Is this the oldest artwork in the British Isles? Ice Age discovery in Jersey could date back at least 14,000 years

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Archaeologists believe they have found Britain's oldest artwork dating back to the last Ice Age. 

Hunter-gatherer artifacts, discovered in Jersey, are believed to be at least 14,000 years old and include fragments of stone with lines carved into them.

The three slabs are similar to engravings found from the same period in Germany and southern France, but are the first of their kind in the British Isles.

Masterpiece? Hunter-gatherer artifacts, discovered in Jersey, are believed to be at least 14,000 years old and include fragments of stone with deliberate lines carved into them (pictured)

The markings could pre-date the earliest known art in the UK, found carved into stone walls and bones at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire in 2003.  

The Ice Age Island project has been working on the Les Varines site in the south east area of Jersey for five years.

Dr Chantal Conneller, co-director of the project, said the team was feeling confident at the moment that three fragments of an exotic stone recovered from the site which show the traces of fine engraved lines across their surface, are examples of non-representational Magdalenian art.

The fragments were found within one small corner of the 2015 excavation trenches, alongside stone artefacts and close to a concentration of burnt bone, sealed within an apparent ancient landsurface and associated with possible paving slabs.  

Researchers believe they've found the oldest artwork in Britain dating them at least 14,000 years old

MAGDALENIAN MYSTERY: HOW DO WE KNOW THE ENGRAVINGS ON THIS STONE ARE REALLY ART?

While it may look like little more than an prehistoric chopping board, stone fragments like these are of huge historical significance.

The newly discovered slabs are similar to those found in Magdalenian camps in France and Germany and are believed to be remnants of a much larger piece of early Magdelanian art.

Scientists say that engraved works art found on flat stones are common at Magdalenian camps.

The stones sometimes contain representations - both figurative and abstract - of animals such as horses as well as humans.

The slabs (one is pictured) are similar to those found in Magdalenian camps in France and German and are believed to be a fragment of a much larger piece of early Magdelanian work

In this case, Dr Chantal Conneller, co-director of the Ice Age Island project, said researchers were now certain that the incisions were very much purposefully made by men using stone tools.

Magdalenian stone tools include small geometrically-shaped implements often set into bone or antler handles for use as chisels, scrapers and borers. The bone handles of these tools were often engraved with animal images.

She said: 'What we have [when we look at these slabs] are various fragments of a broken thing. When you place them together, you see a lot of them are abstract scribbling while others are more definite drawings.

'They were not things that were supposed to be admired, but [created] more for the act of drawing itself. That was the powerful thing.'

She went on to explain that the slabs may have been used in religious rituals or magical ceremonies to summon good fortune when hunting.

Dr Silvia Bello, of the Natural History Museum, who is currently studying the fragments said: 'We are at an early stage in our investigations, but we can already say the stones are not natural to the site, they show clear incised lines consistent with being made by stone stools, and they do not have any obvious functional role. 

'Engraved works of abstract or figurative art on flat stones are part of the Magdalenian cultural package and one exciting possibility is that this is what we have here.' 

Dr Silvia Bello, of the Natural History Museum, who is currently studying the fragments said: 'We are at an early stage in our investigations, but we can already say the stones are not natural to the site, they show clear incised lines consistent with being made by stone stools, and they do not have any obvious functional role. 

'Engraved works of abstract or figurative art on flat stones are part of the Magdalenian cultural package and one exciting possibility is that this is what we have here.' 

Dr Conneller added: 'Incised stones can be common on Magdalenian camps, many are known from sites in the Germany and the south of France, where they are often seen to have a magical or religious use. 

'However they are rare in Northern France and the British Isles, making this a significant find. 

'Although we are not yet sure of the exact age of the campsite, it might well represent some of the first hunter-gather communities to recolonise the north of Europe after coldest period of the last Ice Age'. 

The Magdalenians were one of several hunter-gatherer cultures which gradually re-colonised Europe as the ice retreated, 16,000 to 13,000 years ago.

Stone fragments like these, apparently from smashed-up larger tablets covered in repeated lines, are known from Magdalenian camps in France and Germany.

'We're hoping this is a hint of what is to come, because at some of the German sites you get hundreds of these pieces.

'What we've got at the moment is only a fragment of something much larger,' said Dr Conneller, a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester. 

Flat, engraved stones found at other Magdalenian sites sometimes contain representations, such as horses or other figures, and often appear to have been reused.

The team can see the imprint of several different stone tools in the Jersey fragments, which suggests - along with other clues - that they have a similarly complex history. 'It certainly seems to be something that's re-engraved over time,' Dr Conneller said.

The team now hopes to get the precise timing of the camp by dating pieces of bone that were also among this summer's haul from the dig.

Meanwhile, experts will look at the cultural similarity between this camp and other, well-studied Magdalenian sites in Europe.

The team has been working on the Les Varines site in the south east area of Jersey for five years (marked)

Ancient culture: The newly found art is thought to be Magdalenian. The Magdalenians were one of several hunter-gatherer cultures which gradually re-colonised Europe as ice retreated 16,000 to 13,000 years ago (scene from a cave painting at Lascaux pictured)

The Ice Age Island project has been working on the Les Varines site in the south east area of Jersey for five years

'I feel reasonably confident it dates to sometime between 15,000 and 14,500 years ago.

'That's based on some very good sites, with quite good typology, in northern France. And what we have would certainly fit into that 500 years,' Dr Conneller explained.

Magdalenian culture disappeared around 10,000 BC, when herd animals became scarce (artist's impression of a Magdelenian man pictured)

'It might well represent some of the first hunter-gather communities to re-colonise the north of Europe after the coldest period of the last Ice Age.'

This summer's discoveries are the high point, thus far, of a long-running project.

'This has been the culmination of five years of patient work, tracing thousands of flint tools within slope deposits back to the mother lode,' said Dr Ed Blinkhorn, from the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

'We knew a significant hunter-gatherer camp lay in this field and it seems we've finally found it.'

Dr Conneller agrees. 'What's really exciting about this year is we seem to have found part of the site pretty much intact. We're beginning to get hearths, bits of bones - and these exciting engraved stones as well,' she said.

The discovery of the camp is particularly important, she added, because so little of this ancient landscape remains accessible.

'The sea level would have been much lower at the time.

'To the north of Alderney would be a massive channel river, with a really wide valley - this seems to be a big barrier to human movement.

'But we don't really know anything that was going on in this drowned landscape.'

The team's research, which has been supported for the past three years by the Jersey Tourism Development Fund and the Capco Trust, is now on display at the Jersey Museum.

The exhibition will run throughout 2016 and includes one of the engraved stones.

12,300-YEAR-OLD BONE PENDANT UNEARTHED IN ALASKA BELIEVED TO BE THE OLDEST ARTWORK FOUND IN NORTH AMERICA

Among animal remains and primitive tools uncovered in Alaska, researchers have discovered what they believe is the region's oldest artwork.

While digging in an area once thought to contain a settlement with 'tents' covered in animal hide, the archaeologists unearthed a pendant made from bone.

And along the edge of this 12,300-year-old piece of jewellery is a series of delicate 'crosshatching.'

The bone pendant (pictured) was found on the Mead site in Alaska by researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It is described as having 'delicate crosshatching' along the edge and the 12,300-year-old jewellery is said to be oldest artwork in northern North America

The find is by no means the oldest example of artwork in the world. This title is believed to belong to a series of paintings in Nerja Caves, 35 miles (56km) east of Malaga, said to be 42,000 years old.  

The bone pendant was found on the Mead site at the Tanana Basin, Delta Junction in Alaska by researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Mead is what's known as a 'multicomponent site' made up of at least four areas of archaeological interest ranging from 14,000 to 1,400 years ago. 

It is said to be one of the oldest sites in the Western Hemisphere and excavations have previously found lithic and organic tools, and animal remains.