The road is a long way down there.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2016)
Images
The amazing stratified cliffs of the south side of the gorge, with sheep bum.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2016)
The wooded upper reaches of the gorge.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2016)
Looking along the gorge from the ENE in hazy Spring sunshine.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2016)
an uncredited old postcard
Image credit: uncredited
29th May 2006
Image credit: Roger Milton
A walk along the top of the Gorge rewards one with slightly vertigo inducing views like this!
Image credit: Jimit 30.5.03
Articles
Prehistoric Britons ate their dead and carved mysterious markings on their bones
Cheddar Gorge in Somerset’s Mendip Hills is one of Britain’s most beautiful natural wonders, with its sweeping limestone cliffs, and striking natural rock chambers.
But new evidence suggests the picturesque site had a deeply sinister past.
Paleontologists have discovered that around 15,000 years ago, British cave dwellers filleted and ate their dead relatives before inscribing markings on their bones in grisly prehistoric rituals.
It is the first time that such practices have been found in the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age – which dates from 2.6 million years ago to around 12,000BC – anywhere in the world.
telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/09/ancient-britons-ate-dead-carved-mysterious-markings-bones/
guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/20/ice-age-cannibals-britain-earliest-settlers
A new carbon dating technique (’ultra filtration’) has suggested that the cave was colonised very quickly from further south in Europe after the retreat of the glaciers. It was inhabited for a few hundred years c. 14,700 years ago (a shorter time than previously thought), and it was probably only a intermittent retreat, not a permanent home. Human bones from the cave show traces of being butchered just like animal bones, to remove the flesh and marrow (and the brain, tongue and eyes, for those wanting more gruesome detail) – but still, it’s not possible to say whether this was due to hunger or cultural practice. After this period the ice returned and Britain was completely depopulated again. Chilly.
Bones from Gough’s Cave have been re-radiocarbon-dated, giving a new date 14,700 years ago. This matches the archaeological evidence better than the previous radiocarbon tests.
The date suggests Cheddar Gorge was one of the earliest places in Britain that was colonised after the Ice Age.Members of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project now think the bones from Gough’s Cave could have accumulated over just two or three human generations. The occupants might have been following horse migrations across Doggerland. After this there was a very short period of rapid climate warming, in which birch forests flourished, and the horses were less numerous. People then moved out of the caves to look for other food.
This page at the 24 Hour Museum has a photo and diagram of the newly-found carving.
24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART49804.html
(You can call me a cynic, but when you think “mammoth”, what features come to mind? Fur. Tusks. And oh yes, a big long trunk.
Check out the diagram on this page. “The back and head of a mammoth complete with two tusks and an eye.” No trunk. Or alternatively, two trunks.
It is exciting stuff but is it reeeaaally a mammoth?)
“It might not have the instant impact of modern graffiti but a mammoth carved on to a wall in Cheddar Caves 13,000 years ago is being hailed as one of the most significant examples of prehistoric art ever found in Britain.
The carving – a little larger than a man’s hand, is only the second piece of representational cave art found in Britain, and contemporary with the golden age of cave art in Europe.
Britain had a flourishing Stone Age culture but, unlike prehistoric sites in France and Spain, no cave paintings or carvings had been found until recently, when the discovery of Stone Age carvings of animals and humans at Creswell Crags, near Sheffield, launched a new hunt for prehistoric cave art.
Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson, of Bristol University, have spent several years minutely examining various Cheddar Caves for almost imperceptible carvings, using sophisticated new lighting techniques.
So far they have uncovered geometrical carvings in Long Hole, and the 13,000-year-old mammoth in Gough’s Cave. Experts believe the carving, in an isolated niche, may have been used by tribal shamans in religious rituals.
It lies beyond the main living area of the Stone Age tribe who inhabited the cave.
It takes an expert eye to see the carving which has just gone on show to the public. The creature’s huge tusks are the clearest feature.
Cheddar Caves director Hugh Cornwell said: “We’ve got to hand it to Graham and Linda.
“They looked closely at rock faces which had only been glanced at by previous archaeologists, and have come up with some very exciting finds.
“Gough’s Cave has always been one of Britain’s most important prehistoric sites, and inhabited for more than 1,000 years by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
“The country’s first evidence of cannibalism was found here, and also Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, Cheddar Man.
“The mammoth carving was found just beyond the daylight zone, where our ancestors ate and slept.
“It may have been a secret inner chamber, only used by shamans to invoke their animal gods. Now, thanks to special lighting and a small display, all our customers can walk in and admire our mammoth. He’s a lovely little chap – a wonderfully spirited carving with enormous tusks.”
Speaking from his home in Bristol Mr Mullan said: “This is certainly a significant find. Before the discovery of the Creswell Crags carvings, I was one of the people who argued that there was nothing of the kind in this country at all.
“This shows that the people of Cheddar were doing the same sort of thing as their contemporaries in France.
“Some people are even suggesting that the work at Cheddar is so similar to that at Creswell Crags that it must have been carried out by the same people.”
The carvings pre-date the famous Cheddar Man skeleton by 4,000 years. Caves spokesman Bob Smart, said: “The mammoth dates from the golden age of cave art in Europe, but by the time of Cheddar Man, who died 9,000 years ago, it seems they had moved on to other forms of art and religion.”
Visitors enthused by the spirit of their ancestors can study the mammoth and then walk across the road to try their own hand at cave art in the Cheddar Caves Museum of Prehistory, built in the house formerly owned by Richard Gough, the Victorian who rediscovered Gough’s Cave.”
From the Western Daily Press:
westerndailypress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=146238&command=displayContent&sourceNode=146064&contentPK=18105499&folderPk=100268&pNodeId=145795
Cheddar Cave [...] is lofty in parts, and full everywhere of fantastic incrustations -- turkeys hanging by the legs, a brown loaf, with the mark of the baker’s thumb, ropes of onions, organ pipes, cables, curtains (broad, transparent sheets), jelly glasses (reflected in a pool), and a stalactite and stalagmite separated now, as when the cave was first discovered, by just the space of one drop of water. This, Mr. Cox used to say, shows the slow growth of all these diverse petrifactions, the breaking off of one of which (he ominously hinted) had brought ruin on a thriving Taunton solicitor.
Mr Cox, we are told, discovered the cave in 1837 when he was breaking up the ground for potatoes. Running a show cave obviously became more lucrative. I thought it was interesting that he used the same kind of ‘harm to meddlers’ threat that accompany other stoney sites.
From ‘Good-bye to Wessex’ in ‘London Society’ magazine, April 1871.
When the Devil first say the Mendip Hills they were smooth in outline, and legend has it that he decided to spoil them by digging out a deep channel which became the Gorge. His first spadeful of rock and soil was thrown out to sea to become the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm (off of Weston Super Mare). The next load became Brent Knoll. He also meant to destroy the Minehead and Watchet area but when he jumped over the River Parrett the basketload of soil he was carrying flew off in several directions.
Details of Sun Hole cave on Pastscape
[ST 4671 5404] SUN HOLE [G.T.]. (1) Cave, 120’ up the cliff, vertically over the car park, excavations 1927 and 1951/3 revealed Roman coins (AD 273-345) and pottery, a few I.A. sherds; B.A., flints and pottery (inc. a globular urn); leaf-shaped arrowhead, Ne. pottery spoon and pottery, and a hearth in a Beaker/NE. A. horizon associated with human remains. This overlaid a Pleistocene deposit which contained faunal remains and a few flint implements of typically late Creswellian facies. Finds in U.B.S.S. mus. (2-5) Sun Hole is in the cliff face on the northern side of the Gorge at ST 46735408. Positioned at 1:2500. (6) The radiocarbon date of the Upper Palaeolithic at Sun Hole is c.10428 BC. (7) Additional references. (8-10)
Details of Sugar Loaf Slitter on Pastscape
[ST 46835414] Sugar Loaf Rock [T.I.] (1) Bones of Cave Lion, Cave Bear and Hyaena and possibly Rhinoceros found in a fissure behind Sugarloaf Rock. In Goughs Cave Musuem. (2) This fissure is known as Sugar loaf Slitter and is at ST 46905415. There seems to be no record of any human remains from this site. Positioned at 1:2500. (3)
Details of Sow’s Hole rock shelter on Pastscape
A rock shelter located at the foot of the cliff on the southern side of Cheddar Gorge. It is one of two, the other known as Pig’s Hole (ST 45 SE 2). There has been uncertainty in the past as to which is which. It has been decided, rather arbitrarily, that the smaller of the two, located at ST 47845455 should be known as Sow’s Hole. Excavations in 1930 apparently recovered Iron Age potsherds.
Details of Soldier’s Hole rock shelter on Pastscape
[ST 4690 5398] SOLDIERS’ HOLE [G.T.]. (1) Rock shelter, 150’ above the road. Excavated 1925-6 and later. R.B. pottery, a coin (copy of a third brass of Claudius ii), E.I.A. material, Ne. sherds and flints, including a partly polished flint axe were found in a disturbed top layer. The bottom two layers of the deposit contained flints of La Madeleine and Solutrian type. The faunal remains in these layers were late Pleistocene. Finds in Goughs Cavern Mus. Piggott lists a B.A. Globular urn from Soldiers Hole in Wells Museum. (2-6) Soldier’s Hole is at ST 4686 5400. In addition to the finds listed above a single looped socketted axe is displayed in the museum of Gough’s Cavern. Positioned at 1:2500. (7)
Details of Pig’s Hole rock shelters on Pastscape
[ST 47755453] Pig’s Hole’ [ST 47605452] Sow’s Hole; rock shelters containing derived material (silt, etc.). Sow’s Hole was explored by R.F. Parry in 1930 and a few shards of I.A. pottery were found. (1-2) These cave shelters are at the foot of the cliff as the southern side of the Gorge at ST 47705454 and ST 47845455. The present authorities on Cheddar caves – N.R. Barrington, Oak House, Axbridge; I.W. Stanton, “Iona”, Easton, Nr. Wells; (3a) and Prof. Tratman (1) – know that these are referred to as Pig’s and Sow’s Holes by Bolch (2), but they are uncertain as to which the names should be correctly applied. For convenience it has been arbitrarily accepted that the large cave shelter at ST 47705454 should be known as Pig’s Hole, and that the small overhang at ST 47845455 should be Sow’s Hole. (3)
Details of The Slitter and Long Hole Cave on Pastscape
[Name ST 467 538]Long Hole [T.I.]. (1) ST 4667 5389. The Slitter and Long Hole Cave. The former consisted originally of a steep scree slope (part destroyed when building the Cave Man Restaurant) leading up to long Hole Cave, alias ‘The Roman Cave’ some 150’ up in the cliff face.
R.B. occupation of Long Hole cave is attested by finds made by Gough, 1887/8 and subsequently in the Slitter below. These include human remains (of at least 15 individuals, aged 4-45), iron spears, pottery, etc. and coins of late Emperors’ ‘sealed together in little heaps’. Boon lists 376 coins dating from the 1st-4th cents. found here and in Goughs Old Cave, and comments that the Bronze coins making the Valentinian total, 284, probably came from a hoard.
A post A.D. 395 coin of Arcadius and a quasi-autonomous bronze of Rome, C. A.D.500, is included in the collection, now in the museum at Goughs Cavern. It is not possible to associate the coins specifically with either find spot. (C.F. ST 45 S.E. 10, Goughs Cavern).
Before 1934 the slitter deposit yielded a bronze palstave: The human remains from here were presented U.B.S.S. Museum, 1951. (1-5)
The entrance to the Long hole is at ST 46685387. The majority of the finds from this cave are displayed in the museum at Gough’s Cavern.
Positioned at 1:2500. (6) Additional reference. (7)
Details of Great Oons Hole on Pastscape
[ST 4675 5393] GREAT OONS HOLE [G.T.]. (1) 300’ above the road, an open hole. Ransacked, with no record of finds: but Upper pa. flints which may have come from this site, including a flint knife hafted to a bone handle, are in the Weston-super-Mare Museum. It also contains iron and bronze buckles, E.I.A. pottery and bone spindle whorls. (2-4) The entrance to Great Oons hole is at ST 4679 5393. Positioned at 1:2500. (5) Additional reference. (6) Natural cave, with modifications, used as operational base.Great Oone’s Cave – among trees on left bank at head of slope, 160 feet above coach park beside Cooper’s Hole which is 200 yards up Cheddar Gorge from Gough’s Cave on left bank at road level. (7)
Details of Gough’s Old Cave on Pastscape
Located a short distance west of the better known Gough’s (New) Cave (ST 45 SE 10), the cave was originally known as The Great Stalactite Cavern, and was on show from at least the late 18th century (when it may also have been inhabited). By 1877, the proprietor was Richard Cox Gough, whose name became associated with it. However, by the 1890s the cave had been eclipsed both as a public attraction and an archaeological site, by Gough’s New Cave. The cave clearly held a large accumulation of material, but much was removed during the 19th century with little record. The talus was removed without record in 1934. Sample excavation of what little remained in the way of cave deposits occurred between 1954-8, although the deposits proved to have been disturbed considerably. Finds included an assemblage of animal bones, including mammals and birds, from which 3 radiocarbon dates have been obtained, ranging from circa 12500 bp to 9300 bp. Iron Age and Romano-British pottery and quern fragments and features described as “hearths” were also found. Other Roman finds included a coin and a few bronze items.
Details of Flint Jack’s Cave rock shelter on Pastscape
ST 46355383 [Sic. probably 46355381] Flint Jack’s Cave: a rock shelter 50’ above the road. Explored 1893, many flint implements, upper Palaeolithic and possibly Creswellian, were found. Two skulls and bones were alledgedly found here: thought to be contemporary with the industry. Finds in the B.M.(British & Mediaeval, and Natural Hist.) and Weston-super-Mare Mus. (1-2) This cave is in the cliff face on the southern side of the Gorge, at ST 4632 5381. Positioned at 1:2500. (3)
Details of Cooper’s Hole cave on Pastscape
A cave with an entrance on the south side of the road through Cheddar Gorge. The front of the cave has been quarried back, and the interior contains substantial quantities of debris deposited during an episode of flooding in the late 1960s. Exploration in 1931-2 by RF Parry recovered Iron Age pottery from the cave and from the area of the car park immediately to the south, as well as the remains of domesticated and wild animals. One sheep bone with a hole bored through the middle was described as a “bobbin”. A female inhumation was also found in the car park area. In 1966 these finds were on display at the museum at Gough’s Cave (ST 45 SE 10). Explorations were also undertaken by the University of Bristol Speleaological Society in the late 1930s, and by several cavers subsequently, primarily in the belief that Cooper’s Hole may have led to a much larger cave system, although no evidence to support this idea has ever been found. In 1998 the cave was investigated by Channel 4’s Time Team. A flint implement and a deposit of animal bones, the latter below the stalagmite layer and thus potentially of very early, perhaps Palaeolithic, date had been found during cave exploration in the 1950s. Waterlogging prevented re-investigation of this deposit. However, a few sheep bones were found elsewhere within the cave system which have been suggested to be probably Prehistoric on the basis of probable cut marks made by a flint tool. A trench was also dug in the car park in front of the present cave entrance, but could not be taken down as far as the postulated Palaeolithic levels for safety reasons.
Details of Bone Hole cave on Pastscape
[Name ST 4820 547] Bone Hole [T.U.] (1) Bone Hole. Cave 30’ deep, human bones found include more than 12 skulls and fragments of others in a detritus of soft mud: but some were imbedded in stalactite. Also found were bones of bear, horse, wolf, boars and Bos; indicating a late period of occupation. (2-4)
The entrance to the Bone Hole is at the northern end of an open fissure at ST 48035472. Surveyed at 1:2500. (5)
Details of White Spot Cave on Pastscape
Cave, consisting of a lofty fissure. Painter tells of a tiny opening which only a boy could pass, within which, on a ledge, stood a little pot which fell to pieces when touched. (1) The pot seems to have been found in White Spot Cave. Its entrance is in the foot of the cliff a short distance up the Gorge from Priddy Hole Slitter at ST 47395442. Mr. C. Painter, the son of the late Mr. V. Painter, says that the pot was found about half way along the fissure, but he thinks that the ledge has been destroyed.
Details of Gough’s Cave on Pastscape
[ST 4666 5386] GOUGH’S CAVERN [G.T.] (Stalactite). (1) Excavations, 1903 and later, revealed an upper Paleolithic burial, hearths, bone and flint implements, a block of Baltic amber, two ‘Batons de Commandemant’ etc. The flints were of Creswellian type. The upper deposits contained E.I.A. & R.B. pottery. Goughs Old Cave, 30’ east of the above ST 4668 5388, excavated 1954-8. Much disturbed; but two hearths were found, one associated with Roman & I.A. ‘B’ pottery, and other with I.A. ‘A’. Fragments of several saddle querns were found unstratified, but parts of two upper stones were associated with the latter hearth. Finds in Goughs Cavern Museum, Weston-Super-Mare Museum, Taunton Mus, and Univ. Mus., Oxford. Roman coins, 1st-4th cent. and possibly later have been found, possibly here or at the Long Hole cave and slitter [ST 45 S.E. 9]. (2-5) The entrance to Gough’s Cavern is at ST 46705391, and the entrance to Gough’s Old Cave is at ST 46785389. Positioned at 1:2500. (6)
Two items of unusual interest from Gough’s Cave (the name which seems now to be adopted for ‘Gough’s Cavern’) are: (a). The skeleton known as ‘the Cheddar man’ which now has a radio carbon dated of 7130 BC approx, and is thought to be a deliberate interment of the very late Palaeolithic.(7). (b). A bone-point with grouped and purposeful-looking notches, which is thought to be some kind of tally or calculating device. (Good coloured illustration). (7-8) Excavations in 1927. (9) Excavations from 1928-1931. (10) Rescue excavation, 1968. (11) Additional references (12-13) Gough’s Old Cave – its history. (14)
Late Palaeolithic exploration of horse and red deer at Gough’s Cave. (15) Bird remains. (16) Human bones. (17) The remains of 2 children and at least 3 adults were found at Gough’s Cave in April-July 1987, during excavations by Lancaster University and the London National History Museum. Possible signs of cannibalism were evident, and a fine collection of artifacts. (18) Additional references. (19-23) The block of amber from Gough’s Cave is one of only three certain amber finds of Mesolithic date from Britain, the other two sites being Starr Carr and Cresswell Crags. (24)
Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, ‘Cheddar Man’, was buried in Gough’s Cave 9,000 years ago and discovered in 1903. Humans lived in the caves for 40,000 years, leaving behind many stone-and-bone clues to their lifestyle. DNA tests in 1997 established that Cheddar Man still has descendants living in Cheddar.
It seems like Gough’s cave is now part of the whole Cheddar Gorge ‘tourist experience’. The ‘Caves & Gorge Explorer Ticket’ allowing access to everything (i.e. including Gough’s Cave) cost almost £9 for an adult in 2002. It is open all year though.
Dr Silvia Bello explains in this short video how she thinks a skull (found at Cheddar Gorge in 1987) was carefully chipped into a bowl shape (with the implication that it could then be used as a cup).
Her article is here:
plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026
Official web site for site including maps, opening times & prices
Brief description of Cooper’s Hole with photos, animation and links.
Sites within 20km of Cheddar Gorge and Gough’s Cave
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Totty Pot
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Ashbridge Farm
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Rhino Rift Barrow
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Gorsey Bigbury
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Tyning’s Farm
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Wellington Farm
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Black Down (Priddy)
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Charterhouse Warren Farm Swallet
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Beacon Batch
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King Down Farm
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Bristol Plain Farm
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Rowberrow Cavern
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Read’s Cavern
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Burrington (Black Down)
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Rowberrow Warren
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Triple H Cave
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Aveline’s Hole
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Priddy Hill
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Rowbarrow
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Stow Barrow
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Dolebury Warren
photo 18description 6link 1 -
Rowberrow Farm
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Whitestown Farm
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River Yeo Stone
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Priddy Long Barrow
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The Wimblestone
photo 3description 4 -
St Lawrence Church
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Hazle Barrow
description 1 -
The Devil’s Stone
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Pool Farm Cist
photo 3forum 1description 7 -
Harptree Barrows
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Moor View
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Ashen Hill Barrows
photo 10description 5 -
Priddy Circles
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Priddy Henges (incomplete 4th circle)
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Priddy Nine Barrows
photo 18description 8link 1 -
Nempnett Thrubwell Round Barrow
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Deerleap Stones
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Eastwater Farm
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Ebbor Gorge
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Bracelet Cave
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Miner’s Arms Inn
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Banwell Fort
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Wookey Hole
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Hole Ground
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Yarberry Farm
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Nempnett Thrubwell
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Southfield Farm
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Priddy 51
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Bicknell Farm Round Barrow
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Redhill
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Drove Cottage Henge
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Banwell Bone Caves
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Redhill
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Herriotts Bridge
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Nempnett Thrubwell Horse Barrow
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The Water Stone
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Pen Hill
photo 1description 5 -
Loxton Hill Barrow
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Cadbury Hill (Congresbury)
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Forge Barrow
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Beechbarrow
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Felton Hill Longbarrow
photo 1description 3 -
Winford Twin Barrows
description 1 -
Wells Museum
photo 4description 3 -
Cleeve Toot
photo 4description 1 -
Burledge Hill
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Winford Big Barrow
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Meare Lake Villages
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Knowle Hill Settlement
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Chewton Mendip barrows
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King’s Castle
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Brent Knoll
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Whitnell Corner
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Glastonbury Lake Village
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Avalon Marshes
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Redhill Farm and Blackwell Tyning
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The Sweet Track
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Middle Ham, Tynings
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Home Farm Cottage
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Windmill Hill (Glastonbury)
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The Cove
photo 47forum 1description 12link 1 -
The South West Circle
photo 29description 5 -
Maesbury Castle
photo 11description 4 -
The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues
photo 146ondemand_video 1forum 2description 38link 7 -
Hautville’s Quoit
photo 7forum 1description 5link 1 -
Walborough
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Chalice Well
photo 5description 2link 1 -
Wearyall Hill
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Glastonbury Tor
photo 56forum 12description 21link 1 -
Three Tuns Farm
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Blacker’s Hill
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Worlebury
photo 23description 13 -
Maes Knoll
photo 28forum 1description 5link 1 -
Ponter’s Ball
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Brean Down Fort
photo 7description 1 -
Cadbury Camp (Nailsea)
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Swayne’s Jumps
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Beacon Hill
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Sand Point
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Brean Down
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Fairy Cave
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Ashton Court
photo 7