Cave S | |
---|---|
Sewell's Cave | |
Map showing location in Gibraltar. | |
Location | Rock of Gibraltar |
Coordinates | 36°07′57″N5°20′41″W / 36.1324°N 5.3447°W |
Discovery | Captain Sewell |
Geology | Limestone |
Entrances | 1 |
Show cave opened | No |
Cave S or Sewell's Cave is a limestone cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on the eastern side of the Rock of Gibraltar, near Holy Boy's Cave. Prehistoric human remains were found in the cave in 1910, and the cave is listed by the Government of Gibraltar as a Palaeolithic site.
Captain Sewell discovered what is now known as Cave S or Sewell's Cave. Sewell also gave his name to Sewell's Fig Tree Caves which are now known as Goat's Hair Twin Caves. [1] Sewell in time became a Lieutenant Colonel. [2]
Sir Charles Warren carried out a survey of Gibraltar in 1864 which recorded the cave as being 800 feet (240 m) above sea level and 30 feet (9.1 m) below the Great Gibraltar Sand Dune that was once used to capture rainwater which served as Gibraltar's main water supply. The cave is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the north end of the Rock and opens on the east face of the Rock just above Holy Boy's Cave. The cave provides evidence of marine life indicating that despite its current altitude it was once a sea cave. This is not the only evidence of rising and falling sea levels in Gibraltar which have historically varied greatly. [3]
Wynfrid Duckworth described the cave's floor as falling in height towards the entrance and it was covered in a soil that had the consistency of snuff in 1910. Despite not finding any bats he thought that the snuff-like material was vegetable matter and bat guano. Various human artifacts such as pottery, stone implements and other stone objects, a shell armlet, perforated cyprcea, charcoal, burnt bone and broken shellfish and a wide variety of bird remains and mammalian fauna have been found in the cave. The human bones were thought to come from one male skull-less skeleton which appeared to have notably thick bones. [3]
In 2018 this cave was listed in the Heritage and Antiquities Act by the Government of Gibraltar noting that it was a Palaeolithic site. [4]
The Red "Lady" of Paviland is an Upper Paleolithic partial male skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in Wales 33,000 BP. The bones were discovered in 1823 by William Buckland in an archaeological dig at Goat's Hole Cave which is a limestone cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea in south Wales. Buckland believed the skeleton was a Roman era female. Later, William Solace examined Goat's Cave Paviland in 1912. There, Solace found flint arrow heads and tools and correctly concluded that the skeleton was in fact a male hunter-gatherer or warrior during the last Ice Age.
Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England, near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell. The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves that were occupied during the last ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago. Its caves contain the northernmost cave art in Europe. 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 the Late Pleistocene period.
Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.
Gorham's Cave is a sea-level cave in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Though not a sea cave, it is often mistaken for one. Considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals in Europe, the cave gives its name to the Gorham's Cave complex, which is a combination of four distinct caves of such importance that they are combined into a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only one in Gibraltar. The three other caves are Vanguard Cave, Hyaena Cave, and Bennett's Cave.
Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh is a prehistoric archaeological site in Upper Galilee, Israel. It is situated 800 m (2,600 ft) from the Nahal Amud outlet, approximately 30 m (98 ft) above the wadi bed. It was found to house a fossil today known as the "Galilee skull" or "The Yabrudian Man".
Kendrick's Cave on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales, was the site of important archaeological finds by Thomas Kendrick in 1880. The site is a small natural cavern on the south of the Great Orme Head, a limestone massif on the seaward side of Llandudno.
Cathole Cave, Cat Hole Cave or Cathole Rock Cave, is a cave near Parc Cwm long cairn at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. It is a steep limestone outcrop, about 200 yards (180 m) north of the cromlech along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley and near the top of the gorge, about 50 feet (15 m) from the valley floor. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two. It is about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula.
Wynfrid Lawrence Henry Duckworth was a British anatomist, and former Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. The Duckworth Laboratory at Cambridge University is named after him.
Ibex Cave is a limestone cave on the Rock of Gibraltar which has yielded stone artifacts of Mousterian tradition. It was discovered in 1975. It is so named as an ibex skull was found within the cave which would have been hunted by the Neanderthals of Gibraltar thousands of years ago. Ibex Cave was named and excavated by the Gibraltar Museum in 1994. Its first formal description was in 1999. It is protected by the Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018 of the Government of Gibraltar.
Martin's Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It opens on the eastern cliffs of the Rock of Gibraltar, below its summit at O'Hara's Battery. It is an ancient sea cave, though it is now located over 700 feet (210 m) above the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is only accessible because Martin's Path was constructed.
Beefsteak Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located in the south of the Rock, between Europa Point and Windmill Hill.
Collin's Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located in the northeastern part of the Rock, between Reservoir Fissure and Middle Hill Cave. The cave is above Catalan Bay. It is one of the many caves in Gibraltar. It is believed to be archaeologically important and is listed in the government's Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018.
The Genista Caves are a series of caves located under Windmill Hill in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Fossils of various mammals and human remains were discovered here in the mid-1860s. The name of the caves is a play on words based on Captain Frederick Brome's name, who discovered them.
The Goat's Hair Twin Caves are in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The caves are listed in the Heritage and Antiquities Act as they are sites of Palaeolithic and Neolithic archaeology.
Holy Boy's Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is one of the largest of the many caves in Gibraltar and it is on the eastern side of the Rock, near Cave S. It is believed to be archaeologically important and is listed in the Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018.
Judge's Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Human remains dated to the late prehistoric period have been unearthed in the cave. This Neolithic Shelter is protected by the law of Gibraltar.
Devil's Tower Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Archaeologist Dorothy Garrod found a Neanderthal skull in the cave which, together with other evidence found in this cave, shows it was used as a rock shelter by the Neanderthals of Gibraltar.
Mediterranean Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The cave also has pillboxes and a fallout shelter nearby, these all being mentioned in the government's Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018.
The Neanderthals in Gibraltar were among the first to be discovered by modern scientists and have been among the most well studied of their species according to a number of extinction studies which emphasize regional differences, usually claiming the Iberian Peninsula partially acted as a “refuge” for the shrinking Neanderthal populations and the Gibraltar population of Neanderthals as having been one of many dwindling populations of archaic human populations, existing just until around 42,000 years ago. Many other Neanderthal populations went extinct around the same time.
The Romito cave is a natural limestone cave in the Lao Valley of Pollino National Park, near the town of Papasidero in Calabria, Italy. Stratigraphic record of the first excavation confirmed prolonged paleo-human occupation during the Upper Paleolithic from 17,000 years ago and the Neolithic from 6,400 years ago. A single, but exquisite piece of Upper Paleolithic parietal rock engraving was documented. Several burial sites of varying age were initially discovered. Irregularly recurring sessions have led to additional finds, which suggests future excavation work. Notable is the amount of accumulated data that has revealed deeper understanding of prehistoric daily life, the remarkable quality of the rock carvings and the burial named Romito 2, who exhibits features of pathological skeletal conditions (dwarfism).