Caves lead back in time to age of mammoths

The first known example of palaeolithic cave art was discovered in Britain at Creswell Crags. Ian Rotherham reports

Imagine woolly mammoths roaming the Yorkshire countryside along with bison, giant aurochs cattle, Irish elk, hyenas, cave bears, and sabre-toothed tigers. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but then maybe not.

If we could enter Doctor Who's Tardis and trip back thousands of years to the last Ice Age, just after the great warming began, then this would be the type of wildlife that might greet you.

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Both people and animals liked the relative safety and warmth of cave systems, particularly along the great Magnesian Limestone ridge that forms a spine across much of Yorkshire, east of Barnsley and west of Doncaster. Here they retreated to break up their prey, to eat and to sleep. The tools that people used and the remains of the animals would litter the cave floors.

Because of the predatory habits of both cave-dwellings animals like hyenas, and of the local humans, the deposits in the cave sediments provide a unique insight into the wildlife of the area. You might ask how we know all this. The answer is to be found at Creswell Crags World Heritage Centre, where this story is told in full.

I once applied for a summertime student job as "a resident caveman", I was desperate for a job.

The ancient people of Creswell, about whom we now know so much, probably spent a part of their year hunting around the edges of the great Humberhead Levels and the prehistoric lakes filled with glacial meltwaters. Perhaps as the winter chills froze the region they retreated southwards and westwards too.

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Creswell is a uniquely important cave system in the ancient valley incised by glacial waters through the Magnesian Limestone cliffs. Here, in the relatively mild climate of this sheltered valley and its warm south-facing crags, our ancestors eked out a desperate living.

The caves here were probably used seasonally and these hunter-gatherers followed the annual migrations of large animals on which they depended.

The large herbivores with attendant carnivores such as wolves and hyenas would have roamed across wide and desolate tracts of land

in search of suitable grazing.

This was probably a life of contrasting shortage and excess for the early people of Yorkshire, and life was both hard and short.

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When times changed and new, more advanced cultures swept across the region, the caves were abandoned, forgotten and overgrown by vegetation. Yet the remains scattered on the cave floors were preserved by a quite remarkable process.

Limestone dissolves in slightly acidic water and flows down through the cave systems to be re-deposited. This is how we get stalactites and stalagmites. At Creswell the limestone was spread over the cave floors like a thin layer of concrete, sealing the deposits in for the next few thousand years.

This remained the case until Victorian archaeologists discovered the rich deposits of bone fragments and prehistoric tools and began a process of excavation. Unlike modern archaeologists who move at a veritable snail's-pace, these guys brought in dynamite.

Despite the crude and in many ways damaging approach, they did discover a whole set of rare and new bones, giving a dramatic insight into our long-past ecology. Importantly, they put Creswell on the scientific and antiquarian map.

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The story was for decades largely hidden in the regional impact of the Industrial Revolution. Then, by the 1970s and 1980s, a new awakening and awareness of the importance of this heritage came about.

The Creswell Heritage Trust evolved to champion the Crags and their unique archaeology. Ongoing research and analysis has confirmed the importance of the site, hence its recognition as a World Heritage Site.

In the 1980s and 1990s, new discoveries included Britain's only verified cave drawings with animals such as deer etched out on the cave's rock surface. The old road which cut through the dale has been closed off and the landscape setting repaired and restored with great sensitivity. There have been interpretation and visitor facilities for many years but these have recently been totally revamped.

The results are outstanding. You can wander around the site quite freely on the well-made paths, or you can book a cave visit with a guide. This site isn't in Yorkshire itself, but reflects our county's lineage too; these were our ancestors.

There are directions and information on their website, www.creswell-crags.org.uk

CW 1/5/10

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