The heritage group Gower Unearthed has called for the return of the “Red Lady of Paviland” skeleton remains from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). To raise publicity, the campaign’s director Helen Nicholas and her friend completed a 200-mile run with 20,000-feet elevation from the museum to Goat’s Hole Cave this week.
The Red Lady was discovered in Gower, South Wales, by Oxford’s geology professor William Buckland in 1823. The remains were then transferred back to Oxford, along with other archaeological finds, where they have remained for the past two centuries.
The Red Lady gains its name from the red ochre colouring on the bones. Originally believed to be the remains of a Roman woman, it is now understood to be the skeleton of a young male hunter who lived around 35,000 years ago during the Upper Palaeolithic period. The site of discovery is considered to be the oldest ceremonial burial found in Britain, with the skeleton being buried with stone tools, burned animal remains, and carved ivory.
Nicholas wrote on social media of the run: “We will pass some extraordinary landscape and will be seeking out some pretty amazing prehistory. We are running to shine a spotlight on the conversation around The Red Lady of Paviland as part of the Red Lady Futures campaign.
While Gower Unearthed have made their desire for the Red Lady’s return clear online, a spokesperson for the OUMNH said the museum has not been contacted directly by the group. They told Cherwell they follow “clear guidelines on human remains which include procedures for legitimate claims for the return of human remains to source communities.”
Calls for repatriation follow the recent return of other human remains from the OUMNH. Along with the Pitt Rivers Museum, the remains of eleven Aboriginal people were returned in 2023 as part of a larger project of repatriation between the UK and Australia.
