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<< Our Photo Pages >> Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth - Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature in Wales in South Glamorgan

Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 February 2011  Page Views: 17751

Natural PlacesSite Name: Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth
Country: Wales County: South Glamorgan Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
Nearest Town: Newport  Nearest Village: Uskmouth
Map Ref: ST32808260
Latitude: 51.538283N  Longitude: 2.970309W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Andy B visited on 15th Feb 2011 Featured as part of BBC's History of Ancient Britain with Neil Oliver

Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth
Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth submitted by Andy B : The Usk Estuary, Newport Copyright Matt Rosser and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)
There have been variations in both land and sea levels in the Severn estuary since the start of human habitation in the area. Mesolithic and later remains have been discovered at Goldcliff, and late Mesolithic human footprints at Uskmouth.

The Caldicot and Wentloog Levels are two areas of low-lying estuarine alluvial wetland and intertidal mudflats adjoining the north bank of the Severn estuary, either side of the River Usk estuary near Newport in south east Wales. They are also known collectively as the Monmouthshire Levels or Gwent Levels. At Uskmouth, Magor and Goldcliff there are prints of Mesolithic women, men and children, animals such as aurochs (wild cattle), deer and wolves, and many bird species. At Oldbury, Neolithic human footprints were found alongside domestic cattle hoof prints, and similar hoof prints were associated with the later prehistoric buildings at Redwick and Goldcliff. Prehistoric and Romano-British people used the estuary for seasonal activities including summer livestock grazing and salt production.

The Goldcliff remains are stratified in an estuarine clay underlying a sequence of peat deposits. Late Mesolithic human footprints, impressed into the lower Wentlooge Formation have been found at Uskmouth. Again they were preserved in estuarine clay beneath a deposit of clay. It is reasonable to suppose that other important evidence of Mesolithic activity will be found preserved further inland, and perhaps most particularly at the interface between the levels and solid geology to the north.

Read more at Wikipedia, ‘Footprints on the sands of time’: the archaeology of the Severn Estuary by Adrian M. Chadwick (PDF) and Gwent Levels Historic Landscape Characterisation Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust

IMPORTANT NOTE: The location given is an estimate, we do not know exactly where the footprints can be found on the foreshore

Note: The first location featured in the first episode of BBC's History of Ancient Britain, watch online now and find the locations of the sites visited in Andy B's site visit log
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Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth
Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth submitted by Andy B : Newport Levels National Nature Reserve The reserve is on an area of former pulverised fuel ash dumped from the adjacent power station and has been created to compensate for SSSI land lost to the Cardiff Bay redevelopment. Copyright Simon Huguet and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
ST3282 : Tug on the Usk Estuary by Robin Drayton
by Robin Drayton
©2008(licence)
ST3282 : Shoreline, Uskmouth by Chris Andrews
by Chris Andrews
©2017(licence)
ST3282 : Foreshore near the mouth of the River Usk by Roger Davies
by Roger Davies
©2012(licence)
ST3382 : The Bristol Channel by Simon Huguet
by Simon Huguet
©2008(licence)
ST3282 : Coastal path in Newport Wetlands by Gareth James
by Gareth James
©2010(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 3.4km ENE 74° Goldcliff Earthwork Misc. Earthwork (ST361835)
 4.9km E 95° Goldcliff East Mesolithic Site* Ancient Trackway (ST3771582063)
 5.5km NNW 343° Newport Museum and Art Gallery* Museum (ST31278791)
 5.7km NW 317° Tredegar Hillfort* Hillfort (ST290868)
 5.7km WNW 295° Gwern y Cleppa* Chambered Tomb (ST27648505)
 6.0km N 2° Maindy Hill Camp Misc. Earthwork (ST3304588604)
 6.0km N 2° Maindee Camp Ancient Village or Settlement (ST3304588604)
 6.5km WNW 302° Coed Ffynnon-Oer Hillfort (ST273861)
 6.7km N 10° St Julian's Wood Hillfort (ST340892)
 7.3km WNW 288° The Mount* Hillfort (ST259849)
 7.3km WNW 287° Graig (Monmouthshire) Cairn (ST258848)
 7.9km WNW 297° Croes-Carn-Einion Hillfort (ST258863)
 8.0km N 8° Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths* Ancient Village or Settlement (ST34039050)
 8.1km WNW 302° Rhiwderin (Newport) Rock Art (ST260870)
 8.2km NW 308° Rhiwderin Camp Hillfort (ST264877)
 8.4km NE 39° Langstone (Bishton)* Round Barrow(s) (ST382891)
 8.5km NE 34° Lang Stone (Newport)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST37698961)
 8.7km W 275° Druidstone (Michaelstone)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (ST24138342)
 8.7km N 356° Lodge Wood* Hillfort (ST323913)
 9.7km ENE 58° Wilcrick Hill Fort* Hillfort (ST411877)
 9.8km NE 34° Tre-Garn Round Cairn (ST384906)
 9.8km NE 55° Wilcrick Wishing Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST4097088044)
 9.9km N 354° Malthouse Lane Motte* Artificial Mound (ST31899249)
 10.2km NNE 29° Coed y Caerau* Ancient Village or Settlement (ST378915)
 10.4km E 81° Caldicot Level Ancient Trackway (ST431841)
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"Mesolithic Human Footprints at Uskmouth" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Mesolithic Human Footprints - Further Reading by sem on Tuesday, 13 June 2017
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Use generic OSGR ST32808260 as this site is spread over a wide area.
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The first episode of BBC's History of Ancient Britain by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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The first location featured in the first episode of BBC's History of Ancient Britain, watch online now
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xchyf

Neil Oliver tells the epic story of how Britain and its people came to be over thousands of years of ancient history - the beginnings of our world forged in ice, stone, and bronze

As well as being a presenter, Neil is also an archaeologist, historian and author. He began his television career in 2002 with the BBC2 series ‘Two Men in a Trench’. This battlefield archaeology series explored iconic British battle sites, focusing on human stories, tragedies and drama.

Neil became a familiar face on television thanks to the hugely popular, award winning programme, ‘Coast’, in which the landscapes, history, geography and people of the British Isles are given centre stage in a continuing voyage of discovery, remembrance and reminiscence.

Neil also presented ‘A History of Scotland’ on BBC 1 and BBC2. In this series he revealed how the story of his native Scotland is instrumental to the history of, not only Britain, but also Europe and much of the wider world.
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Re: Mesolithic Human Footprints - Further Reading by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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The footprint tracks of people and animals date to the period between 5600 and 4800 cal BC, and the annually laid down sedimentary layers allow for a detailed analysis of which footprints belong together. In all, 21 persons could be identified who were all barefoot. On the basis of the sedimentary regime in the Severn, and the associated bird footprints, it is as suggested that people explored the saltmarsh during the spring and/or summer. The majority of human footprints belong to children, some estimated as young as 3-5 years.

More in a review of Prehistoric Coastal Communities: The Mesolithic in Western Britain (PDF)
http://www.le.ac.uk/has/ps/reviews/09_10_bell.pdf
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/books/Bell2007

Goldcliff is just down the coast about 4km to the east and was featured on Time Team in 2004
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2004_gold.html
this page has some photos of the footprints
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2004_gold_foot.html
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Mesolithic Human Footprints - Further Reading by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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Severn Levels Research Committee
http://www.selrc.org.uk/archaeology_current_research.html
including an interactive map of places to visit and publications to download
http://www.selrc.org.uk/interactive_map.html

Intertidal Holocene footprints and their archaeological significance
Antiquity, Sept, 1996 by Gordon Roberts, Silvia Gonzalez, David Huddart
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_n269_v70/ai_n28675604/?tag=content;col1

Aldhouse-Green, S. H. R., Whittle, A., Allen, J. R. L., Caseldine, A. E., Culver, S. J., Day, M. H., Lundqvist, J. and Upton, D. 1992. Prehistoric human footprints from the Severn Estuary at Uskmouth and Magor Pill, Gwent, Wales, Archaeologia Cambrensis, CXLI (1992), 14-55.

Newlands Road, Wentlog Watching Brief - GGAT, Feb 2008
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26219432/Wentloog-Cardiff-Archaeological-Watching-Brief

The Gwent Levels have been designated an Outstanding Historic Landscape as they represent the largest and most significant example in Wales of a “hand-crafted” landscape. The Levels are entirely the work of humans, having been recurrently inundated and reclaimed from the sea from the Roman period onwards. The area has distinctive patterns of settlement, enclosure and drainage systems belonging to successive periods of use, and a proven and possibly vast potential for extensive,
well-preserved, buried, waterlogged, archaeological
and palaeoenvironmental deposits surviving from earlier landscapes (CADW and ICOMOS 1998, 61-5). The Levels rich and varied range of archaeological features and artefacts include prehistoric footprints, occupation sites and artefacts, Roman and medieval field systems, a medieval sea wall and modern WW2 defence structures.

The prehistoric period is represented by cattle hoofprints, Bronze Age roundhouses and post-settings, flint, bone and discreet pottery scatters, mainly situated on the intertidal foreshore to the southeast of the business park (Allen 1996b; Bell et al 2000). More recent work has identified several prehistoric timber structures thought to be the remains of fish traps or temporary shelters within the intertidal zone, also to the southeast of the business park (Lewis 2005a, 9-11; Tuck 2004, 10-11). Later prehistoric activity is attested to by a Bronze Age looped and socketed axe (PRN 01999s) found in the vicinity of Lagoon B and buildings dating from Iron Age have been excavated some distance to the east of the development area at Goldcliff and at Greenmoor Arch.
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