Creswell Crags Research Articles

The Airfall-pollen Budget of Archaeologically Important Caves: Creswell Crags, England

This paper investigates fundamental taphonomic issues for palynologists working on archaeologically important cave deposits—the extent to which the pollen and spores reaching the accumulating sediment surfaces reflect the vegetation in cave entrances, or reflect the more regional environments beyond the caves. The study sites were four adjacent caves at Creswell Crags, near Sheffield, England—Church Hole, Dog Hole, C7 and Robin Hood's Cave. The compositions of the pollen and spore assemblages caught in the caves over a one year period were shown to reflect the vegetation in the cave mouths and the wider area beyond. The AP:NAP ratio in the assemblages trapped in the caves corresponded with the proportions of woodland and open ground within a 5 km radius of the site. Comparatively high representations of fern spores in caves were a persistent feature and were attributed to the interactions of habitat, distribution and taphonomic processes—(i) the abundance of ferns in cave mouths, and (ii) the effects produced by a combination of diurnal micro-climatological process interacting with diurnal variations in spore production in the cave entrance. In two caves—Church Hole Cave and Dog Hole Cave—the numbers of grains caught appeared to decline with increasing distance into the cave. In Cave C7, the numbers of grains caught increased towards the back of the cave. The number of grains caught appears to be a principal determinant of the number of plant taxa identified. There were no clear relationships between the presence of a "flue" effect in the cave and the presence of an increase or a decrease in the number of grains caught with changing distance into the caves. It is concluded that as long as account is taken of the particular topographic, microclimatic and taphonomic conditions in these caves, it is possible to infer the character of the vegetation beyond their confines, from the airfall pollen and spores trapped with them at the cave sediment surface.

THE LATEGLACIAL FAUNA FROM THE ROBIN HOOD CAVE, CRESWELL CRAGS: A RE‐ASSESSMENT

Summary. Re‐study of the fauna recovered in 1969 during excavations by John Campbell in front of the West Entrance to Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, England, shows it to include components of different ages. Arctic hare is the only species certainly exploited by humans and it is suggested that the position and character of cut‐marks preserved on bone surfaces documents the processing and possible consumption of uncooked meat. It has not been possible to identify the time(s) of year when these hares died. Radiocarbon results for cut‐marked bones are important for dating the Creswellian.

The statistical modelling of the grain size distributions of cave sediments using log skew laplace distributions: Creswell Crags, near Sheffield, England

Abstract This paper describes the statistical modelling of cave sediment size data using log skew Laplace distributions. The sediment samples were obtained from excavations in three archaeologically-important, palaeolithic deposits in the Creswell Crags Caves, which occur in the infrequently studied Lower Magnesian Limestone (Permian) bedrocks, east of Sheffield, England. Theoretical and practical justifications for employing this and other types of statistical distribution to model grain size data are briefly reviewed. Three independent and one summary descriptor based upon parameter measures derived by fitting log skew Laplace models to cave sediment grain size data are then used to explore the relationships between sediment location—specifically distance of the sample from the cave entrance(s) in three caves which differ in their geomorphic complexity. In the most complex cave—Robin Hood's Cave—broadly defined “groupings” or “sediment trajectories” were detectable in 3D displays of the parameter values for samples from individual “columns” of the sampled cave sediments. The relatively simple “sac” cave (Pin Hole Cave) appears to show relatively simple “zonal” trends in the descriptors, with variation in the outermost part of the chamber being primarily responsible for the trends observed. Zonal trends were also suggested, but less clearly, by some of the independent descriptive parameters in the more complex Church Hole Cave, but in this case it was the properties of the innermost samples that were responsible for much of the apparent variation detected. On the basis of this statistical modelling and the associated exploratory data analysis, it is hypothesized that textural variations in these three caves can be provisionally “disaggregated” into at least two complex elements. The first manifests itself in zonal variations which appear to relate, directly or indirectly, to the effects of increasing distance from these cave mouths (essentially akin to the ideas of Schmid, 1969 , Science in Archaeology, pp. 151–166. London: Thames and Hudson); the second discloses itself in more location-specific variations which themselves reflect the local sedimentary circumstances of that particular site within Robin Hood's Cave (similar to the ideas of Butzer, 1971 , Environment and Archaeology: An Ecological Approach to Prehistory. Chicago: Aldine).

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: BATS–A NATURAL HISTORY. By J. E. Hill & J. D. Smith. PRIMATE BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY. By Hilary O. Box. Chapman & Hall THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PRIMATES. By. J. R. & P. H. Napier. IN THE SHADOW OF EXTINCTION: A QUATERNARY ARCHAEOLOGY AND PALAEOECOLOGY OF THE LAKE, FISSURES AND SMALLER CAVES AT CRESWELL CRAGS S.S.S.I. By R. D. S. Jenkinson & D. D. Gilbertson. THE MAMMALS OF THE PALAEARCTIC REGION: A TAXONOMIC REVIEW. Supplement. By G. B. Corbet HUMAN EVOLUTION: AN ILLUSTRATED INTRODUCTION. By Roger Lewin. EXCAVATIONS AT GRIMES GRAVES, NORFOLK, 1972–1976 FASCICULE 1. NEOLITHIC ANTLER PICKS… A BIOMETRICAL ANALYSIS. By Juliet Clutton‐Brock. SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN MAMMALS. By T. B. Poole. THE MAMMALS OF ZANZIBAR AND PEMBA ISLANDS. By R. H. W. Pakenham. Published by the author ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES AND THE EVIDENCE. Edited by D. R. Strong, D. Simberloff, L. G Abele & A. B. Thistle. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE PALEOBIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF CETACEA. By G. A. Mchedlidze. THE OXFORD GUIDE TO MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. By J. Mary Taylor. WILDLIFE RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. S. K. Eltringham. John Wiley & Sons THE BIOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT OF MOUNTAIN UNGULATES. Edited by Sandro Lovari. Croom Helm REPRODUCTION IN SHEEP. Edited by D. R. Lindsay & D. T. Pearce. COMMUNICATION IN THE CHIROPTERA. By M. Brock Fenton. FLYING SQUIRRELS: GLIDERS IN THE DARK. By Nancy Wells‐Gosling. MAMMALS OF THE CAROLINAS, VIRGINIA, AND MARYLAND. By Wm. David Webster, James F. Parnell & Walter C. Biggs, Jr. NATURALISED MAMMALS OF THE WORLD. By Sir Christopher Lever.

Lost & Found: 20. Creswell Crags Collection

William Ely - Keeper of Natural History, Rotherham Museum, has kindly provided details of his Museum's collections of Creswell Crags material which comprise Gifts of A.L. Armstrong 1931, Ethbert Brand 1932 and Miss E. Gibson 1932. These have been passed on to the Creswell Crags Interpretative Centre. Further returns would be welcomed....

Man and Bear in Europe

The faunal environment of man, as is well known, has profoundly affected his mental as well as his physical life. The Altamira and other animal-drawings made by Palaeolithic man, whether regarded as disinterested efforts at pure art or as magical symbols intended to ensure success in the chase, are sufficient evidence of the extent to which the cave bear, the bison, the mammoth, and other great beasts figured in the minds of their human contemporaries. Professor Othenio Abel considers that Mousterian man associated certain cult-conceptions with the bears he had killed, and kindred ideas are still found in remote parts of the world. Finds of actual bear remains in more or less clear association with human remains or artifacts are of course numerous. Confining ourselves to Great Britain, bones attributed to Ursus spelaeus were ‘ very common ’ at Paviland cave, Glamorgan, which yielded also artifacts covering the period from Mousterian to the end of Aurignacian times. Cat’s Hole, Long Hole, and Hoyle’s Mouth, all in South Wales ; Kent’s cavern in Devonshire ; King Arthur’s cave in the Wye valley ; Aveline’s Hole, Gough’s cave, and Wookey Hole in the Mendips ; Ffynnon Beuno cave in the vale of Clwyd ; the Victoria cave in Yorkshire ; Creswell Crags and Langwith cave in Derbyshire ; are other sites which have yielded both remains of bear and human artifacts of various periods.

Derbyshire Caves Exhibition

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.

Exhibition of Creswell Crags Material

Exhibition of Creswell Crags Material

Research Items

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.

Prehistoric Society of East Anglia in 1931

THE recently issued Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia for 1931 (vol. 6, pt. 1) contains a number of communications of importance for pre-historians. The presidential address by Mr. J. P. T. Burchell on?Early Neanthropie Man and his Relation to the Ice Age? has already been the subject of reference in NATURE (NOV. 21, p. 879? 1931). It is printed here in full with ample illustration. Among the remaining papers, Mr. Bertram Brotherton describes a remarkable rostrocarinate implement of quartzite from Worcester, upon which Mr. Reid Moir remarks that it may be less ancient than its type suggests. Mr. Reid Moir himself chronicles further discoveries of flint implements in the brown boulder-clay of north-west Suffolk. He is now inclined to think that the brown boulder-clay was laid down before the Magdalenian period began. In a paper on the flint industries of the type station of La Madeleine, Mr. A. S. Barnes discusses their value as a basis for the classification of Magdalenian industries elsewhere. Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong deals with his further excavations in the Pinhole Cave at Creswell Crags and on a late Aurignacian site in Lincolnshire. Mr. A. L. Grimes, in dealing elaborately with the early bronze age flint-dagger in Britain, suggests that while it was undoubtedly introduced into Britain with the beaker culture, it shows resemblances to both the two main Continental groups, the northern and the Mediterranean. An account of the excavation of an early iron age site at Great Wymondham, Herts, by Mr. C. F. Tebbutt, is especially noteworthy, as sites and finds of this?early phase? (La Tne I. and II.) are rare in that area.

A Late Upper Aurignacian Station in North Lincolnshire

The site forming the subject of this communication is an open-air station of Upper Palæolithic date, situated near the northern extremity of the Lincolnshire Cliff range, and previously unrecorded. The cultural horizon of the site closely corresponds with that of the upper levels of the rock-shelter known as ‘Mother Grundy's Parlour,’ Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, excavated by the writer in 1924, under the auspices of the British Association Research Committee for the Exploration of Caves in Derbyshire. Those excavations revealed, for the first time, the gradual development of our English phase of the Upper Aurignacian, and established the fact that this was of a distinctive character, and had been evolved practically free from Magdalenian influences. Excavations in the Mendip caves by the University of Bristol Spelæological Society, and elsewhere, have since confirmed these conclusions; and it is now recognised tlhat the culture is essentially an English expression of Upper Aurignacian, which is typical of the Upper Palæolithic in this country.

Excavations in the Pin Hole Cave, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire

The Pin Hole Cave was the first of the five caves forming the Creswell Group, in which excavation work was undertaken by the Rev. Magens Mello in 1875, and where his first discoveries were made. Operations at that time were confined to a limited area at the entrance of the cave and were mainly superficial; subsequent excavations ignored the cave entirely, and consequently the important deposits contained there have remained intact. This is a fortunate circumstance, because the Pin Hole, by reason of its position in the cliff face, is the only cave of the group in which a stratified record of the whole sequence of Creswell cultures has been preserved. Had it been excavated in 1875 much important scientific evidence would inevitably have been missed which the systematic excavation of the cave by modern methods has revealed, thereby providing not only valuable information respecting climatic variations during the cave period, but also a type cave-section for Britain.Two beds of cave-earth are present—an upper, red, cave-earth, 6 to 7 feet in thickness, sealed beneath either crystalline stalagmite or breccia; and a lower, yellow, cave-earth, 10 to 11 feet in thickness, the total average depth of the deposit being 17 feet to the bed rock of the cave. The upper cave-earth contains a series of typical Upper Palæolithic industries ranging from Upper Aurignacian and proto-Solutrean at its base, to a late Aurignacian culture at the top, corresponding in time to the Magdalenian of France.

Pin Hole Cave Excavations, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire. Discovery of an Engraved Drawing of a Masked Human Figure

Excavations on behalf of the Research Committee for the Archæological Excavation of Derbyshire Caves (British Association and Royal Anthropological Institute) were commenced by the writer in the Pin Hole Cave, Creswell Crags, in September, 1924, at a point 23 feet from the entrance, where the superficial examination of the upper beds by the Rev. Magins Mello had terminated in 1873. The work has steadily progressed, and has now reached 80 feet beyond the datum point, and is proceeding in the large inner chamber which has been revealed by the removal of the deposits which, over half its area, had accumulated to the level of the roof. The section embraces an upper cave-earth from 6 to 7 feet in thickness, mostly sealed beneath stalagmite, or breccia, and containing artifacts ranging in time from Upper Mousterian at its base to Magdalenian at the top. The lower cave-earth, 10 to 11 feet in thickness, contains three lower Palæolithic cultural zones, the lowest of which is 13 feet beneath the floor of the cave.

Excavations at Mother Grundy's Parlour, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, 1924.

Excavations at Mother Grundy's Parlour, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, 1924.

On an apparently Palæolithic Engraving on a Bone from Sherborne (Dorset)

Thirty-seven years ago Prof. Boyd Dawkins described to the Society the incised figure of a horse on a piece of bone found with Palæolithic implements and remains of Pleistocene mammals in the Robin Hood Cave, Creswell Crags. Until the present time, this has remained the sole example of the pictorial art of Palæolithic Man met with in Britain. It is, therefore, of interest to record the discovery of a second specimen, which appears to date back to the same period, and is especially remarkable as being almost identical with the first, both in subject and in style. The new specimen was found by two boys of Sherborne School, A. S. Cortesi and P. C. Grove, and was submitted to me by Mr. R. Elliot Steel, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of making this communication. It was picked up, with fragments of calcspar and miscellaneous Inferior Oolite fossils, in an old heap of quarry-débris near the Bristol road, on the outskirts of Sherborne (Dorset); and there can be no doubt that it was originally obtained from one of the small dry valleys with steep sides which furrow the dip-slope of the Inferior Oolite north of the town. A careful consideration of all the circumstances suggests that it may have occurred in a in a rock-shelter, which was destroyed by quarrying : for the heap of d6bris which yielded the speCmen was most probably derived from a sheltered spot with a south-westen~ aspect, whieh would serve admil:nbly for human habitation

A new Ossiferous Fissure in Creswell Crags

The fissure explored by the Authors is about 30 feet above the level of the artificial lake at Creswell Crags. At the top occurred a white earth (with human and other remains), passing down into a red sand with remains of fox, badger, roe-deer, and other mammals. Beneath the latter deposit, and separated from it by a fairly sharp line of demarcation, came the cave-earth proper, with Palæolithic implements and bones of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Bison priscus, Ursus spelæus, Hyæna crocuta var. spelæa , and Cervus tarandus . The Authors suppose that this cave-earth is derived from an older deposit and has been transported to its present place by water, though there is evidence that the transport has been from no great distance. Consequently they followed the fissure inwards, until brought to a stop by a mass of travertine, which they penetrated with a small hole. They hope to explore the fissure beyond this travertine on a future occasion.

On the Discovery in one of the Bone-caves of Creswell Crags of a portion of the Upper Jaw of Elephas primigenius , containing in situ the first and second Milk-molars (right side)

I desire to bring under the notice of the Society a portion of the upper jaw of Elephas primigenius , containing in situ the first and second milk-molars, discovered by myself in one of the bone-caves of Creswell Crags. It will be remembered that these caves have, during the last ten years, through the exertions of the Rev. J. M. Mello, F.G.S., been systematically explored under the auspices of a committee of the British Association, and that papers describing the caves and giving the results of the explorations have appeared in the Society's Journal. The specimen now on the table was obtained by me prior to these explorations. In securing it, therefore, I in no way interfered with any authorized investigations; for none had then been set on foot. I found the specimen in the red sand or cave-earth of the “Pin-hole Cave,” and quite at its entrance. This cave is the most westerly on the north or Derbyshire side of the ravine, and has been fully described by Mr. Mello, who gives the following section of its beds (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. p. 681):— 1. Surface-soil, containing recent pottery, bones &c., 1–6 inches. 2. Damp red sand, with rough blocks of magnesian limestone, quartz, quartzite, and other pebbles, and numerous bones, 3 feet. 3. Lighter-coloured sand, consolidated by infiltration of lime. No bones(?). Sir Richard Owen has very kindly undertaken to describe my specimen. He informed me some time ago that the National Collection had evidences of all

The Antiquity of Man

The Antiquity of Man

On the Mammal-fauna of the Caves of Creswell Crags

T he exploration of the caves of Creswell Crags carried on by the Rev. J. M. Mello, F.G.S., in 1875, and brought before the Society in that and the following year, was finally concluded last summer; and the results have been handed over to me, by the Committee, for description—a task of no little difficulty, from the vast numbers of the fossil remains which have been discovered. The results are of considerable importance, not merely because they confirm the conclusions which were arrived at from the previous explorations, but because they add new facts to the history of palæolithic man in Britain. In dealing with these the Robin-Hood Cave will be taken first; and then I shall check the evidence which it offers by that furnished by the cavern on the other side of the ravine of Creswell Crags known as the Church Hole. It must, however be remarked that the history of both these caverns is rendered imperfect from the promiscuous diggings carried on by unauthorized persons, the results of which have not been brought before the Committee. II The Robin-Hood Cave. A. Distribution of Species in the Lower and Middle Strata. In the description of the remains from the Robin-Hood Cave in this Journal (August 1876, p. 245), attention was drawn to the fact that the cave was inhabited by hyaenas during the time of the deposition of the red sand below, the cave-earth, and the breccia above, and that no traces of man were found below the cave-earth.

The Bone-caves of Creswell Crags.—3rd Paper

I t will be remembered that on two previous occasions the history of the Creswell-Caves Exploration has been brought before the Society, on the latter of which the results of the work were given up to the close of 1875. During the early part of last summer the exploration has been carried on under the auspices of a Committee, consisting of Sir J. Lubbock, M.P., F.R.S., as President, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. (Secretary), F. Longdon (Treasurer), Prof. G. Busk, F.R.S., W. Bragge, F.G.S., R. D. Darbishire, B.A., F.G.S., J. Evans, F.R.S., A. W. Franks, F.R.S., Rooke Pennington, LL.B., F.G.S., Prof. Prestwich, F.R.S., and the Rev. J. M. Mello, M.A., F.G.S. (Director and Reporter), Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins and T. Heath, F.R.H.S., being Superintendents. It will hardly be necessary to do more by way of recapitulation than just allude to the first papers read, which have established the fact that we have at Creswell a series of highly important caves, illustrating by their contents two periods of human occupation during the Palæolithic age in Britain, when man was contemporary in Derbyshire and the adjoining district with the characteristic Pleistocene fauna. The remains of animals belonging to this fauna, in great abundance and representing a remarkably large number of species, have been found in these caves, in conjunction with quartzite and flint implements of two different types:—the one ruder than the other and underlying it, corresponding in character to the rude implements of the Lower Breccia of Kent's Hole and of the