55. Further Discoveries in theCresswell Caves. By Prof. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., and the Rev. J. M. Mello, M.A., F.G.S., with Notes on theMammaliaby the former. (Read June 11, 1879.)
Contents.
Introduction.
The Exploration of Chamber A.
The Exploration of Chamber B
Relation of these Deposits to those in other Caves at Cresswell.
Notes on Pleistocene Mammalia.
Classificatory Value of Hippopotamus and Leptorhine Rhinoceros.
Prehistoric and Historic Mammalia. No Evidence of Palæolithic Interments in Caves of Britain or the Continent.
General Conclusions.
Introduction.
When the exploration of the Robin-Hood and Church-Hole Caves at Cresswell Crags was brought to a close, in 1876, one of the lesser caves remained for further examination, known under the name of Mother Grundy's Parlour, from a certain old gipsy who is said to have chosen it for her home. It had evidently been disturbed by previous diggings, some of which are said to have been carried on by a resident at Cresswell in search of treasure revealed to his wife in a dream; and this fact, coupled with an unsuccessful trial which we made down as far as the unfossiliferous sand of the other caves, discouraged us from digging it out at that time. We have to thank Mr. John Young for calling our attention to the fact that there still remained in the Cresswell Crags an undiscovered chapter in the history of the cave-fauna of the district. He had purchased a tooth of Hippopotamus in London, which had been obtained from the Cresswell Crags by Messrs. Duffy and Gain, of Tuxford; and as this animal had not been met with in our previous explorations, we resolved to dig out Mother Grundy's Parlour without further delay. Accordingly in November last the exploration was begun, under the careful supervision of Mr. Knight, of Owens College, while we visited the place from time to time to direct the work.
Mother Grundy's Parlour is a shallow semicircular chamber (plan, fig. 1), in a low crag at the eastern extremity of the ravine and on its northern side: it might almost be described as a shallow rock-shelter, being 35 feet deep by 22 feet wide. On its eastern side, near the back (see fig. 1), was a small cavity about 4 feet wide by 2 feet 6 inches high, blocked up to the roof with fragments of rock and earth; this proved ultimately to be the mouth of chamber B of the ground-plan.
We began the exploration by cutting a trench in the floor on the eastern side of the cavern, and after penetrating through the disturbed soil found that the underlying beds were in situ, and contained bones and teeth in considerable abundance.
Fig. 1.—Ground-plan of the Parlour Cave.
(Scale, 1/20 inch to 1 foot.)
The Exploration of Chamber A.
Surface-soil.—The floor was covered with a few inches of dark surface-soil and numerous large blocks of limestone, and contained near the mouth fragments of charcoal, burnt clay and bones, together with a considerable number of flint chips and a few flint flakes.
This was obviously the equivalent, in point of age, of the superficial layer in the Robin-Hood and Church-Hole caverns (see figs. 2 & 3, No. 5).
Red Sandy Cave-earth.—Below the surface-soil was a bed of light red cave-earth, which, on being followed up towards the mouth of Chamber B, was found to increase in thickness, varying from 3 feet inches opposite the mouth of chamber B to 2 feet 6 inches at the entrance (see figs. 2 & 3, No. 4). The remains of animals were abundant, consisting principally of Bison, Reindeer, Bear, Wolf, Fox, and Hyæna, the coprolites of the last of these animals being very numerous, having been preserved by the dryness of the cavern. In the other caverns, which were wet, they had been crushed out of shape into layers by the repeated trampling of the animals. A few quartzite pebbles, some rudely chipped, were also met with. In the upper parts a few flint flakes were discovered, but they were probably derived from the superficial soil.
Red Clay and Ferruginous Sand.—This stratum near the entrance of the cave rested on the unfossiliferous white sand (see fig. 2), while in figs. 3 & 4, near the entrance of chamber B, two strata were intercalated—a red clay, No. 3, and a highly ferruginous sand, No. 2, which revealed the presence of a fauna hitherto unknown in the Cresswell Caves. In the ferruginous sand, at the point where Section 2 was taken, were the fragments of the skull and other bones of Hippopotamus, together with teeth of Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Owen (R. hemitœchus of Falconer), along with numerous skulls and jaws of Hyæna and some remains of Bison. It is evident that the skull of a Hippopotamus had been left by the Hyænas in this spot; but unfortunately it had been broken to pieces by the previous diggings which led us to re-examine the cave. The ferruginous sand (No. 2) ultimately proved to be purely local (see fig. 4).
Fig. 4.—Section 3, Chamber A (fig. 1). (Scale, 1/20 inch to 1 foot.)
Towards the back of chamber A the strata thinned out rapidly and were so unproductive that we thought it advisable to leave it unexplored, and turn to what proved to be the mouth of Chamber B (fig. 1).
The Exploration of Chamber B.
The Red Sandy Cave-earth.—The deposits in Chamber B filled it up to the roof, and consisted of the strata previously described, with the exception of the surface-soil (No. 5) and the ferruginous sand (No. 2).
The red sandy cave-earth (see figs. 5, 6, & 7, No. 4) had been disturbed here as in chamber A; it contained bones and teeth of Bison, Reindeer, Hyæna, and Bear. At a distance of 19 feet 6 inches from the entrance, and on the north side, a human skull was met with, in a small recess in the wall, at a depth of 2 feet 9 inches from the surface, here in contact with the roof. Close to it, and above it, were the vertebra of a bison and a quartzite splinter. It is, however, in spite of this evidence, in all probability, as we shall see presently, of a later age than the associated Pleistocene remains.
The Red Clay.—The red clay (No. 3) as it passed into chamber B gradually increased in thickness, attaining a maximum of 3 feet 3 inches at the further end. It was very stiff and contained the remains of Hyæna, Bison, Hippopotamus, and Rhinoceros leptorhinus, but no implements. It rested immediately on the unfossiliferous white sand (No. 1). At the far end of the chamber blocks of limestone were imbedded in the clay, and between these many bones of Bison were firmly wedged, which were extracted with considerable difficulty. The total thickness of the deposits in chamber B varied from about 9 feet near the entrance to 5 feet at the end (figs. 6 & 7).
Fig. 7.—Section 6, Chamber B (fig. 1). (Scale, 1/20 inch to 1 foot.)
1. White calcareous sand.
3. Red clay.
4. Red sandy cave-earth.
Relation of these Deposits to those in the other Caves at Cresswell.
On comparing the above strata with those previously explored in the Cresswell Crags, it is obvious that we must correlate them with the earlier rather than with the later series. The breccia and the upper cave-earth of the Robin-Hood and the Church-Hole caves, with their highly finished suite of palæolithic implements and numerous bones gnawed by hyænas or crushed by man, are conspicuous by their absence. When, however, we compare the red sandy cave-earth, No. 4, of Mother Grundy's Parlour with the red sand underlying the cave-earth in the two above-mentioned caverns, they will be seen to belong to the same stage in the history of the caves of the district. The few rude quartzite tools, and the numerous bones of animals, remarkably perfect and free from the gnawing of hyænas, are to be noted in both. It must, however, be remarked that the horse, so abundantly represented in this stratum in the other caverns, is here only represented by two teeth; while the remains of Bison, very rarely found in the former, are numerous, the vertebræ and horn-cores, so universally eaten by hyænas in the other caves, being here for the most part intact.
The red sandy cave-earth, therefore, represents in this cave the oldest fossiliferous horizon in the others; and the underlying red clay, No. 3, and ferruginous sand, No. 2, are unmistakably to be referred to a still older period, the white sand, No. 1, without fossils being found alike in all the caves of the Cresswell Crags.
Notes on Pleistocene Mammalia.
If the accompaning list of Pleistocene species be examined it will be observed that in the older period of the red clay and ferruginous sand the animals inhabiting the district were very different from those found in the succeeding deposits in this and the other caverns. While the Spotted Hyæna, Fox, Bear, and Bison are common to both, the former is characterized by the presence of the Hippopotamus and leptorhine Rhinoceros, and by the absence of the Horse, Woolly Rhinoceros, and Mammoth, as well as by the absence of traces of Man.
The palæolithic implements in the above list consist of pot-boilers and rude splinters of quartzite, and one imperfect hache of ironstone of the 'type Acheulien,' similar to that figured in this Journal from the Robin-Hood Cave (Q.J.G.S. vol. xxxiii. p. 593). The Bear (represented by 17 bones and teeth) probably belongs to the Grizzly species, U. ferox, found in the neighbouring caves. The Reindeer is represented by 38, and the Horse by 2, while the Bison and the Hyæna stand at the head of the list with 143 and 114 specimens. The remains of the Elephant, from the upper stratum, are too fragmentary to allow of specific determination.
The Hippopotamus is represented by fragments of skull and the complete molar series of both sides of the upper jaw, one premolar, two upper incisors, all belonging to one individual, a right upper maxillary with the permanent dentition just coming into play and replacing the deciduous series, three lower premolars, a pair of shoulder-blades, and some vertebræ. The remains imply the presence of at least three individuals, in none of which is the adult true molar dentition completed. All are young adults.
The remains of the Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Owen consist of thirteen teeth and fragments of teeth which correspond with the specific definition published in the Journal of this Society, 1867 (vol. xxiii. p. 215).
The following measurements, taken in inches at the base of the crown, are uniform with those already published in this Journal, and indicate a slight difference in the proportion of the two upper molars as compared with those from Lexden, Clacton, Grays Thurrock, and Durdham Down (l. c. p. 224):—
Some of the Rhinoceroses were half-grown calves with the milk-dentition in various stages of wear.
Classificatory Value of Hippopotamus and Leptorhine Rhinoceros.
These two animals are so frequently companions in the caves and river-deposits in Britain, that there is reason for believing that they mark a stage in the zoology of the Pleistocene period. Both are southern species, the Hippopotamus being now confined to Africa, while the leptorhine Rhinoceros is to be viewed also as an extinct species of southern habit. They are associated together in no less than sixteen caverns and river-deposits which I have examined in this country, and are very generally accompanied also by the Elephas antiquus. The Hippopotamus is a survival from the fauna of the Pliocene, and is met with in the Preglacial forest-bed of Norfolk, in the Mid-Pleistocene deposits of the Thames valley, the Post-glacial strata of Bedford, and the caves of Cefn and Pont Newydd, near St. Asaph. The leptorhine Rhinoceros occurs in the fluviatile strata under the Hessle clay near Burghin Lincolnshire[1], in the brick-earths of the Thames valley, and in the above-mentioned Postglacial caverns. As a rule, these animals are not met with in association with the Mammoth and the Pleistocene stages. They are, however, associated with the Reindeer in the caves of Kirkdale and Victoria in Yorkshire, of Cefn and Pont Newydd in the valley of the Elwy, and in the river-strata of Bedford, Brentford, London, and Peckham. It is therefore evident that they inhabited Britain while the arctic Mammalia were present in the country, from, which fact, coupled with their southern habit, I should feel inclined to consider them characteristic of that period in which the southern animals were living in this country, but were suffering from the competition of arctic invaders driven southwards by the lowering of the temperature—that is to say, in the middle stage of the Pleistocene, as I have defined it in my essay on the "Classification of the Pleistocene Strata by means of the Mammalia"[2]. It must be further remarked that these two animals were among those which the Palæolithic hunter saw when he arrived in this country, in his expeditions along the valleys now covered by the English Channel and the North Sea. They are found in one cave only in Britain, the cave of Pont Newydd, along with Palæolithic implements, which are fashioned out of quartzite, like those of the red sand in the Cresswell Caves[3]. They occur also in the Palæolithic river-gravels of Bedford and Peckham, along with implements of the type Acheulien of De Mortillet.
Prehistoric and Historic Mammalia.
The following list (p. 732) represents the principal remains referable to prehistoric and historic times. It differs in no important particular from that of the other caves in the Cresswell Crags, with the exception of the occurrence of fragments of four human skeletons, all belonging to children and youths, and all being found in the red sand. Those discovered in chamber A evidently were deposited in strata which had been disturbed by repeated diggings, and do not belong to the Pleistocene age. In proof of this we may mention that the head of an iron hammer was found by Mr. Knight at the bottom of the red sand.
The skull found in chamber B, also, at a distance of 19 feet 6 in. from the entrance and at a depth of 2 feet 9 in. from the surface, cannot be looked upon as belonging to the age of the red sand, although the passage was completely blocked up in some places, and there were no obvious evidences of disturbance around it. The recent bones belonging to the various animals in the accompanying list, scattered through the red sand, show that it has been disturbed since its deposition, certainly by the burrowing of foxes, rabbits, and badgers, and most probably by the hand of man. The Sheep or Goat, the short-horned Ox, and domestic Pig found in it were unknown in France, Germany, Belgium, or Great Britain in the Pleistocene age, and were introduced by the Neolithic herdsmen into Northern and Western Europe. This skull, therefore, cannot be viewed as a relic of one of the Palæolithic hunters in Derbyshire, but must be referred to their successors in the district.
The two skulls, sufficiently perfect to allow of the shape of the cranium being made out, belong to two types, well known in this
Prehistoric and Historic Fauna of Mother Grundy's Parlour, 1878.
country and on the continent in the Neolithic and succeeding ages. That found in the passage B belongs to the long type (dolichocephali of Thurnam and Huxley, and according to Prof. Morrison Watson is hydrocephalic), while that found in chamber B belongs to the round-headed brachycephali of the same two authors.
The conditions under which the skull in chamber B was discovered were such that it might have been taken to have belonged to one of the Palæolithic inhabitants of the cave, had not the explorations been conducted with all possible vigilance. My experience of cave-exploration compels me to decline to accept any human bones as Palæolithic without the clearest stratigraphical evidence on the point, such as that offered by the human skull found by MM. Lartet and Chaplain Duparc in the cave of Duruthy, Sorde, in the Western Pyrenees. Not only is this evidence wanting in every one of the Palæolithic types from caverns selected by MM. de
Quatrefages and Hamy, in their great work 'Crania Ethnica,' now being published, but in the two most important types it points to a contrary conclusion. The long skulls constituting the "type de Cro-Magnon" belong to an interment which is later than the Palæolithic remains in the rock shelter, because they are above them; and the round skulls of the Trou du Frontal are associated with domestic animals and pottery of a kind not uncommon in the Neolithic age. The so-called fossil man of Mentone may be referred to the same date as the polished stone axe found in the cave, and to be seen in the Museum at St. Germain, in 1876. The pottery found with human remains in the caves of Engis, Aurignac, Bruniquel, and Bize is identical with Neolithic pottery, and indicates that the interments are not Palæolithic but Neolithic in date. Pottery and domestic animals were alike unknown in the Palæolithic age.
The long skulls found in the above caves are of the same type as the long skulls referred to the Iberic population of Western Europe in the Neolithic age; and the round skulls cannot be distinguished from the Celtic or cognate Celtic peoples who invaded Europe, also in the Neolithic age, the former being identical with those of the interments in the long barrows, and the latter with those of the round barrows and of the tumuli of the Bronze age in Britain explored by the Rev. W. Greenwell. Both these peoples used caves for sepulchres in Spain, France, and Belgium in the Neolithic age.
From these considerations I find it impossible to follow MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy in their ethnological inferences, which are based on the assumption that in the above cases the human remains belong to Palæolithic men, who lived on in the same area through the stupendous changes which banished some and destroyed other Pleistocene Mammalia—changes in geography and in climate—into the Neolithic age, without, be it remarked, preserving any traces of the art of reproducing animal forms or of the ordinary Palæolithic implements of the men of the caves. I am unable to believe with M. de Quatrefages that any of the present inhabitants of Belgium can be traced as far back as the Palæolithic age, or that they have withstood in their present homes all the changes and invasions which have happened since the Reindeer-hunter camped in the caves of the Lesse. It is to me improbable in itself, and unsupported by satisfactory proof. The few human bones discovered in caves, and of undoubted Palæolithic age, seem to me too fragmentary to offer any satisfactory basis for arriving at any ethnological conclusion as to the Palæolithic races of men in Europe.
General Conclusions.
1. It now remains for us to sum up the results of this inquiry into the Pleistocene strata of the caves of Cresswell Crags. From the preceding pages it will be seen that at the time the red clay and the ferruginous sand were being accumulated in Mother Grundy's Parlour by the action of water, the Hippopotamus and leptorhine Rhinoceros, the Hyæna and the Bison haunted the wooded valleys of the basin of the upper Trent, while we may mark the absence of Palæolithic Man and the Reindeer. Hyænas were abundant, while Horses were absent.
2. Then followed a time, represented in all the caverns by the red sand, when the Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, Horse, and Reindeer haunted the district round Cresswell Crags, and fell a prey sometimes to the hyænas, and at others to the hunter, whose implements of quartzite prove him to belong to the same peoples who have left their implements in the river-deposits.
3. Lastly we have the Palæolithic hunter, represented, in the breccia and upper cave-earth of the Robin-Hood and Church-Hole caves, by flint implements of a higher order, like those found in Solutré (type "Solutrien" of Mortillet), accompanied by implements of bone and antler and the incised figure of a horse, which proves them to have possessed the same artistic faculty of reproducing the forms of animals so remarkable in the frequenters of the caves of the South of France, Switzerland, and Belgium.
The subsequent history of the caves in the prehistoric and historic ages falls more properly within the limits of anthropology than geology,
and presents no points of geological interest worthy of being brought
before this Society.
The Chairman (Prof. Prestwich) observed that both communications were of great interest. He believed that this was the first instance of a high-level gravel being described in the neighbourhood to which Mr. Fisher's paper referred. He inquired what was the height of the hill on which the Boulder-clay occurred. The circumstances much resembled those in the Thames valley or near Oxford. In the Somme valley the Hippopotamus occurred only in the low-level gravel; here just the reverse. As regarded Prof. Boyd Dawkins's paper, he remarked that the succession also was of great interest; the absence of man from a particular cave, however, would not necessarily prove his absence for the period.
Prof. Hughes stated that the hills bounding the valley referred to by Mr. Fisher formed part of the Chalk-range, which was 200–300 feet high.
Mr. John Evans said that at Barrington there was another satisfactory instance of the Pleistocene Mammalia in beds more recent than the Chalky Boulder-clay, and in a condition showing they could not be remanié. He doubted whether the worked flint belonged to the age of the beds. The round stones, he thought, afforded no satisfactory evidence of human use. The materials of the gravel were evidently derived from the glacial drift. At Barnwell a flint implement of the St.-Acheul type had been found.
Mr. R. H. Tiddeman congratulated the authors upon the importance of their discoveries, the succession of the two distinct faunas in the Cave tending to strengthen the views formerly held by Dr. Falconer as to their relative age. The older was almost identical with the Hyæna-bed in the Victoria Cave. He felt bound to challenge the remark of Prof. Dawkins, "that the existence of Man with Hippopotamus in the Victoria Cave was founded on a mistake." He wished to state that the cut bones of Goat were found in the older beds in that Cave, under such circumstances that it was impossible that they could have fallen from the surface, as suggested; for, by the method of careful working adopted, the upper beds had been previously completely removed. Nor was he (Mr. Tiddeman) singular in believing the Goat to have existed in Pleistocene times.
Prof. Seeley said that no river could have occupied the region described by Mr. Fisher, since a slight depression would convert the existing rivulets into estuaries. He thought the gravels were deposited in salt water, and the freshwater shells and bones of land animals had been introduced by small streams. Two or three specimens of Hyæna, in excellent preservation, were found some years since in Quy Fen. He had described, in the Society's Journal, a rib-bone cut by man, found in the Barnwell gravel, which was associated with, a similar series of animals to those found at Barrington.
Mr. Callard said that the men who made the carvings on bone were evidently Neolithic, or still more recent, and Rhinoceros tichorhinus had survived them; for its remains were found in the stalagmite above them.
Rev. J. Magens Mello stated that he agreed with what Prof. Dawkins had said about the human skulls. One was found in a chamber where it was hardly possible man would have got in the Palæolithic times. He replied to Mr. Callard's remarks about the age of the human race.
Rev. O. Fisher stated that another deposit with similar remains had been found half a mile higher up the valley. The horse, abundant at Barnwell, was absent here at Barrington. He did not think gravels could be deposited in an estuary.
Prof. Boyd Dawkins said the Neolithic races of man could be traced in the present European peoples; but not the Palæolithic. The oldest race was that of the river-bed men, who could not now be identified, and they ranged as far as India. The cavern race might be identified with the Esquimaux. As to the cuts on the bones in the Victoria Cave, some good judges thought they were made by metal tools. The bones were as likely to belong to sheep as to goat. Could it be maintained that domestic animals, such as sheep or goat, were Palæolithic species? So far as Middle and Northern Europe is concerned, they do not appear before the Neolithic period. He believed that in this case they came from a deposit of post-Roman age, where they were abundant.
↑The asserted occurrence (Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1878) of traces of Man in the same strata as the leptorhine Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus in the Victoria Cave is founded on an unfortunate mistake.
