Abstract
Kent's Cavern. In “The History of Kent's Cavern, Torquay”, by Mr. H. G. Dowie (W. F. and J. W. Powe, Kent's Cavern, Torquay), an account is given of the stratification of this important station, which supplements previously published information in the light of recent excavation. The oldest known deposit, as yet incompletely examined, appears to be a silt passing below the breccia in the Bear's Den and elsewhere. So far as known, it is almost barren of animal and human remains. Of the same phase is a floor of stalagmite completely broken up by later disturbance. Then follows the deposit of ‘breccia’ divided into two distinct deposits, a concreted bone bed and an incoherent grit, the latter nearly barren. The deposit known as the Middle Stalagmite floor was followed by a period of disturbance, carrying in the cave earth containing a fauna consisting of hyaenas and their prey. Above that, during a period of calm, the Upper or Granular Stalagmite floor was formed, on which accumulated the Black Mould, in part perhaps of seolian origin, containing the remains of existing species of animals. There would appear to have been three periods of calm, during which the stalagmite was laid down, and three periods of disturbance, during which the principal deposits were introduced into the cavern. Of the artefacts which have been found in the cave, the Chellean tools are probably very early, and show no very considerable evolution beyond the prototypical rostro-carinate. They seem to belong to the deposits of the subterranean river rather than to the incoherent grit with which they were swept up. They may be claimed as older than any implement so far discovered in any cave in Europe.
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Research Items. Nature 132, 971–973 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132971a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132971a0