The oldest known work of art from England
Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags, England
Bone
Length: 7.3 cms
The British Museum
Palart.855
In Britain cave art and portable representations are rare because much of the country was uninhabitable during the coldest phases of the period. Groups of people only began to return to this north-western peninsula between about 14,000 to 13,000 years ago and their visits left only slight traces of art most notably at Creswell Crags on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire boundary in the East Midlands region. Here there are engraved drawings on the walls of Church Hole Cave and, from Robin Hood Cave on the other side of the valley, a fragment of a rib bone with engravings on both sides.
The bone was selected and prepared for the work. The undamaged end reveals that it was grooved, snapped and smoothed off to create the required length before the surface was cleaned down by scraping. On the upper surface, a drawing of a galloping horse facing right is finely engraved and fills the centre ground. The lines of the back, head and chest are solid whereas the upright mane is toned in by hachuring. The ears are not distinguished but the nostril is lightly detailed. Fine vertical lines were then drawn though the body. Their significance is unknown.
On the opposite side, long curving lines are engraved diagonally across the surface but do not appear to form an image or coherent pattern. After the engravings were completed the bone was covered with red ochre after which the horse image was partially deleted by deeply incised horizontal lines before the bone was broken. The cause of such iconoclasm is unknown and adds to the atypical quality of this fine but unusual piece.