Kent's Cavern
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Kent's Cavern is a cave in Devon in the United Kingdom. It is around a mile outside Torquay and is notable for its archaeological and geological features. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and open to the public.
Archaeology
Excavations in the nineteenth century by Father John MacEnery and William Pengelly, and later by others uncovered flint tools indicating human occupation of the cave during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. Cultures found included the Mousterian, Aurignacian, proto-Solutrean, Creswellian and Magdelanian. Certain of the handaxes found have been dated to around 450,000 BP. Later laurel-leaf blades from the British Solutrean and Creswellian bone and antler tools are evidence of the earliest known occupation of the British Isles by homo sapiens.
The sequence of occupation compares with that at Creswell Crags.
Geology
The caverns and passages at the site were created around 2 million years ago by water action
See also
- Kent's Cavern 4 — a maxilla fragment dated to at least 37,000 years old.
External Link
- Kent's Cavern homepage (http://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/)