Temperatures have been recorded in a cave at Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire, to assess the effects of fire on the thermal micro-climate of a cave. The fires were located in the entrance and to the rear of the main cave chamber to examine how the positioning of the fire may affect the cave temperature pattern. Airflow and smoke movement were assessed qualitatively. It was concluded that fires near the cave entrance did not affect interior temperatures. A fire at the rear of the cave would generate warmth but excessive amounts of smoke, so only ember fires would be possible if the cave were to be suitable for habitation.

Geologists in the early 19th century debated the origin of deep tubular holes bored into hard limestones in several European countries and decided that land snails, especially the ‘grove snail’ Cepaea nemoralis, were responsible. Recent research on the Mendip Hills in England confirms this view. The fact that snail holes are bored in subaerial conditions at a maximum rate of c. 1.5 mm in 10 years makes them a useful tool in karst landform interpretation. The local Ipswichian topography of a Mendip closed basin is reconstructed assuming that hundreds of borings in Twin Titties Swallet are pre-Devensian snail holes.

It has long been assumed that the prehistoric inhabitants of Australia had always shunned caves, but recent evidence indicates that Pleistocene man made extensive use of deep limestone caves in that continent. Nearly all the Australian sites known to possess such evidence have only been discovered since 1980. The parietal traces of human use described in this paper include three different forms of rock art, the oldest of which is sometimes found together with extensive use of chert mining. This subterranean mining of sedimentary silica represents the world’s oldest known traces of systematic mining but it is claimed in this paper that similar evidence is also present in at least one French cave. The oldest of the described anthropic wall markings are identical to the earliest form of cave art in the Franco-Cantabrian region. Although absolute dating is not yet finalised for the Australian sites it has been established the most archaic markings are more than 20,000 years old. Their discovery and investigation has prompted a hypothesis with which it is attempted to explain the origin of the anthropocentric world view shared by extant humans.

E.A. Martel, later to be the doyen of speleologists and the author of some 20 books and 780 papers on the subject made his first cave visit in 1864 at the age of five. It was to the Grotte de l’Arveiron (or Arveyron), the glacier cave draining the Mer de Glace near Chamonix. The glacier was in retreat and the form of the cave was constantly modified until it disappeared altogether about 1873. A recently discovered photograph shows the cave as it was some five years before Martel’s visit.

During the latter half of the 19th century Gough’s Old Cave was variously known as The Great Stalactite Cavern, The New Great Stalactite Cavern and Gough’s Stalactite and Stalagmite Cavern. The cave was probably shown to visitors from about the late 18th century. It was certainly open for public viewing by 1869 and was the run by John Weeks. The well-known legend of the Jack and Nancy Beauchamp - Gough partnership is now questioned due to the emergence of new documentary evidence. The extensions made in the cave by Gough between 1877 and 1889 are described, together with accounts of visits by travellers and scientific organisations. Rivalry existed between Gough and the Cox brothers, rising to its peak in the late 1880s. The important extensions made in Gough’s New Cave between 1892 and 1898 eclipsed the ‘Old’ cave, which was finally closed to the public in the early 20th century. This paper has been based on contemporary accounts as far as possible, including newspapers, official documents and travel guides.

The radiocarbon dates that have been obtained over the last fifteen years or so for material from archaeological sites belonging to the late Pleistocene and (mainly the earlier part of) the Holocene in the neighbourhood of Cheddar are reviewed and some of their implications assessed. Several of these sites would provide, from among human and faunal remains in extant collections, further highly suitable material for dating, especially by the new and virtually non-destructive small-sample techniques and in aprticular by the accelerator (AMS) method.

The loan by Cheddar Caves Museum of the hominid specimens found at Gough’s Cave, Somerset, to the British Museum (Natural History) provided an opportunity to study a number of marks, including linear incisions, noted by previous authors and attributed to human activities. After documenting the distribution, orientation and macroscopic characteristics of the marks, their microscopic features were recorded using a binocular light microscope and scanning electron microscope. These examinations revealed generally random groups of various types of incisions as well as gouges and indentations. Comparison of these results with modern experimental and taphonomic data suggests that the marks observed are largely due to natural damage which occurred when the bones were at or near the surface of the deposits. Exceptionally, some equivocal evidence for deliberate human interference occurs on the adult mandible (Gough’s Cave 6) nad may be related to post mortem removal of the tongue.

Reappraisal of a Late Devensian mammal fauna from the cave earth and breccia unit of Gough’s Cave, Cheddar, Somerset, St 4670 5391, has shown it to be a human predation assemblage, dominated by horse Equus ferus, red deer Cervus elaphus and arctic hare Lepus timidus. New carbon 14 age determinations place the bulk of the faunal remains at around 12,000 years bp corresponding to a period within the Lateglacial Interstadial. The first directly dated British material referable to saiga antelope Saiga tartarica belongs to this period. An existing date of c. 10,000 bp on reindeer Rangifer tarandus from higher in the same unit provides tentative evidence for a later phase of faunal input. Surviving information relating to the stratigraphic occurrence of faunal remains is examined in detail.

Re-examination of the surviving bird remains from the 1927-1931 excavations at Gough’s Cave confirms the presence of 11 forms, 6 of which can be reliably attributed to the main Lateglacial phase of human occupation. Remains of Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus and Ptarmigan Lagopus mutus show direct evidence of human modification. The environmental and potential cultural significance of each species is examined and discussed where appropriate to the wider interpretation of the site.

This contribution studies the body part representation of the horse and red deer bones, the season of occupation of the cave as indicated by the bones and the cut marks on the bones. Samples from different areas of the cave show very different body part representation, only some aspects of which can be put down to differential recovery and post-excavation discard. A theory is put forward to explain differences in terms of human and carnivore activity. The red deer jaws suggest the cave was used in winter. The very clear cut marks indicate normal skinning, dismemberment and filleting of the animals and also the removal of tendons and ligaments from the lower limbs, presumably for industrial processes.

A second supplement to the book Caves of County Clare (Self, 1981).

Many of the surface depressions in and around the Priddy Circles (Neolithic henge monuments) are shown to be natural sinkholes, not mine workings as had been assumed. The construction of Circle no. 3 involved levelling several pre-existing sinkholes, but the ground remained liable to subsidence. Unsatisfactory ground conditions may have been one of the factors that led to the abandonment of the whole ceremonial site before the Circles were completed.

Material containing flints, spread on fields at Westbury-sub-Mendip, is not of local origin.