This Medieval Castle Sits Atop a Prehistoric Time Capsule. New Excavations Could Reveal the History of Neanderthals in Britain

In a cave tucked beneath the Welsh landmark, archaeologists have found evidence of human and animal visits over the past 120,000 years. Now, they’re starting a five-year excavation project

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

April 20, 2026

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Researchers have unearthed a trove of prehistoric artifacts and animal bones beneath an 11th-century castle in Wales that could shed light on some early inhabitants of what’s now Britain.

They made the discoveries while digging under Pembroke Castle, the birthplace of Henry VII and a popular tourist attraction. Researchers had long known about a large cave, Wogan Cavern, tucked beneath the castle. But because of the building’s long history, they assumed that most archaeological material had been cleared out decades ago.

However, preliminary, small‑scale excavations conducted between 2021 and 2024 suggest that the cavern remains largely undisturbed—and still holds far more to discover.

During those initial digs, researchers uncovered evidence of animal use dating back tens of thousands of years. They unearthed the fossilized remains of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer and wild horse, as well as hippopotamus bones that probably date to the last interglacial period, around 120,000 years ago.

They have also found stone tools and other signs of human occupation, including hunter-gatherers from around 11,500 years ago, early Homo sapiens from around 45,000 to 35,000 years ago and, possibly, even earlier visits by Neanderthals.

Now, researchers are gearing up to embark on a more thorough exploration via excavations slated to start at the end of May. The five-year project will be led by archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and other experts from across Britain and Europe, with funding and support from the nonprofit Calleva Foundation and the Pembroke Castle Trust.

Because of the diversity of past finds and their well-preserved nature, archaeologists hope the site might reveal a broad array of insights—everything from past climate change and extinct species to human lifestyle and behavior over the course of millennia.

“We can learn a lot about past environments and ecosystems, and do high-resolution scientific dating,” says Kate Britton, an archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen working on the project, in a statement. “Furthermore, pilot studies have shown that ancient DNA is preserved in both the bones and the cave sediments.”

Many of the questions researchers hope to answer revolve around early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in Britain—whether the two species lived alongside each other, interacted and maybe interbred there. They’re also curious to learn more about how and why Neanderthals died out around 45,000 years ago in Britain, and what role Homo sapiens might have played in their demise.

“The site has got fantastic potential,” Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told the Guardian’s Robin McKie in 2024. “It’s the best prospect that we have got in providing fresh material that can help us find out how Neanderthals lived in Britain and learn how they were replaced by Homo sapiens.”

At other sites across Britain, including Kents Cavern and Paviland Cave, efforts to answer these and other questions have been hampered by Victorian and Edwardian archaeologists, who had a habit of removing all sediment, rocks, bones and other materials.

“Our understanding of [the transition from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens] in this corner of Europe is a lot worse than elsewhere,” Rob Dinnis, an archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen who is leading the project, told the Guardian in 2024. “That is, in part, due to the fact that we stripped out our best sites over a century ago.”

But Wogan Cavern “should give us a chance to put that right,” he added. While the cave appears to have been used as a storeroom during the Middle Ages, the entrance was walled off sometime in the early 13th century, leaving its floor—and the layers of sediment below—largely intact. It’s now accessible via a spiral staircase from the castle.

In the future, plans call for the finds from Wogan Cavern to be housed at Pembroke Castle, adding even more layers of history to the site.

“It would not just be medieval,” Jon Williams, general manager of Pembroke Castle, told BBC News in 2022. “If people can come to Pembroke and also go back to the Stone Age, that would be really, really interesting and could drive more tourists to Pembroke.”

Sarah Kuta | Read More

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.