CAVE DISCOVERIES

Waipa Post, Volume 37, Issue 2216, 29 September 1928, Page 6

CAVE DISCOVERIES

" I HUMAN SKULLS OF 12,000 B.C. i - Two fragmentary skulls, one of a child and another of a young man in i the twenties, found in one of the fam,- » ous caves at Cheddar and submitted > tio Sir Arthur Keith for his judgment . as to their antiquity have been pro- . nounced by him as belonging to a i race allied to the Cro-Magnon race of • the Dordogne and RivSera caves, which flourished about 12,000 B.C. , "The skulls were among discoveries made during excavations for the ; widening, made necessary by the i number of visitors who pass through ■ every year, of the entrance to • Gough's Cave," Mr P. Parry, who su- , perintended the operations, told a • "Daily News" reporter. "I am great- ; ly interested in archaeology, and, . knowing that) important discoveries • had been made at this spot when the case was first opened to the public, 30 years ago, I determined to do the work with scientific care. "The skulls were found about six feet* below the natural surface associated with palaeolitic flint instruments, and I submitted them to Sir Arthur Keith. They are similar to one found in the same cave years ago, nd Sir Arthur's judgment si what I expected. I intend to carry on the work of" excavation next winter. The finds are on view in a little museum at the mouth of the cave and thousands of trippers inspect them every day." Most important of the discoveries is a baton de commandant—one of those mysterious, smooth, straight lengths of reindeer antler which have been found in Continental palaeolitic occupation floors, but no perfect specimen of which has ever been found before in England. A mere fragment of one came to light in the same cave, in the rocky alcove from which, in 1903, the famous, Cheddar Man was taken. The baton has a large round perforation near one end and a number of engraved hatchings on the shaft. Their use is uncertain. One theory is that they are ceremonial wands or sceptres. Other authorities believe they were employed as tools for the straightening of the shafts for flint arrows. j Included in the discoveries also are animal remains—the gigantic pleistocene red deer and horse predominating—bones of oxen, reindeer, wolves, and what is thought to be arctic fox; hundreds of , flint instruments, grav- • ers' awls, knives and blades, bone points, perforated fox teeth, and a larg rod of mammoth ivory. The similarity of the stone implements found to earlier discoveries in] Aveline's Hole and Mother Grundy's Parlour, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, would seem to date the occupation of the cave at about 8000 B. C. There is no doubtf, in any case, that the industry is upper palaeolitic.