Kent’s Cavern

Kent’s Cavern, also called Kent’s Hole, large limestone cave near Torquay, Devonshire, England, that yielded some of the earliest evidence of human coexistence with extinct animals. The Rev. J. McEnery, who investigated the upper deposits (1825–29), was perhaps first to proclaim this fact. Excavations (1865–80) made by William Pengelly provided conclusive evidence. The deposit has been divided into six layers from top to bottom: Roman, Iron, and Bronze Age sherds; stalagmite with Neolithic pottery; black band of burned bones and ash; red cave earth; stalagmite floor; and bone and pebble breccia. The implements have been classified typologically into five stages: Acheulian, Mousterian, Middle Aurignacian, proto-Solutrian, and Magdalenian. The animals, apart from the bones of a cave bear in the lowest layer, appear to have come mainly from the red cave earth and date to the Late (Upper) Pleistocene. (The Pleistocene Epoch lasted from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago.) Species represented include mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, reindeer, and giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus). A number of human fragments have been found but have not yet been equated with the archaeological phases. However, a piece of an upper jaw, which was found at the site in 1927, has been dated to 44,200–41,500 years ago, and some scientists maintain that this artifact serves as the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in northwestern Europe.