Art Of Stone

Archaeologists on a dig in Jersey have unearthed what they believe could be the earliest known artwork ever to be discovered in the UK.  The stone pieces, which have criss-crossed lines carved on them, are part of a horde of artefacts that date back to the end of the last Ice Age, some 14,000 years ago.  Dr Chantal Conneller, who has been working on the Les Varines site for the last five years, said “We’re feeling reasonably confident at the moment that what we’ve got fits into this broader idea of non-representational Magdalenian art.”  The Magdalenians were around between 16,000 and 13,000 years ago and were among a number of cultures who colonised Europe when the ice began to thaw.  If the stone engravings found in Jersey were indeed the work of the Magdalenians then it is likely they are fragments of larger tablets, so there should be alot more pieces buried in the ground waiting to be found, as Dr Conneller explains “We’re hoping this is a hint of what is to come, because at some other sites you get hundreds of these pieces.  What we’ve got at the moment is only a fragment of something much larger”.  And it is not just art that has been discovered at the site, hearths, bits of bones and plenty of flints have all been unearthed.  Seems what the team has found to date is just the tip of the iceberg.