A North–Western Habitat: the Paleoethology and Colonisation of a European Peninsula, based upon the first comprehensive analysis of the excavation in Pin Hole Cave, Creswell Crags

Abstract

Pin Hole Cave is located within the Creswell Crags limestone gorge in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom. The locality became well known when Quaternary fossil and archaeological remains were discovered within the interior during the 1870s. The cave under went a small excavation in 1875 and then a much larger exploration from 1924 onwards. Despite many publications dealing with the Creswell Caves, Pin Hole Cave has not previously been comprehensively published. The publication includes individual descriptions and associated records for over 70,000 finds from the site, reported in the related digital archive as part of CAPI (Creswell Archaeological and Palaeontological Inventory). The evidence is assessed within the framework of known concepts of modern ecological behaviour to provide a context that might explain such intense activity within this particular Quaternary ecotone.