banner Return to the AHOB homepage

Hyaena Den
Somerset

 

 

Site Number 29 (This is an AHOB Key Site)
Nearest Town: Wookey Hole
National Grid Reference: ST5322347936
Lat: 51.22868 Lon: -2.67129

Exploration of the Hyaena Den in Wookey Hole Ravine, Somerset began in the 1850s and has continued until recently. Dawkins (1862, 1863a,b) used material from Hyaena Den to conclusively show that stone tools were associated with a Pleistocene fauna, thus demonstrating the antiquity of the lithics. A cave-earth in the entrance chamber has produced a hyaena-dominated fauna belonging to the Pin Hole MAZ and associated Middle Palaeolithic, and some Upper Palaeolithic, artefacts. Recent excavations have found an older fauna in underlying sands and gravels that belongs to the Banwell Bone Cave MAZ with no evidence of human activity.


Horizons recorded at Hyaena Den

Unit Name Epoch Biozone MIS
Upper Cave Earth (Horz Num: 276) Late Pleistocene Pin Hole MAZ 3
Lower Fluvial Deposits (Horz Num: 29) Late Pleistocene Banwell Bone Cave MAZ 5a

footer
Indiana University AHOB Website Contact Administrator Indiana University AHOB Website