Creswell Crags celebrates Ice Age Europe Day with survival skills demonstration, cave tour and talks by experts

The fifth edition of the international Ice Age Europe Day will be celebrated on September 18.

Talks exploring the mammals, humans and art of the Ice Age will launch the day at Creswell Crags. The afternoon will feature a tour of Pin Hole Cave, a closer look at some of the palaeontology and archaeology objects from the period, and an exciting array of survival skills such as throwing spears with an atl-atl and a bow drill fire-making demonstration.

The day will be led by three staff members; all have extensive and varied backgrounds in Ice Age archaeology and palaeontology.

Dr Angharad Jones, the curator at Creswell Crags, said: “Ice Age Europe Day is an exciting chance to showcase the amazing prehistory of Creswell Crags and share this with our visitors through an array of activities; we will be talking about the environmental conditions experienced by humans and other animals in Europe, before discussing human creativity through their art. Visitors can discover this with our talks and tour and then try their hand at some of the Ice Age survival skills to see how they might have fared during this time!”

Paul Baker, director of Creswell Crags said, ‘It’s important for Creswell Crags to be part of the Ice Age Europe Network as there are so many connections between people and place during the Ice Age. People were not restricted by boundaries and roamed the continent seeking places to survive changes in climate and habitat, so when we tell the story of Creswell Crags we are telling the story of people who could have come from all over Europe.”

The morning begins at 10am with the three talks on European animals, humans, art. In the afternoon the activities include survival skills, a tour of Pin Hole Cave, and an object show and tell.

The day is suitable for adults and interested younger people.

For in-person participants, the ticket price includes all talks and activities, plus free entry to the exhibition. The morning talks are also available online.

Tickets for the day (10am to 4pm) activities on site are £20 per person. A ticket for the online talks only is free (or a small donation).

For more information and tickets visit: www.creswell-crags.org.uk/events-listings/ice-age-europe-22