ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIKFE, DERBYSHIRE. 241; 



individual, and were so remarkably new-loaking — like some pieces 

 of skull found at the same time, and referred to in the first report — 

 that I cannot but suspect that they were modern. Still, this must 

 not be too much insisted upon : we were occasionally astonished 

 at the fresh appearance of bones undoubtedly contemporary with 

 their neighbours which were in the last stage of decay. These 

 differences were obviously due to the varying character of the soil. 

 (5) Lastly, all the potsherds of the lower beds, which were 

 sufficiently perfect to show their ornamentation, belonged to 

 vessels which are universally regarded as sepulchral. 



The above remarks will perhaps give rise to an impression that 

 the cave was simply the by-no-means infrequent case of a dwelling 

 turned into a cemetery. This undoubtedly is true so far as it goes ; 

 but the actual history is more complex — much more complex, 

 perhaps, than we think. The refuse layer undoubtedly points to 

 a period of habitation : no funeral feast could have ended in so 

 thick and extensive a deposit of remains, nor could a succession 

 of such feasts have left one so solid, as the intervening interments 

 must have given rise to breaks. If all the human remains related 

 to interments, there must have been an earlier and a later sepul- 

 chral era. The diggings carried on by the Rainses and their 

 friend in 1888 were entirely above the charcoal layer of the right 

 region. Amongst the objects then found were two fragments of 

 human frontal, which I distinguished as "E" in my first report. 

 In the later diggings we found other fragments of this skull scat- 

 tered widely about the refuse layer, some in the central region, 

 but most below the above-mentioned charcoal deposit and thin 

 stalagmites. From this we learn, (i) that these bones were either 

 coeval with the refuse layer, having been originally scattered as 

 we found them (in which case we must suspect cannibalism) ; or 

 they formed part of an interment deposited shortly after the 

 completion of this layer, and subsequently disturbed and scattered 

 before sufficient time had elapsed for the accumulation of an 

 upper layer. And (2) that, after a long interval (how long we can 

 only guess, but during which the charcoal layer was deposited), 

 the refuse layer was dug down to, in or towards the central 



