Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T01:34:05.928Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an Upper Palaeolithic Site in Northern England: Discussion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

S. J. Gale  and
C. O. Hunt
S. J. Gale
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Planning, The University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia
C. O. Hunt
Affiliation:
Sedimentology and Palaeobiology Laboratory, Anglia Higher Education College, Cambridge, CB1 1PT, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Volume 52 of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society contained two articles (Salisbury 1986; Tipping 1986) critical of our paper ‘The stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an upper palaeolithic site in northern England’ (Gale and Hunt 1985). Here we reply.

Before dealing with the criticisms made by Salisbury, we correct the factual errors in his paper.

1. Bolton and Morris ‘… excavated through, and ultimately removed some 5 to 7 metres of cave earth…’ (Salisbury 1986, 321). In fact, the reports indicate a maximum depth of excavation of 7 ft (2.1 m) (Bolton 1864, cclii) or 8 ft (2.4 m) (Morris 1865–66, 360, 361; 1866, 169, 170; Bolton 1869, 167–68).

2. Bolton and Morris's ‘… publications are of little value today, and both may be considered to have been “bone hunters” and collectors’ (Salisbury 1986, 321). The assertion that Bolton and Morris's excavation reports are of little value suggests that Salisbury is not familiar with the wealth of early literature on this site. The reports provide a picture of a rich and varied assemblage of artefacts and macrofauna in the unit overlying the stalagmite floor in the cave. Information is also provided on the lithology of that unit. Interpretation of these reports allows the reconstruction of the stratigraphic context of the finds: we direct Salisbury's attention to Gale and Hunt (1985, 296–97) for an indication of the stratigraphic reconstruction possible from the information given in these early publications.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 56 , 1990 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashmead, P. and Wood, R. H. 1974. Second report on the archaeological excavations at Kirkhead Cavern. North-West Speleology 2(1), 24–33.Google Scholar
Atkinson, T. C., Lawson, T.J., Smart, P. L., Harmon, R. S. and Hess, J. W. 1986. New data on speleothem deposition and palaeoclimate in Britain over the last forty thousand years. Journal of Quaternary Science 1, 67–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. 1864. On the Kirkhead Cave, near Ulverstone. Journal of the Anthropological Society of London 2, ccli–ccliv.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. 1869. Geological Fragments Collected Principally from Rambles among the Rocks of Furness and Carttnel. London: Whittaker.Google Scholar
Brodzikowski, K. and Van Loon, A. J. 1987. A systematic classification of glacial and periglacial environments, facies and deposits. Earth-Science Reviews 24, 297–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creer, K. M., Thompson, R., Molyneux, L. and Mackereth, F.J.H. 1972. Geomagnetic secular variation recorded in the stable magnetic remanence of recent sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 14, 115–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitter, A. 1978. An Atlas of the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Gale, S.J. 1985. The Late- and Post-glacial environmental history of the southern Cumbrian massif and its surrounding lowlands. In Johnson, R. H. (ed.), The Geomorphology of North-west England, 282–98. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Gale, S.J. and Hunt, C. O. 1985. The stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an upper palaeolithic site in northern England. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 51, 283–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gale, S.J., Hunt, C. O. and Southgate, G. A. 1984. Kirkhead Cave: biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy. Archaeometry 26, 192–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godwin, H. 1940. Pollen analysis and forest history of England and Wales. The New Phytologist 39, 370–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godwin, H. 1975. The History of the British Flora. A Factual Basis for Phytogeography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2nd edn.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., Walker, D. and Willis, E. H. 1957. Radiocarbon dating and post-glacial vegetational history: Scaleby Moss. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 147, 352–66.Google ScholarPubMed
Heyworth, A., Kidson, C. and Wilks, P. 1985. Late-glacial and Holocene sediments at Clarach Bay, near Aberystwyth. The Journal of Ecology 73, 459–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, C. O. and Gale, S.J. 1986. Palynology: a neglected tool in British cave studies. In Paterson, K. and Sweeting, M. M. (eds), New Directions in Karst, 323–32. Norwich: Geo Books.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M., Tallis, J.H. and Mellars, P. A. 1976. The southern Pennine Mesolithic and the ecological record. Journal of Archaeological Science 3, 307–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. P. 1865–1866. Report of explorations conducted in the Kirkhead Cave at Ulverstone. Memoirs read before the Anthropological Society of London 2, 358–63.Google Scholar
Morris, J. P. 1866. The bone caves of Cartmel. North Lonsdale Magazine 1, 166–72.Google Scholar
Oldfield, F. 1960. Studies in the Post-glacial history of British vegetation: Lowland Lonsdale. The New Phytologist 59, 191–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salisbury, C. R. 1986. Comments on Kirkhead Cave, an upper palaeolithic site in northern England. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52, 321–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipping, R. 1986. The stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an upper palaeolithic site in northern England: a comment. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52, 323–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R. 1973. Palaeolimnology and palaeomagnetism Nature, London 242, 182–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, R.H., Ashmead, P. and Mellars, P. A. 1969. First report on the archaeological excavations at Kirkhead Cavern. North-West Speleology 1 (2), 19–24.Google Scholar