Lecture: Caves and Cannibals: A Mendip Perspective
Speaker:
Entry Fee
Members: Free
Visitors: £5.00
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
The area of the Mendip Hills in Somerset contains some of the most important Pleistocene cave sites in western Europe in terms of their vertebrate assemblages, Palaeolithic archaeological finds and early human remains. These sites span the period from c. 500 000 years ago until the end of the Pleistocene, c.10 000 years ago and provide a unique insight into changing climates and patterns of animal and human movement and behaviour. This lecture reviews some of the classic localities, such as Westbury-sub-Mendip and Gough’s Cave, focussing on the inferred age and palaeoenvironmental signatures of the fossil faunas, the taphonomic origins of the deposits and the significance of the archaeological assemblages. In addition, new research from a previously unexplored cave containing a rich terminal Pleistocene fauna will also be presented.