Kents Cavern

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox SSSI Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable both for its archaeological and geological features (as a karst feature in the Devonian limestone). The cave system is open to the public and has been a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1952 and a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1957.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="bbc3867385">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

PrehistoryEdit

The caverns and passages were formed in the early Pleistocene period in Devonian limestone<ref>Kents Cavern: A field guide to the natural history. Joyce Lundberg and Donald McFarlane. 2008. William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust. Template:ISBN</ref> by water action and have been occupied by one of at least eight separate, discontinuous native populations to have inhabited the British Isles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The other key paleolithic sites in the UK are Happisburgh, Pakefield, Boxgrove, Swanscombe, Pontnewydd, Paviland, Creswell Crags and Gough's Cave.

Neanderthal occupationEdit

Mousterian stone tools found in the cavern during excavations in the 19th century indicate that the cave was occupied by Neanderthals during the late Middle Paleolithic (likely sometime roughly around 60-40,000 years ago). Most of these artifacts are now lost, though 45 remain, including "five bifaces, nine scrapers, possible awls/borers, and a variety of debitage including two Levallois flakes", which are either made of flint or greensand-derived chert. Given the partial and incomplete current state of the finds, it is difficult to provide conclusive answers about how Neanderthals used the cave, though from what remains "there is little evidence of on-site manufacture, and the whole appears to be a collection of artefacts taken to the cave during a number of relatively brief visits".<ref>White, M., & Pettitt, P. (2011). The British Late Middle Palaeolithic: An Interpretative Synthesis of Neanderthal Occupation at the Northwestern Edge of the Pleistocene World. Journal of World Prehistory, 24(1), 25-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-011-9043-9</ref>

Kents Cavern 4Edit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A prehistoric upper jawbone (maxilla) fragment was discovered in the cavern during a 1927 excavation by the Torquay Natural History Society and named Kents Cavern 4. The specimen is on display at the Torquay Museum.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1989, the fragment was radiocarbon dated to 36,400–34,700 years BP, but a 2011 study that dated fossils from neighbouring strata produced an estimate of 44,200–41,500 years BP. The same study analysed the dental structure of the fragment and determined it to be Homo sapiens rather than Homo neanderthalensis, which would have made it the earliest anatomically modern human fossil yet discovered in northwestern Europe.<ref>Template:Cite journal

Template:Cite news</ref> In a response to this paper in 2012, the authors Mark White and Paul Pettitt wrote, "We urge caution over using a small selected sample of fauna

from an old and poorly executed excavation in Kent's Cavern to provide a radiocarbon stratigraphy and age for a human fossil that cannot be dated directly, and we suggest that the recent dating should be rejected."<ref name="Ancient">Template:Cite journal</ref> A 2017 paper by some of the same authors of the 2011 study rebutted the concerns presented and again supported the 44,200–41,500 BP date.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Homotherium teethEdit

The cave was where the holotype canine teeth of the sabertooth cat Homotherium latidens were collected by John MacEnery in 1826, and formally described by Richard Owen in 1846. Later in the 19th century incisor teeth were also found in the cave. Kent's Cavern is one of only a handful of sites in Britain where Homotherium remains have been found.<ref name="barnett 2014">Template:Cite journal</ref> Isotopic analysis of the canine teeth of H. latidens found in Kent's Cavern indicates that they are isotopically distinct from other animal remains found in the cave. This, along with the absence of any other Homotherium remains in the cave, has led authors to suggest that the teeth were deliberately transported into the cave by humans during the Palaeolithic from further afield (possibly from mainland Europe), perhaps as a kind of trade good. The teeth are suggested to have experienced considerable weathering prior to being taken into Kent's Cavern,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> and it is unclear whether these teeth were taken from the remains of then-relatively recently dead Homotherium or subfossil remains of long-dead Homotherium individuals.<ref name="barnett 2014" />

Cave bearsEdit

During the Middle Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stage 11, ~400,000 years ago) the caves were used as a hibernation den by cave bears, resulting in a considerable number of their remains being excavated from the cave.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Cave hyena denEdit

During the Last Glacial Period (sometime between 90-25,000 years ago), the cave served as a den site for cave hyenas. Layers assigned to this time period are termed "Cave Earth". Remains of animals found in these layers include wild horse, juvenile woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison, reindeer and red deer,<ref>AM Lister, Age profile of mammoths in a late Pleistocene hyaena den at Kent’s Cavern, Devon, England. Proceedings of the International Conference on Mammoth Site Studies, Publications in Anthropology 22, ed West D (University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS), pp 35–43. (2001).</ref> with these layers also containing the remains of wolves.<ref name=":0" />

Modern historyEdit

As an archæological siteEdit

Kents Cavern is first recorded as Kents Hole Close on a 1659 deed when the land was leased to John Black.<ref name="pike5">John R. Pike, Torquay (Torquay: Torbay Borough Council Printing Services, 1994), 5</ref> The earliest evidence of exploration of the caves in historic times is two inscriptions, "William Petre 1571" and "Robert Hedges 1688" engraved on stalagmites. The first recorded excavation was that of Thomas Northmore in 1824.<ref name="pike5"/> Northmore's work attracted the attention of William Buckland, the first Reader in Geology at the University of Oxford, who sent a party including John MacEnery to explore the caves in an attempt to find evidence that Mithras was once worshipped in the area.<ref name="russell107">Percy Russell, A History of Torquay (Torquay: Devonshire Press Limited, 1960), 107</ref> MacEnery, the Roman Catholic chaplain at Torre Abbey, conducted systematic excavations between 1824 and 1829.<ref name="pike5"/><ref name="russell107"/> When MacEnery reported to the British Association the discovery of flint tools below the stalagmites on the cave floor, his work was derided as contrary to Bishop James Ussher's Biblical chronology dating the Creation to 4004 BC.<ref>Russell, 108</ref>

In September 1845, the recently created Torquay Natural History Society requested permission from Sir Lawrence Palk to explore the caves to obtain fossils and artefacts for the planned Torquay Museum, and as a result, Edward Vivian and William Pengelly were allowed to conduct excavations between 1846 and 1858.<ref name="pike5"/> Vivian reported to the Geological Society in 1847, but at the time, it was generally believed that early humans had entered the caves long after the formation of the cave structures examined.<ref name="russell109">Russell, 109</ref> This changed when, in the Autumn of 1859, following the work of Pengelly at the Brixham Cavern and of Jacques de Perthes in France, the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the British Association agreed that the excavations had established the antiquity of humanity.<ref name="russell109"/>

File:British Pleistocene Mammalia (1866) Wolf Cranium.png

1866 record of a wolf cranium found in Kents Cavern

In 1865, the British Association created a committee, led by Pengelly, to fully explore the cave system over the course of fifteen years.<ref name="pike5"/> It was Pengelly's party that discovered Robert Hedges' stalagmite inscription, and from the stalagmite's growth since that time deduced that human-created artefacts found under the formation could be half a million years old.<ref>Pike, 5–6</ref> Pengelly plotted the position of every bone, flint, and other artefact he discovered during the excavations and afterward continued working with the Torquay Natural History Society until his death in 1892 at his home less than 2 km from the caves.<ref>Russell, 110</ref>

As a tourist attractionEdit

File:Kents Cavern (6989).jpg

A tourist route through the cavern

In 1903, Kents Cavern, then part of Lord Haldon's estate, was sold to Francis Powe, a carpenter who originally used the caves as a workshop while making beach huts for the Torquay sea front.<ref name="bbc3867385"/> Powe's son, Leslie Powe, turned the caves into a tourist attraction by laying concrete paths, installing electric lighting, and building visitor facilities that later were improved, in turn, by his son John Powe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The caves, now owned by Nick Powe, celebrated 100 years of Powe family ownership on 23 August 2003 with special events including an archæological dig for children and a display by a cave rescue team.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A year later, a new £500,000 visitor centre was opened, including a restaurant and gift shop.<ref name="bbc3867385"/>

Attracting 80,000 tourists a year, Kents Cavern is an important tourist attraction, and this was recognised in 2000 when it was awarded Showcave of the Year award and later in November 2005 when it was awarded a prize for being Torquay's Visitor Attraction of the year.Template:Citation needed

Kents Cavern is one of the most important geosites in the English Riviera Geopark, one of over 170 UNESCO Global Geoparks.Template:Citation needed

In 2023, Kents Cavern was put up for sale for up to £2,500,000 and bought by The Tudor Hotel Collection.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Kents Cavern in fictionEdit

"Hampsley Cavern" in Agatha Christie's 1924 novel The Man in the Brown Suit is based on Kents Cavern.<ref name="macaskill">Template:Cite book</ref> The 2011 science fiction romance Time Watchers: The Greatest of These, by Julie Reilly, uses Kents Cavern as a principal setting in three different time periods.