11,000-year-old pendant with etched design found in England
Shale artifact is one of Britain’s oldest known pieces of art
By Bruce Bower
One of England’s oldest artworks turned up last year on a tiny piece of stone.
An engraved shale pendant unearthed at Star Carr, a site under excavation since 1947, dates to around 11,000 years ago, a time when Britons were transitioning from foragers to farmers, researchers report online February 25 in Internet Archaeology. The pendant, roughly the size and shape of a guitar pick, includes a carefully fashioned hole through which it may have been strung, say archaeologist Nicky Milner of the University of York and her colleagues.