The Red Lady ages gracefully: new ultrafiltration AMS determinations from Paviland

The Red Lady partial human skeleton found at Goat's Hole, Paviland, in south Wales by William Buckland in 1823 is one of the iconic relics of the British Paleolithic. Originally thought to be Roman, a Paleolithic age has been suspected from the middle of the 19th century. Several attempts have been made at directly radiocarbon dating the Red Lady, and here we report new determinations that suggest that it is, by a significant margin, the oldest of a group of 'rich,' Mid-Upper Paleolithic burials. We list similar Gravettian-aged burials from Europe, which have been dated recently for comparison. In this paper, we also reconsider the chronology of human use of the cave, apart from as a burial location. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.