In the course of the systematic exploration of caves in the Mendip Hills, carried on by Messrs. Ayshford Sanford, Parker, and myself, a cave was examined in Burrington Combe, near Wrington, in Somerset, which may be referred to the iron age, and which we named Whitcombe’s Hole. It opened upon the side of that magnificent combe, at a height of about 135 feet from the bottom and fifteen from the top, and ran horizontally inwards, the floor being formed of an accumulation of earth mingled with charcoal, and containing numerous broken bones and teeth. The latter belonged to the wolf, fox, badger, rabbit, hare, stag, goat, and Celtic shorthorn. In the lower portion were the fragments of a rude, unornamented urn of a coarse black ware, with the rim turned at right angles, along with a bent piece of iron, which bears a strong resemblance to those found strengthening the corners of wooden coffins in the Gallo-Roman graves on the banks of the Somme. The fractures of the bones, with one exception, were caused by the hand of man, and not by the teeth of the carnivora. The position renders the cave eminently fitted for concealment, for while commanding an extensive view down the Combe, it is invisible both from above and below, and opening on the face of an almost vertical cliff, it is easily defended. If the urn be sepulchral, the interment must be of a later date than the occupation, because it is made in the _débris_ which resulted from the latter.[88] _Caves of the Bronze Age in Britain._ The cave of Heathery Burn,[89] near Stanhope, in Weardale, co. Durham, is the only one in this country that has furnished a large series of articles of the bronze age. It is described by Mr. Elliott as running into the precipitous side of a ravine, at a height of about 10 to 12 feet above the level of the Stanhope Burn, and as being partially traversed by water. Since its discovery in 1861, it has been altogether destroyed by the removal of the stone to be used as a flux in smelting the ore of the Weardale Iron Company, and an admirable section of its contents was therefore visible from time to time. A stratum of sand at the bottom, two feet nine inches thick, deposited by the stream, and containing angular masses of limestone that had dropped from the roof, was covered by a sheet of stalagmite three inches in thickness. On this rested a mass of bones and implements imbedded in silt or sand, and sealed over by a thickness of stalagmite of from two to eight inches. [Illustration: FIG. 32.--Bronze Knife, Heathery Burn (natural size).] [Illustration: FIG. 33.--Bronze Armlet, Heathery Burn.] [Illustration: FIG. 34.--Bronze Spearhead, Heathery Burn (½ size).] [Illustration: FIG. 35.--Bronze Mould for casting a socketed celt.]