British Pioneers of the Geology of Gibraltar, Part 2: Cave Archaeology and Geological Survey of the Rock, 1863 to 1878

The 1860s marked a period of intense early interest in the antiquity of man, and so cave archaeology, in England and elsewhere. Systematic cave archaeology was initiated on Gibraltar in 1863 by a former infantry officer, Frederick Brome, the governor of the military prison, and his discoveries prompted cave exploration and local geological interest by two young British Army officers stationed on the Rock: Alexander Burton-Brown of the Royal Artillery and the subsequently more famous Charles (later Sir Charles) Warren of the Royal Engineers. On the recommendation of Sir Charles Lyell, President of the Geological Society of London, Brome's excavated material was sent to England for study by George Busk and Hugh Falconer: both palaeontologists of considerable distinction. The new discoveries drew attention to the ‘Gibraltar Skull’, presented to the Gibraltar Scientific Society by Lieutenant Edmund Flint of the Royal Artillery in 1848 but recognized only after description of Homo neanderthalensis from Germany in 1864 as a relic of that extinct species—one of the most complete Neanderthal skulls known. Detailed topographical mapping of the Gibraltar peninsula by Charles Warren and interest in Gibraltar geology generated by cave studies led to the first geological survey of the Rock—by Andrew (later Sir Andrew) Crombie Ramsay and James Geikie of the ‘British’ Geological Survey, in 1876. The first ‘overseas’ project to be undertaken by the Survey, this was historically significant because its purpose was primarily hydrogeological and it generated an atypically large-scale (1:2,500) geological map. The map and its 1877-1878 descriptive accounts, which featured Quaternary superficial sediments in more detail than the Jurassic limestone bedrock, were to guide development of Gibraltar's fortress infrastructure for the next sixty-five years.

Cueva La Conga: First Karst Cave Archaeology in Nicaragua

Cueva la Conga, recorded in June 2006, is the first limestone cave in Nicaragua reported to contain prehistoric rock paintings, culturally modified natural formations called speleothems, and artifacts. Located in northcentral Nicaragua in the Department of Jinotega, Cueva la Conga is the farthest south on the Mesoamerican periphery that a cave of this type has been reported, and it extends our knowledge of ritual cave use, including cave painting and speleothem modification, to include Nicaragua. Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal in five samples of the paint, the first such dating of Nicaraguan rock art, yielded calibrated dates from cal A.D. 680—905 to cal A.D. 1403—1640. The baseline data provided by Cueva la Conga are of great importance for regional rock art analysis and for our growing understanding of regional and Nicaraguan prehistory. More archaeological survey and excavations in the area will be key in establishing a firm cultural context for the rock art and ritual cave use found at Cueva la Conga.

THE CENTRAL ROLE OF CAVE ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF CLASSIC MAYA CULTURE HISTORY AND HIGHLAND-LOWLAND INTERACTION

The unexpected discovery of an elaborate stone coffer with lowland-style carved images and early Maya inscriptions in a cave in the northern Guatemalan highlands has great implications for our understanding of highland-lowland interaction. However, this discovery proved to be only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of the importance of subterranean evidence in this region. Investigations in caves in central Guatemala over the past decade have been a central part of the regional investigations, often directing subsequent reconnaissance, settlement surveys, and site excavations. Indeed, the early history of the region and the trade route passing through it has largely been reconstructed from evidence in cave shrines along the mountain valley routes from Kaminaljuyu and the Valley of Guatemala to lowland Maya sites. This article reviews this evidence, which also demonstrates how cave assemblages can be used not merely to study ancient ritual, but to examine broad problems in culture history and critical elements in the study of elite power, ceramic production, settlement patterns, interregional trade, and ancient economy.

Cave Archaeology and Palaeontology in the Creswell Region

The aim of this chapter is to situate the unique discoveries of cave art at the Creswell Crags caves in the context of what is known of the cave archaeology and palaeontology of the caves of the southern Magnesian Limestone outcrop. The long history of archaeological research at Creswell Crags and the spectacular discoveries that continue to be made in the Creswell caves have tended to overshadow the widespread though less prominent distribution of cave archaeological sites along the limestone outcrop to the north and south of Creswell, a region known as the Creswell Crags Limestone Heritage Area (Mills 2001). Recent audits of the archaeology of the region have drawn attention to the large number of cave sites within the Limestone Heritage Area as well as the considerable potential that these sites have for further research into the history of Ice Age people and their environments (Mills 2001; Davies et al. 2004).While the focus of this chapter is on the Pleistocene deposits and Palaeolithic artefacts that have been preserved in the region’s caves, fissures, and rock shelters, these sites were used throughout prehistory by humans and animals and they contain much important cultural and environmental evidence for these later time periods after the end of the last Ice Age. Creswell Crags is located in the southern part of the Magnesian Limestone, a geological term for deposits of Upper Permian age that includes a series of formations of well-bedded oolitic to dolomitic limestones. The Magnesian Limestone forms a narrow north–south oriented outcrop that runs from near Nottingham in the south to the North Sea coast near Tynemouth in the north (Fig. 6.1). About 30 km to the west of the southern part of the Magnesian Limestone is the older Carboniferous Limestone outcrop of the White Peak, which, like the Magnesian Limestone, contains many archaeological caves. The southern part of the Magnesian Limestone outcrop, between Doncaster and Mansfield, is cut through by a series of vales and gorges which expose caves, fissures, and rockshelters along the cliff lines.