The Last Curtain Call...maybe...

Human occupation of my family's homeland has been dated from around 12,000 BC. In the limestone caves of Cefn-yr-Ogof, Cefn, human bones along with flint flakes [along with the bones of extinct animals] has place this in the earliest period of man's existence in Britain. [The fancy term is Palaeolithic] The rising of the last ice curtain left the land separated by a watery passage now called "The English Channel"!

Left to their own design, i.e., no easy way to escape, the folks appear again around 5,700 BC leaving signs of summer camps among the hills. [Those hunters you know.] Signs of continued occupation continues in the area with Moel Y Gare (several sites) and Brenig (archaeological trails at Brenig, Clwyd) giving record of the continued human occupation.

The figure to the right is my attempt to show the approximate location of the sites listed above. The cluster is in the hills of Clwyd. I have place the modern locations of the boarder towns north to south. Chester in the north, to Gloucester in the south. It must have been the road that allowed access to the mountains where I imagine copper, and those animals would be the major drawing cards.

The last ice curtain has risen, believed between 8,000 - 6,000 BC... is it indeed the last curtain call?

ICE CAPADES

Human existence on the stage of mankind has depended upon many factors. On our little part of the world, a major factor was an "ice curtain" that rose and fell over time. Ice Ages they are called, but they could be viewed as the ice curtain that rose and fell upon the stage of mankind's existence.

At least eight major warm-cold cycles are felt to have occurred. (1) The most severe curtain fall was felt to extend all the way down to the Alps. Moving up and down the continent of Europe leaving its geological trail, it appears to have risen to the shores of Wales at least by 25,000 BC. The drawing to the right is my attempt to shown the human evidence which has been discovered.

Goat's Cave (Paviland) appears to be the remains of the earliest human occupation of the coastline of Wales. Buried some 16,000 years ago are the bones of a young man covered in red. (2) Animal bones have been dated to around 25,000 BC, documenting the fact that life came to occupy this cave at a very early period. (3) By 15,000 BC the ice curtain had lifted to above the river Clwyd since human remains have been found in caves noted on the drawing. [Cefn-Yr-Ogof, Ffynnen Beuno, and Bonthewydd ] (3) The curtain must have fallen again to the coast line of Europe since the land bridge that connected the island is felt to have disappeared around 6,000 BC. By 5,700 BC folks seem to have lived again on the stage of north Wales in the area around Brenic (3). Dinas Bran in the valley of the Dee shows occupation during the Bronze Age [ 2,500 - 2,000 BC] (3). All these acts occurred before Old Oswestry which waited until the need for fortified hill forts of the iron age starting around 800 BC. Certainly, the Ice Capades have been preforming for years!

These actors provided outstanding performances. Shakespeare would have been proud.

(1) Hadingham, E., Secrets of The Ice Age, A Reappraisal of Prehistoric Man, John Wiley & Sons, Ontario, Canada, 1979. pp. 17-23.

(2) Mackenzie, D.A., Ancient Man In Britain, Blackie & Son, London, 1922. pp. 19-22.

(3) Dyer, J., Prehistoric England and Wales, Penguin Books, New York, 1982. pp.321-328.