettitt and Sergio Ripoll, a discovery billed as one of the most important prehistoric finds of the last decade.The book starts with the discovery of the art, places the Ice Age archaeology of the crags in a national context, draws on continental parallels and details the scientific verification of the art. It concludes with a chapter on the national search for other examples of Ice Age cave art by the Cave Art Survey Team, commissioned by English Heritage.Providing a final, definitive list of the motifs, each with a photograph, line drawing and full description, while setting the art into its archaeological and geological context, the book is intended to inform specialists, students and visitors to the caves.