| Creswell Crags | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Pin Hole Cave | |
 Interactive map of Creswell Crags | |
| Location | Crags Road, Welbeck,Worksop,Nottinghamshire, S80 3LH[1] |
| Coordinates | 53°15′49″N1°11′38″W / 53.26361°N 1.19389°W /53.26361; -1.19389 |
| Geology | Limestone |
| Access | |
| Official name | Palaeolithic and later prehistoric sites at Creswell Gorge including Pinhole Cave, Mother Grundy's Parlour and Robin Hood's Cave |
| Reference no. | 1003770[2] |
| Website | https://www.creswell-crags.org.uk/ |
Creswell Crags is an enclosedlimestonegorge on the border betweenDerbyshire andNottinghamshire, England, near the villages ofCreswell andWhitwell. Thecliffs in theravine contain severalcaves that were occupied during thelast ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago. Its caves contain the northernmostcave art in Europe.[3] Creswell Crags forms part of theWelbeck Estate.[4]
The evidence of occupation found in the rich series of sediments that accumulated over many thousands of years is regarded as internationally unique in demonstrating how prehistoric people managed to live at the extreme northernmost limits of their territory during theLate Pleistocene period.[5][6]
The caves containoccupation layers with evidence offlint tools from theMousterian, proto-Solutrean,Creswellian andMaglemosiancultures. They were seasonally occupied bynomadic groups of people during theUpper Palaeolithic andMesolithic periods. Evidence of Neolithic,Bronze Age,Roman and post-medieval activity has also been found there. There is evidence ofNeanderthal occupation 50,000–60,000 years ago, a briefGravettian occupation around 32,000 years ago and use of all the main caves during theMagdalenian around 14,000 years ago.[7]
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Creswell Crags contains a number of distinct caves which have yielded paleontological and archaeological remains:
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All of the major caves in the Creswell Crags, but especially Robin Hood's cave, show evidence of having been occupied during the lateMiddle Paleolithic (probably around 60,000–40,000 years ago) byNeanderthals, who created a variety of stone tools, includingscrapers,choppers andbifacial tools found in the caverns, primarily usingquartzite from localTriassic aged "bunter" pebble beds. The Creswell Crags show the most intensive evidence of occupation by Neanderthals of any site in Britain.[10]
A bone engraved with a horse's head and other worked bone items along with the remains of a variety ofprehistoric animals have been found inexcavations since 1876. The "Ochre Horse" was found on 29 June 1876 at the back of the western chamber in the Robin Hood Cave.[11] In 2003, the Ochre Horse was estimated to be between 11,000 and 13,000 years old.[12]
A canine tooth of the sabertooth catHomotherium latidens was also excavated from Robin Hood Cave in 1876, one of only a handful of finds of this cat known from Britain.[13] The tooth may have been transported into the cave by humans as is suggested for the canine saber teeth ofHomotherium found inKents Cavern in Devon.[14]
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Other remains found in Robin Hood Cave, which dates to the primarily to theLast Glacial Period (though spanning from shortly prior to the Last Glacial Period to historical times), includes those ofcave hyenas,wolves,red foxes,brown bears,woolly mammoth,woolly rhinoceros,wild horse,wild boar,reindeer andred deer. Evidence has been found for the butchery ofmountain hare by humans in the cave.[15] At Pinhole Cave, animals found there (that are not found in Robin Hood's cave) includeIrish elk,cave lions,steppe bison andRusset ground squirrels.[16]
In Mother Grundy's Parlour, in layers dating to theLast Interglacial (130,000–115,000 years ago), when Britain had a similar temperate climate and forested landscape to modern times, remains ofhippopotamus and the extinctnarrow-nosed rhinoceros have been found.[17]
In April 2003, engravings andbas-reliefs were found on the walls and ceilings of some of the caves, an important find as it had previously been thought that no Britishcave art existed. The discoveries, made byPaul Bahn, Sergio Rippoll andPaul Pettitt, included an animal originally identified as anibex but later confirmed as a stag. These, and subsequent finds included carvings on the ceiling of Church Hole Cave, have made Creswell a site of international importance.[18] The finds are the most northerly yet discovered in Europe. Their subject matter includes representations of animals including bison and, arguably, several different bird species. Some workers, however, consider that the "bird" figures are more likely to be female anthropomorphs. The engravers seem to have made use of the naturally uneven cave surface in their carvings and it is likely that they relied on the early-morning sunlight entering the caves to illuminate the art.
Thin layers ofcalcium carbonateflowstone overlaying some of the engravings were dated using theuranium-series disequilibrium method, which showed the oldest of these flowstones to have formed at least 12,800 years ago.[12] This provides a minimum age for the underlying engraving. The scientists and archaeologists concluded that it was most likely the engravings were contemporary with evidence for occupation at the site during the late glacial interstadial around 13,000–15,000 years ago. Most of the engravings are found in Church Hole Cave on the Nottinghamshire side of the gorge. Since this discovery, however, an engraved reindeer from a cave on theGower Peninsula has yielded two minimum dates (through uranium-series dating) of 12,572 years BP and 14,505 years BP.[19]
Not all of the figures identified as prehistoric art are in fact human made. An example given by archaeologists Paul Bahn and Paul Pettitt is the 'horse-head', Which they say is "highly visible and resembles a heavily maned horse-head... lacks any trace of work: it is a combination of erosion, black stains for the head, and natural burrow cast reliefs for the mane." Others are a 'bison-head' which they think may be natural and a 'bear' image which "lacks any evidence of human work." Notwithstanding they believe that more figures may be discovered in the future.[20]
The site was the subject of theBBC Radio 4 documentariesUnearthing Mysteries,Nature andDrawings on the Wall, and featured in the 2005BBC Two television programmeSeven Natural Wonders, as one of the wonders of theMidlands. In theDrawings on the Wall (Episode 1) Dr Paul Pettitt was interviewed about the so-called 'naked ladies' engravings in Church Hole Cave.[21]
The site is open to the public and has a visitor centre with a small museum of objects associated with the caves, including acave hyena model.[22] There is a cafe in the visitor centre.[23]
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
.jpg) Church Hole Cave | |
| Location | Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire |
|---|---|
| Interest | Biological Geological |
| Area | 0.19 km²[24] The Creswell Crags have been designated as aSite of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) since 1981,[25] and also designated as ascheduled monument.[2] |
Creswell Crags first applied for World Heritage Site status in 1986, but was unsuccessful. Since then further research and development has been carried out and, in 2011, it was again put forward for consideration.[26] In 2012 it was added to the United Kingdom's 'tentative list' – an essential prerequisite to formal nomination, evaluation and potential inscription as a World Heritage Site.[5][27] The Tentative List identifies the universal outstanding value of Creswell Crags as being:
- The outstanding landscape of a narrow limestone gorge containing a complex of caves having long-intact palaeoenvironmental cave and gorge sediment sequences, containing rich cultural archaeological remains as well as diverse animal bone, plant macro- and micro-fossil assemblages
- In situ Palaeolithic rock art on the walls and ceilings of caves, dated directly to 13,000 years ago, providing direct cultural associations with Late Magdalenian human groups operating at extreme northern latitudes[5]
In addition, Creswell Crags' significance has been enhanced by the discovery of a number of pieces of portable art made of engraved bone – the UK's only known figurative Ice Age art – as well as assemblages of bone, stone and ivory tools.[5]
Creswell Crags was removed from the World Heritage Site tentative list in 2023.[28]
| International | |
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| Other | |
