Aveline's Hole
Aveline's Hole in Burrington Combe near the B3134 (road "The Combe") is a small cave in the Mendip Hills in North Somerset in England and the oldest and largest scientifically researched Mesolithic burial site in Great Britain . The period between 8,400 and 8,200 BC Human bone fragments deposited in BC come from 21 relatively small individuals.
The cave was found in 1797 by two men who were hunting rabbits. It was excavated in 1860 by William Boyd Dawkins (1837-1929), who enlarged the entrance and named the cave after his mentor William Talbot Aveline (1822-1903).
The oldest reports speak of finds of animal teeth, an amulet and red ocher . A number of crosses on the cave wall are believed to date from immediately after the end of the Ice Age . The pattern is comparable to scratches from Denmark , Germany and Brittany ( Île d'Hœdic , Île Téviec ).
Seven (older) ammonites were also found in the cave, which is a Scheduled Monument .
See also
literature
- Rick Schulting, Mick Wysocki: The Mesolithic human skeletal collection from Aveline's Hole: a preliminary report. In: Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society. Vol. 22, No. 3, 2002, ISSN 0373-7527 , pp. 255-268, online (PDF; 3.86 MB) .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 29 " N , 2 ° 45 ′ 12" W.