| Summary : Possibly the largest cave in the Creswell Crags area, Robin Hood's Cave features five entrances and two large chambers, plus further chambers and passages to the rear. Three episodes of archaeological excavation are known: Mello and Heath (and others) in 1875-6, Laing in the 1880s, and Campbell in 1969. Accounts of the 19th century are problematic to say the least. Palaeolithic fauna was clearly recovered, but there is considerable doubt over a canine tooth of H. Latidens "found" by Boyd Dawkins. These excavations also recovered the rib fragment featuring an engraving of a horse. Laing's finds and many of his records are lost, but he records the discovery of human remains, including some bones in association with an "elaborately chipped flint arrowhead", and others which seemed to be associated with Palaeolithic material including hearth debris, animal remains and lithics. Evidence for human occupation of the cave is plentiful, although stratigraphic detail is poor. Lithic material includes Middle Palaeolithic bifaces, flakes and choppers; Upper Palaeolithic leaf points, side scrapers, burins and flakes, plus bone implements. Amber and red ochre was also found in the 1876 excavations. Human skeletal fragments number circa 35, of which the majority are probably post-glacial - Neolithic and Late Iron Age/Roman radiocarbon dates have been obtained on some samples. Roman potsherds and a brooch have also been found. Re-evaluation of the faunal remains belonging to the Upper Palaeolithic use of the cave (circa 13000 to 12000 BP) suggested that arctic hares and other small mammals were the prime focus of hunting activity. Radiocarbon dating of woolly rhinocerous remains suggest that these were some 20,000 years earlier in date. |
| More information : [SK 5339 7418. Derived from OS 25" 1961] Robin Hood's Cave, a large cave with five entrances, the two main entrances having platforms at their mouths. The cave was known for a long time prior to the first excavations as Robin Hood's Hall and Little John's Parlour. The first excavations were by Boyd Dawkins and Mello in 1876 and were confined to the first two chambers. Later excavations included those of Laing in 1889 (the side and rear chambers) and Campbell in 1969 (the platform area). Archaeological deposits represented include Mousterian, Early Upper Palaeolithic, Later Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Roman. The cave is famous for the horse engraving on bone and a canine tooth of `Machairodus Latidens' both found in the first chamber. The latter is a genuine fossil but may have been `planted' in the first excavations.(1-15) |