Striped rock dismissed as natural in 1928 reclassified as UK’s oldest cave art

Scientific dating proves streaks on walls of Bacon Hole, near the Mumbles in south Wales, is Palaeolithic rock art In 1912, the Guardian reported on the discovery of Palaeolithic rock art on the walls of Bacon Hole, a cave near the Mumbles in south Wales – only for the painted panel’s authenticity to be dismissed by 1928. A series of horizontal bands in red pigment were subsequently deemed no more than a natural phenomenon and the newspaper added an updated statement: “It was later established that the red streaks … turned out to be red oxide mineral seeping through the rock and not prehistoric art.” But the original report has now been proved correct by new analysis. Archaeologists have used the latest scientific means to date the rock art, discovering that it was in fact created 17,100 years ago – making it the oldest example in Britain as well as north-western Europe. Dr George Nash, a British specialist in prehistoric art who headed an international team that conducted the new research, said: “This is the earliest prehistoric art we have in Britain. “It was never considered to be rock art after 1928, and also it could never be dated, because in those days they d