54 



R.I. MACPHAIL AND P. GOLDBERG 



Fig. 5 Sample C from the sand hole, a basal clay deposit including a locally reworked clay (CC). Note the reticulate birefringent fabric which is indicative 

 of minor shrinking and swelling reflecting alternate periods of wetting and drying. Width of photo ca. 5.4 mm. 



cryoclastic activity and high energy phreatic flow occurring near the 

 last glacial maximum. It is likely that diminishing phreatic flow and 

 the upward fining sedimentary sequences situated at the sampled 

 margins of the cave, occurred from the end of the Devensian (Oldest 

 Dryas) to the Windermere Interstadial (B0lling/Aller0d). This inter- 

 val was contemporary with Upper Palaeolithic activity that led to the 

 deposition of human skeletal remains in sediments that were once 

 well-bedded (Fig. 2). It seems likely that the ice lensing activity 

 noted in sample H, could be related to occasional cold conditions 

 continuing into the Interstadial. The presence of humans is totally 

 unrecorded at this period in the samples from Areas I and HI and the 

 Skeleton Rift, but a breccia remnant ( 'reindeer stalagmite' ) from the 



just below the cave roof does include some charcoal, as seen in thin 

 section. 



The mild conditions of the Windermere Interstadial are best 

 recorded, albeit weakly, by biological activity producing an enhanced 

 porosity pattern of channels and vughs (e.g., in samples 44 and D; 

 Fig. 3). Other contemporary sites in southern England have pro- 

 duced longer sedimentary sequences. For example, a number of 

 chalky colluvial deposits have been described from Kent and the Isle 

 of Wight (e.g. Preece et ah, 1995). These are soil-sediments, with 

 biological activity and pedogenesis being recorded through slightly 

 enhanced amounts of organic matter, and in places, by concentra- 

 tions of earthworm granules that indicate ephemeral land surfaces 

 (Preece et ai, 1995). At King Arthur's Cave, Herefordshire, a very 

 thin and weakly humic soil horizon was identified through soil 

 micromorphology and chemistry (Macphail et al., 1999). This soil 



Fig. 6 Sample A3 composed of laminated stalagmite (S) overlying fallen 

 limestone clast (LS) with stringers of red clay (C). Width of photo is ca. 

 4 cm. 



Fig. 7 Sample A (Frog Earth) in sand hole showing clay beds (C) with 

 included bone (B) capped by an iron-stained stalagmite deposit (S). 

 Width of photo is ca. 4 cm. 



