Derbyshire Caves Exhibition

Abstract

ON behalf of the Derbyshire Caves Exploration Committee appointed by the British Association, Mr. Leslie Armstrong has excavated Pin Hole, a cave in Creswell Crags inhabited in Upper Palaeolithic times and exceptionally rich in prehistoric remains. A preliminary report was published in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, 4, part 2, with av diagram showing the brick-earth, red above and yellow below, which underlay the present stalagmitic floor, with layers of slabs fallen from the roof marking periods of exceptional cold. The palaeolithic cultures ‘represented are Le Moustier and Aurignac, the latter persisting through the glaciation associated elsewhere with La Madeleine; and the fauna shows severe and temperate conditions alternating. There are chipped pebbles of quartzite, and flint implements of excellent workmanship, nearly all with white patina; also slight engravings on bone, a bone blade regarded as a bull-roarer, as well as a cowrie shell and piece of mother-of-pearl. Mr. Armstrong has also excavated Mother Grundy's Parlour in the same valley, and published an account in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 55, Jan.-June 1925, with eight pages of careful drawings of the stone implements mostly of Aurignac types, but with a micro -lithic industry in the uppermost layer, and chipped quartzite at the base. The cave-earth of the Parlour has large stones from the roof incorporated throughout, not at intervals, and shows the same difference in colour as Pin Hole. Engravings of animals on bone in the Aurignac style and the best of the finds from both sites are now exhibited in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, near the top of the main staircase, and will, by the kindness of Mr. Armstrong, remain there for the rest of the year.