Kent’s hole. 
373 
different periods is just what we might expect when we consider 
that caves have been used for places of habitation from the 
remotest times to the present day. 
But Kent’s Hole had also been used as a place of sepulture, 
for Mr. McEnery discovered a skeleton lying at full length in 
it, as well as fragments of burnt human bones, which probably 
indicated the habit of cremation. In one spot the traces of 
occupation overlay a burial-place. Fragments of pottery, both 
plain and ornamented, writes Mr. McEnery, lay strewed about 
in abundance, in a black layer, containing quantities of marine 
and land shells, such as patella, limpet, ostrea, turbo, pinna, 
helix, solen, &c., as well as bones of stag, fox, rabbit, and small ro- 
dents. Among the animal remains were some curiously fashioned 
by art, being sharpened at one end for piercing. “ A large rock 
now lay between us and the next stratum. On lifting it over a 
still more startling discovery was displayed : — pottery, charcoal, 
human teeth and bones, flint relics, copper ornaments and 
mountings of tin ; two lumps of virgin copper ore were pressed 
together into a cake, on a large flat stone, against which they 
had been violently crushed by the superposition of the rock 
which we had just removed. We collected on this spot the 
remains of two sepulchral' vessels ; one was a plain urn slightly 
indented, coarse and sunbaked, with its walls about half-an-inch 
thick ; it most probably contained the ashes which were spilt about, 
and which enveloped two black spear heads. The other frag- 
ments were thinner and highly ornamented, answering in every 
respect to those small figured vases found in the barrows, and 
designated by Sir Eichard Hoar drinking-cups. The pieces of 
both vessels were scattered at a short distance from each other 
on the flag, and were evidently connected with the human bones, 
flint relics, and other substances just described as grouped to- 
gether ; the whole forming a distinct interment.” So far as I 
know this is the only case on record of the occurrence of tin in 
an interment of this kind. It is a most unfortunate thing that 
the prehistoric remains found by this indefatigable explorer, 
have been so scattered that it is almost impossible to trace 
them, or to find with absolute certainty any exact specimen 
which he describes. In the Oxford Museum there are bones 
from this black layer, which prove that the prehistoric folk who 
lived in the cave, or who used it for purposes of sepulture, fed 
upon the small Celtic short-horned ox, the Bos longifrons, 
an animal which cannot boast of higher antiquity than the 
modern alluvia and peat bogs, and which was most probably 
introduced into Europe during the neolithic age. In the 
Swiss phalbauten of the later period, it is found along with 
the horse, dog, and goat. It probabl}^ accompanied a nomad 
race from some area to the east and south from Central Asia. 
