840 KEPOET— 1886. 



in burial-places of the Neolithic and Bronze ages. The cairn itself is similar in 

 character to that near Mold in the same district, in which a skeleton was discovered 

 in 1832, lying at full length, clad in a golden corselet, now in the British Museum, 

 and adorned with 300 amber beads. An urn, full of ashes and other remains, was 

 also met with. Its large size implies that it was raised in honour of some chieftain 

 conspicuous above his fellows. The trifling results of this exploration, carried on 

 at the cost of Mr. Pochin, are due to our not having as yet hit upon the interment, 

 which we hope to do by further operations. 



AVhile the cau-n was being attacked Mr. P. G. Pochin discovered a cave 141 

 feet to the south-west of Gop Cairn, which Iiad been known many years as a fox's 

 earth, and the entrance of which was completely blocked up with earth and stones. 

 On digging it out we found it to consist of a rock shelter, ending in two hoi-izontal 

 passages blocked up either completely or within a few inches of the roof. In the 

 lowest strata of red and yellow claj's, mixed with stones, some of which were 

 derived from the boulder clay of the district, were the gnawed and broken bones 

 and teeth of the woolly rhinoceros, bison, horse, reindeer, stag, roe, and cave- 

 hysena, which belong to the Pleistocene ."Vge, and are similar to those which have 

 been discovered by Dr. Hicks, Prof. Hughes, myself, and others in various caverns 

 in the Vale of Clwyd. 



Above this was a deposit containing fragments of charcoal and large quantities 

 of broken bones of animals wild and domestic, comprising the badger, fox, marten, 

 the sheep, or goat, the Bos longifrons, horse, and the hog. These were mingled 

 with round stones which had been used as pot-boilers, and a few flint splinters. 

 Near the entrance of the rock-shelter the charcoal was very abundant, and slabs of 

 limestone, burned on their upper surfaces, pointed out the position of the fire-places. 

 This upper accumulation is mainly an old refuse-heap, and its date is fixed by 

 some of the fragments of pottery, one of which bears the rim and ornamentation 

 so commonly met with in pottery of the Bronze Age. This refuse-heap may, there- 

 fore, be referred to a period of occupation by them during the Bronze Age. 



Besides the above-mentioned remains in the refuse-heap, there were human 

 bones, which increased in number as we dug our way to a square sepulchral 

 chamber, 4 feet 10 inclies x 4 feet 10 inches x .3 feet 10 inches, three sides of which 

 were formed of walls of slabs of limestone, the fourth by the inner side of the rock- 

 shelter, and the top by the limestone roof of the cave. It was packed with human 

 skulls and bones of all ages, in the greatest confusion, and evidently interred from 

 time to time. From the association of the bones, however, it was clear that it had 

 not been used merely as an ossuary, but that the bodies themselves had been placed 

 there with the bones in their proper positions, those of the ankle, for example. 

 Along with these were two jet liaks, shaped like gimblet-handles, a beautifully 

 polished flint flake, ground down to the thinness of ^o of ^^ inch, and with the edges 

 carefully bevelled ; and some fragments of rude pottery, ornamented with chevrons, 

 and with the moulding round the rim of the pattern usually met with in sepulchral 

 urns of the Bronze Age. The sepulchral character may, therefore, be referred to the 

 same relative date as the refuse-heaps, and we may conclude that caves were used 

 in North Wales for habitation and for sepulture in the Bronze Age, as I have already 

 proved them to have been so used in the Neolithic Age in this district. 



The numerous human remains throw great light on the ethnology of this 

 district in the Bronze Age. The sepulchral caves near Ruthin, and the sepulchral 

 caves and tombs of the Vale of Clwyd prove, as I pointed out many years ago, that 

 in the Neolithic Age the population of this part of Wales was of the Iberic type 

 so widely spread through Europe. In Gop Cave the oval-headed Iberic type is 

 traceable in all the skulls but one. This exception, from its compactness and 

 absence of strong muscular ridges, may be inferred to have belonged to a woman. 

 It is round, prognathous, and with largely developed cheek-bones, and presents all 

 the characters which are usually found in the round-headed Celt — a race which 

 invaded Gaul and Spain in the Neolithic Age, but which was unknown in Britain 

 until the age of Bronze. It is interesting to note that men of the Iberic race were 

 greatly preponderant in the Vale of Clwyd in the Bronze Age. The presence of 

 one Celtic skull in their sepulchre marks the beginning of the fusion of the two 



