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Summary

Kent's cavern. The black mould was found in the chambers into which the external entrances opened immediately and those connected with them. Composed of vegetable matter, leaves blown in, twigs brought in by small animals, their faeces and industrial remains of men who lived there for a time, evidences of later parties, and articles dropped by visitors, some very recent. Contents of deposit: various stones; hazelnut shells, shells of snails, limpets, whelks, oysters, cockles, mussels, pectens, solens and cuttle-fish; bones of fish, birds, seal, water-rat, rabbit, hare, goat, sheep, red deer, shirt-fronted ox, brown bear, badger, fox, dog, pig and man. Whetstones, angular and curvilinear plates of slate; pieces of smalted copper; bronze articles, including rings, a fibula, spoon, spearhead, socketed celt, and pin; stone spindle-whorls; flint 'strike-lights'; pot-sherds (including a piece of samian ware); a bone awl, bone chisel, bone combs, amber beads; charred wood; a halfpenny of 1806 and a sixpence of 1846.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1010745: Kent's Cavern, Torquay

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX96SW/4/7

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAVE DEPOSIT (Lower Palaeolithic to XXI - 698000 BC to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

INCLUDING A PIECE OF SAMIAN WARE, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV316312.

Kent's cavern. The black mould was found in the chambers into which the external entrances opened immediately and those connected with them. Composed of vegetable matter, leaves blown in, twigs brought in by small animals, their faeces and industrial remains of men who lived there for a time, evidences of later parties, and articles dropped by visitors, some very recent. Contents of deposit: various stones; hazelnut shells, shells of snails, limpets, whelks, oysters, cockles, mussels, pectens, solens and cuttle-fish; bones of fish, birds, seal, water-rat, rabbit, hare, goat, sheep, red deer, shirt-fronted ox, brown bear, badger, fox, dog, pig and man. Whetstones, angular and curvilinear plates of slate; pieces of smalted copper; bronze articles, including rings, a fibula, spoon, spearhead, socketed celt, and pin; stone spindle-whorls; flint 'strike-lights'; pot-sherds (including a piece of samian ware); a bone awl, bone chisel, bone combs, amber beads; charred wood; a halfpenny of 1806 and a sixpence of 1846.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV316313.

Pengelly, w. /tda/14(1882)692, 694/notes on notices of the geology and palaeontology of devonshire, part 9.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV316314.

Pengelly, w. /tda/16(1884)198-200, 204-208, 218-220/the literature of kent's cavern, part 5.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV316315.

Pearce, s. M. /pdas/37(1979)139/the distribution and production of bronze age metalwork.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV316316.

Silvester, r. J. /pdas/37(1979)177,183/the relationship of first millennium settlement to the upland areas of the south-west.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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