'An Evening with John and Val Lord' offered visitors the chance to travel back in time to the dawn of innovation, with live displays showing how Ice Age implements were created.
“As such an important and unique archaeological site, we wanted to offer people something really different, like the Ice Age workshop,” said Anna Griffiths of Creswell Crags.
John and Val specialise in prehistoric skills, and are experts at flint knapping - the art of making tools out of flint. Flint knapping was adopted by early man in the last Ice Age, between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Visitors at the event soaked up a wealth of exciting information about the period while surrounded by the sounds of the Ice Age as John created a hand axe from a block of flint using bone and quartzite.
He explained how a hand axe would have been used for butchering animals, woodwork and smashing open bones to reach the marrow. Visitors handled the tools John made, which resembled exactly those used by Neanderthals, complete with serrated edges and chopping surfaces.
The development of tools was also explained, as John showed visitors how blades could be fitted into wood or antler to make sharp implements.
As well as the live flint knapping display, there was an impressive collection of replica and genuine Ice Age artefacts, including items found in Creswell’s caves which date back to around 40,000 years ago.
John explained why the workshops are so enjoyable: “We do really active demonstrations, and try to encourage people to connect with the period, imagining what it would have been like to have lived and survived thousands of years ago.”
Val Lord specialises in working with bone, antler and other natural materials and she showed how to make impressively strong string and rope from stinging nettles. The string would have been used to bind tools together, such as attaching a flint blade to a wooden handle to create an axe for tree-felling.
The evening seemed to be very popular with those who went along. “I found it really exciting to see what prehistoric man was capable of making," said one visitor. "To hold a tool which had been made by a Neanderthal here in Creswell over 40,000 years ago is truly mind-blowing.”
Creswell Crags is a picturesque limestone gorge, scattered with caves where stone tools and remains of animals suggest a fascinating story of life from the beginning of human evolution. The site is very important in the history of human development, as its network of ancient caves is home to the oldest examples of art in Britain.
In 2003 archaeologists discovered engravings of Ice Age animals on the walls and ceiling of the Church Hole cave in Creswell. More engravings and drawings have been found in other caves and Church Hole is believed to be the richest sculptured rock art ceiling in the world.
The engravings represent a wide variety of animals we would recognise today, including deer, horses, bison, bears and birds. The art in the caves was created using sharp flint tools to engrave the outlines and contours of animals.
Continuing the innovation theme, Creswell is holding ‘Sonic Timeline’ workshops with artist Brian Boothby, who specialises in sound design. On May 31, people are invited to come along and help create a sonic timeline of the Crags.
“We will be experimenting with prehistoric noises, lost languages and modern sound, playing them in different areas of the gorge and seeing what imagery is created by these sounds,” says Anna Griffiths from Creswell Crags.
Tours of the caves are also available from March through to September.
