The large vertebrates from Picken's Hole. Somerset (UBSS Proceedings v.27(3))

Abstract: Picken's Hole (NGR ST 3964 5500) is a mainly collapsed limestone cave on the northern slope of a ridge of the Mendip Hills near Compton Bishop, Somerset. It is one of a small series of caves at about 50 m AOD in a ridge of carboniferous limestone. At the time of its excavation in the 1960s, the accessible cave consisted of a short passage 1-1.5 m across opening onto a roughly level platform about 6 m across at the foot of a low cliff. Today the site is almost invisible as the result of weathering of the limestone and the growth of vegetation but it is unlikely ever to have been more than a small shelter. It is an important site in a number of respects. It was excavated with great attention to documentation. Several horizons were identified and although few artefacts were found, abundant vertebrate remains were recovered. Those from two levels in particular warranted the detailed study presented here. They present a rare occurrence of two large assemblages of bones believed to have been brought to the site at different periods of the Late Pleistocene principally by two different predators. The earlier accumulation is ascribed to wolves and the later to hyaenas.