Ice Age English Riviera

Home to collections and sites of international importance in the story of human evolution and migration, the tale behind Ice Age English Riviera is a spectacular story of extremes.

Predominantly known as a top UK seaside resort, many people are surprised to discover the full extent of the English Riviera’s rich history and heritage. In 2007, the English Riviera received international recognition for its geological, historical and cultural heritage as it became one of just eight areas in the UK to be endorsed as a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Ice Age Britain

From 1.6 million years ago until around 12,000 years ago, the climate changed frequently, fluctuating between glacial and inter-glacial periods. These major changes in climate brought about changes in animals and plants too.

During the glacial periods, an ice sheet would have covered most of Britain, but the English Riviera being so far south avoided the worst of it and instead experienced tundra-like conditions which would have been difficult to survive in. The animals that roamed Britain during the glacial periods included cave bears, reindeer, and woolly mammoths. During the cold stages, the sea levels fell by up to 120 metres, and it was possible for animals and humans to walk between the UK and continental Europe.

During the interglacial periods, the climate was warm and had lots of life, including hyena, hippopotamus, elephants, and our human ancestors. As the climates warmed, the sea levels rose and separated Britain from continental Europe.

These cycles were formed of short inter-glacial periods – around 10,000-20,000 years - followed by 80,000 years of cooler climates and glacial periods.

Ice Age English Riviera

Much of the impact of the ice ages can be seen at Torquay’s prehistoric caves, Kents Cavern: an incredibly important site, recognised by UNESCO and which remains the only place in Europe with evidence of three of the four human species living in the same area at different stages of time.

During the glacial periods, the caves were filled with sediment, often containing animal bones. The interglacial periods brought running water into the caves, which reacted with the high levels of carbon dioxide (due to the abundance of plants during the warm periods) and produced stalagmites, stalactites, and calcite formations.

This mix of interglacial periods enabling calcite layers to form on top of sediments brought in from the glacial periods, created a perfect environment to preserve and entomb thousands of bones and artefacts, later to be discovered by excavators.

Over 80,000 artefacts have been discovered from Kents Cavern and displayed in museums around the world. The most significant find is a fragment of jawbone, dated to the period between 44,200 and 41,500 years ago, when a brief warm spell between ice ages made this part of Britain temporarily habitable for humans. The find is the oldest direct evidence of modern humans in Northern Europe. It is hugely important and has changed how we understand the interaction between modern humans and Neanderthals on the very edge of the habitable world.

The jawbone was originally found in 1927 by Arthur Ogilvy and is now on show in Torquay Museum. The find came towards the end of a remarkable period of discovery in the English Riviera’s caves that began in the early nineteenth century. A series of explorers were drawn here, most notably the archaeologist William Pengelly who excavated Kents Cavern over a period of 15 years. His finds included tools, animal bones and hand axes from humans who lived over 450,000 years ago. The meticulous methods he developed in the English Riviera laid the foundation for all modern cave archaeology and his diaries offer fascinating insights into his life and work.

Torquay Museum holds over 32,000 specimens relating to the Ice Age in South Devon and a unique related archive. This collection is designated by Arts Council England and is of national and international significance. Its highlights are numerous and include:

• KC4 human maxilla, the jawbone that provides the earliest evidence of anatomically modern
  humans in North West Europe.
• William Pengelly’s Windmill Hill Cave and Kents Cavern notebooks, documenting the first
  excavations to unlock the true antiquity of humans anywhere in the world.
• The oldest bifacial tools discovered in the UK, over 525,000 years old.
• Very early specimens of cave lion and ancestral bear Ursus deningeri.
• A selection of Neanderthal tools including very rare leafpoints stone tools.
• Unique evidence for cannibalism in the Mesolithic and surviving human DNA in 9,000-year-old bones.