Ice Age cave art site preserved

[Wayne Harrison]

Work to protect and preserve an Ice Age site in Derbyshire has been completed.

<img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41067000/jpg/_41067677_rockart203.jpg" align="left">The project at the Ice Age cave art centre at Creswell Crags was funded by the East Midlands Development Agency and the county council.

It included building new scree banks to show how the gorge would have looked about 10 to 50,000 years ago.

A county council spokesperson said archaeologists were consulted during the preservation project to ensure the site's natural beauty was not spoiled.

'Unique site'

A £200,000 bridleway, which links up the visitor centre to the caves, was also unveiled.

Councillor Brian Lucas, the council's cabinet member for environmental services said: "We recognise the importance of preserving and enhancing such a unique archaeological site and great care was taken to build a bridleway in keeping with the natural surroundings of the Crags."

The Creswell cave art, near the Nottinghamshire border, was discovered in 2003 and includes 12,000-year-old engravings of bison, horses and birds.

It has been described as one of the most important prehistoric finds in Britain.

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