500,000-8500 BC Palaeolithic

Evidence of the Palaeolithic period is rare in Wales. All but the southernmost parts of the region were covered by ice during the last Ice Age. This would have destroyed or covered many of the sites, and those that have survived tend to be in caves.

The earliest evidence consists of occasional finds of handaxes. They have usually been found as surface finds, such as one found on the beach at Rhossili in West Glamorgan. Although most of them are probably Lower Palaeolithic, a more precise date cannot be given.

There is better evidence from the Middle Palaeolithic with Neanderthal human remains and stone tools from Pontnewydd Cave in Clwyd dating to about 225,000 years ago. Further evidence of Neanderthals comes from Coygan Cave, near Laugharne in Carmarthenshire. Here flat-butted handaxes were found that date to the end of the Middle Palaeolithic about 50,000 years ago.

Modern humans left more evidence behind. The partial skeleton of a man, and flint tools were discovered at Paviland Cave in the Gower and date to 26,000 years ago, while figurative art has been found at Kendrick’s Cave in Llandudno dating from the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago.