Badger Hole |
| Hob Uid: 197049 | |
Location :
Somerset
Mendip
St. Cuthbert Out
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| Grid Ref : ST5324047950 |
| Summary : A cave with a large entrance which leads via communicating passages to a large inner chamber. The entrance is high in the eastern face of the Wookey Hole Ravine. The cave was first discovered in 1938, and excavated over a number of years by HE Balch. Its interior deposits proved to have been extensively disturbed by badgers. Further excavations occurred in 1958 (C McBurney) and 1968 (J Campbell). Finds include Palaeolithic flints, including scrapers, awls, saws and leaf points; Palaeolithic animal remains, including mammoth, woolly rhinocerous and hyena; and a quantity of Roman finds including pottery, coins, and a bronze fibula. A number of iron objects including nails may be quite recent. Human remains recovered from Badger Hole had been regarded as belonging to the Early Upper Palaeolithic. However, direct accelerator dating of the human bones have produced dates ranging from circa 9000 years bp and 1500 bp. |
More information : [ST 532479] BADGER HOLE [GT]. (1)
Badger Hole is a high level cave situated above Hyena Den [ST532479]. It was first excavated in 1938 and subsequently by Balch, who discovered stratified evidence of human occupation. In the top two feet a 3rd cent. Roman coins was found, together with hundreds of fragments of Romano-British pottery. A foot lower Aurignacian flint implements including knives and a lance head were revealed, associated with a series of Pleistocene Animal remains including Mammoth, Woolly rhinoceros and hyena. (2)
In 1958 a sounding was made some distance from the main overhang at the cave entrance. A number of artefacts, and a considerable number of Pleistocene fauna were revealed. (3).
The main finds are in Wells Museum. (2-4)
Badgers Hole is at ST 53244795.
The finds are on display in Wells Museum. (5)
Excavations at Badger Hole,1968, by J Campbell (6)
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