Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of EuropeDawkins, William Boyd
History
Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe
Dawkins, William Boyd
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Europe; Caves -- Europe; Europe -- Antiquities; Prehistoric peoples -- Europe
Mr. Edwin Brown, from whose report this list is taken, concludes that
Thor’s cave was occupied during “the late Celtic and Romano-Celtic
periods.” The harp-fibulæ are of a pattern identical with several of
those discovered in the Victoria Cave, and the holes at their upper
ends were probably intended for the reception of enamel. The bronze
instrument, consisting of a disk cut out into a flamboyant pattern
like that of the round brooch from the Victoria Cave (Fig. 25), and
joined to a central stem ornamented with waved lines, was intended for
suspension; possibly, as Mr. Carrington suggests, it may have been
used for spinning. It is a remarkably fine example of Brit-Welsh or
late Celtic art. The bone comb is of the same type as those from the
Brit-Welsh caves of Yorkshire. It is evident, from Mr. Brown’s account,
that there were distinct layers of occupation; but, unfortunately, the
articles found in each were not separated from the rest. One armlet
(Fig. 31), composed of a thin plate of bronze, and ornamented with a
dotted-line pattern, is of the peculiar type which is characteristic of
the bronze age.
The cave had also been used as a place of sepulture, for near “the
pulpit rock,” and at a depth of five feet from the surface, a skeleton
rested in the sitting posture which is so characteristic of neolithic
interments in Europe. It had also been entered by man even before any
of these accumulations. “In the south recess, behind and below any
traces of man’s occupation, the diggers came upon a kind of flooring
of tabular masses of breccia stretching almost across the cave, and on
one side attached firmly to the wall,” beneath which rested, in the
undisturbed clay, a deer’s horn, rudely sawn across and perforated by
two holes.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Bronze Bracelet from Thor’s Cave.]
Thor’s Cave, therefore, like the Victoria, has been occupied by man in
the Brit-Welsh stage of the historic period, as well as in the bronze,
and possibly in the neolithic ages.
_Historic Value of Brit-Welsh Group of Caves._
The discovery that caves were used as habitations by men accustomed
to the elegance of civilized life, not merely in Yorkshire, but in
districts so far removed from each other as Staffordshire and the
extreme north of Lancashire, during the fifth and sixth centuries,
implies the pressure of a far-reaching calamity by which they were
driven from their homes. It completes and rounds off the story of the
social condition of the country during these troubled times, which is
revealed in the sacked and burned Brit-Welsh cities and villas, as
well as in the scanty records of the English invasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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