Research Items

Abstract

Archological Exploration in Derbyshire Caves. A Research Committee of the British Association appointed to explore caves in the Derbyshire district (Mr. M. C. Burkitt, chairman, and Dr. R. V. Favell, secretary) reported at the Leicester meeting of the Association on the work of the year 1932-33. The excavation of the Pin Hole Cave, Creswell Crags, has been continued by Mr. Leslie Armstrong. Breccia was removed from the whole area of the passage on the east side of the main chamber and in the trefoil-shaped terminal chamber, revealing four large cavities in the rock floor, one coinciding with the width of the passage and extending 7 ft. along it. These were entirely filled with cave earth of Mousterian age, 2 ft. 7 in. deep, and an underlying deposit of sterile red sand. The Mousterian deposits yielded the usual fauna, including the greater portion of the skull and jaw of a young mammoth with complete dentition, and two large fragments of the lower jaw of a giant deer. The large cavity showed evidence of human occupation in a small but well-preserved hearth and a stone pounder, animal bones, split and charred, and crude artefacts of quartzite and crystalline stalagmite. Similar tools were recovered from the smaller cavities at the rear of the chamber. Several worked bone tools included a bone knife and two awls. In the large inner cave of the chamber the deposits were excavated from the 12 ft. level to the base at a depth of 17 ft. An exceptionally thick layer of limestone slabs pointed to the probability that this part was unsuitable for occupation. The remains of Mousterian age recovered here are less numerous than elsewhere in the cave, but include a fine side-scraper of flint.