ON PREHISTORIC SITES IN EGYPT—KENT’S CAVERN. 273 
A concession to excavate sites in the Oasis of Kharga for three years is held by 
the Royal Anthropological Institute, which through its Predynastic Research Coim- 
mittee and with generous help from other sources has raised a sum of over £1,014 
towards the cost of these explorations. Other principal contributors are the Percy 
Sladen Trustees, the Stewart Research Fund of Newnham College, Cambridge, the 
Worts Fund of Cambridge University, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal 
Geographical Society, and various British and foreign museums. Miss E. W. Gardner, 
the geologist of the expedition, holds a Research Fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall, 
Oxford. 
| Miss Caton-Thompson had paid a short visit to Kharga in December 1928, and was 
therefore able to plan this season’s work in advance, and without loss of time on 
arrival in the Oasis. To trace contacts between the Nile Valley and Kharga, the 
party used camel transport and traversed 125 miles of the Libyan Plateau on foot. 
The travertines of the Wadi Samhid, along the route of the railway, yielded 
numerous fossils, to be correlated with those of the Oasis. Wind-worn paleoliths 
were met right across, Neolithic connexions with the Faiyum were found about 20 km. 
west of the Nile Valley scarp, with characteristic ‘ Faiyum B’ implements and 55 km. 
further on, more ‘side-blow’ flakes, Badarian arrowheads, and ostrich egg chips. 
Roman watering stations marked the whole course of the ancient caravan route. 
Close to the Kharga scarp a remarkable flint chipping area covers many miles of 
desert ground: types ranged from Mousterian to post-paleolithic, with ‘ side-blow ’ 
flakes, chipped flint axes, and microliths. The source of all this flint was identified, 
a tabular band in the plateau limestone, dotted with stone-built shelters. The 
travertine of the scarp yielded well preserved plant-remains. 
On the Oasis floor no evidence was found of a lake. Mousterian and neolithic 
implements are common. Curious hummocks of silt are due mainly to localised 
overflow from springs. One of these was dissected, and consists of alternating clays, 
loams, and pure white sands, containing Mousterian and Aterian implements, and 
offering an exceptional prospect of resolving the stratigraphical succession of the 
Stone Age industries, and contributing to the history of climate. 
At the end of the season, through the generous co-operation of the Hon. Lady 
_ Bailey, D.B.E., an aerial survey was made of the whole Oasis and its surroundings ; 
_ an important series of air-photographs was obtained, and a flying visit was also made 
to the Faiyum on the way back to Cairo. 
. ie preliminary report of this season’s work, with photographs, is published in Man 
931, 91. 
As it is intended to resume operations next season, the Committee asks to be 
reappointed, with a further grant. 
La ho. fe" of . CR eee 
Kent’s Cavern.—Report of Committee (Sir A. Kerru, Chairman; Prof. 
J. L. Myrus, Secretary; Mr. M. C. Burxirt, Dr. R. V. Favett, Mr. 
G. A. Garrirt, Miss D. A. EK. Garrop, Prof. W. J. Soiias) appointed 
to co-operate with the Torquay Antiquarian Society in investigating 
Kent's Cavern. 
HE following report has been received from the excavators, Mr. F. Beynon and Mr. 
Arthur H. Ogilvie :— 
__ ‘The work of excavation in Kent’s Cavern was resumed in October 1930, and was 
carried on, with the usual holiday intervals, until May 1931. At the southern end of 
the trench opened up last year along the western wall of the Wolf’s Cave and the 
g Sloping Chamber a shaft has been sunk to a depth of 16 ft. below the old line of the 
upper or Granular Stalagmite floor, with the object of locating the Middle or 
Bitersieliine Stalagmite floor, and passing through that into the underlying stratum of 
Btaddon Grit referred to by Pengelly as the Breccia, and discovered by him in other 
‘parts of the Cavern also. By the end of the season the following section had been 
exposed : 
pe Unstratified Cave Earth . : ‘ ; ’ ; 2 a ER 
Impersistent layer of broken (?Crystalline) Stalagmite . *0 ft. 6 in. 
Unstratified, incoherent Staddon Grit : ‘ : wh Sth: 
1931 Ay 
