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Summary

Kent's cavern

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1010745: Kent's Cavern, Torquay

Other References/Statuses

• Torbay HER: MTO9721

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAVE (Lower Palaeolithic to Roman - 500000 BC to 409 AD)

Full description

Torbay HER record (SMR record). SDV361984.

Imported from Torbay HER

Pengelly, W., 1884, Transactions of the Devonshire Association, pp.382-3, 410-16 (Article in Serial). SDV362708.

The High Level Chamber, formerly known as The Recess.

During the first excavation (15 Jun -6 July 1875) two teeth of bear, bones and an unimportant piece of flint were found. Excavations were resumed in 1878, and 53 finds were discovered in all:

From the granular stalagmite: Three specimens of black, probably charred bone; and the greater part of an ulna, broken on extraction.

One find in the cave earth, and 50 in the breccia, including:.
1. A pinkish flint implement, rounded, but not smooth, at one end, where the original surface of the nodule was retained, and truncated at the other, where its edge was smooth. It was very convex and irregular on each face, from which several flakes had been dislodged. It was found in the fourth foot-level of the breccia in May 1878.

2. A quartzite pebble, a rolled fragment of a larger pebble, an oblique semi-ellipsoid. It was found in the fourth foot-level of the breccia in July 1878.

Flints were found only in the third and fourth foot-levels. 42 additional finds were made: 33 bones and teeth of mammals, and 9 flint and chert flakes and chips. The flakes were all found in the third and fourth foot-levels between 1878 and 1879 including:
1. A flint flake, the inner face slightly concave, the outer produced by the dislodgement of five flakes, was convex; the margin, elsewhere rudely curvilinear, was on one side almost a chisel-like edge, but was somewhat broken.

2. A leaf-shaped flake, bluntly pointed at one end obliquely truncated at the other; the bulb of percussion was retained on the flat inner face the outer face having a strong, nearly central, curvilinear ridge. It had been used as a tool.

3. A flint flake, rudely rhombohedral in form; the inner face was slightly concave with a bulb of percussion, the outer face was convex and was formed by the dislodgement of three flakes; It was slightly abraded.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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