The Darwin Origins Dig at Kents Cavern

The team of archaeologists led by Dr Paul Pettitt (Sheffield) and Dr Mark White (Durham) is back at Kents Cavern, Devon's award winning caves, to continue their major excavations underground, the first for over 80 years, in search of more evidence for the Neanderthal occupation of the caves tens of thousands of years ago.

Kents Cavern, the only underground cave site in the UNESCO English Riviera Global Geopark, hit the headlines recently when researchers from Torquay Museum and the University of Oxford's School of Archaeology discovered extremely rare evidence of ancient human bone bearing cut marks made by stone tools about 9,000 years ago. Only one other site in Britain has yielded similar human remains with cut-marks of this age - Gough's Cave at Cheddar Gorge. Some archaeologists have interpreted these marks as evidence of cannibalism, but ritual burial practice or dismemberment for transportation has not been ruled out.

Kents Cavern is open during the excavation from Tuesday 1st Sept to Thursday 10th September and visitors will be able to view the dig in action as part of the guided cave tour. For more information contact the caves on 01803 215136.

For more information visit http://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/event_detail.cfm?item=177