Wales, important prehistoric finds discovered thanks to ... rabbits!

Archaeological rabbits in Wales, on Skokholm Island, where the little mammals have ... helped experts unearth two prehistoric objects from two different eras. Of course, jokes aside, the reality is less poetic: simply, as the Guardian reports, two island nature park wardens, Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle, found two objects near the burrow the rabbits had dug in a meadow: they are a polished pebble, probably used by hunter-gatherers 9,000 years ago for food purposes, and a fragment of a bronze urn, dated to about 3,750 years ago.

The find is important, archaeologist Andrew David explained to the English newspaper, because, he said referring to the polished pebble, “although these tools are well known on coastal sites in Pembrokeshire and Cornwall, as well as in Scotland and northern France, this is the first example found on Skokholm, and the first evidence that in the late Mesolithic period the island was inhabited.”

As for the bronze urn fragment, however, it is thought to be the remnant of an object related to burial rites. Again, this is a first find of its kind for the island of Skokholm. From the island, explained archaeologist Toby Driver, “wonderful prehistoric finds are emerging. There appears to have been an Early Bronze Age mound built on top of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer site. This site, where the island cottage now stands, was clearly inhabited for millennia. To date we have nothing similar for the larger islands of Skomer and Ramsey either.”

Pictured: the bronze urn fragment, photo by Brown and Eagle

Wales, important prehistoric finds discovered thanks to ... rabbits!

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