ertaken after obtaining a Licence for the Removal of Human Remains from the Home Office and with the agreement of the county archaeologist and the land owner. Exploration of the cave is continuing, and the present report documents discoveries made up to July 1999.
Geology and Mining History
Carsington Pasture Cave is formed in dolomitised Bee Low Limestone of the Carboniferous limestone series, near the southern margin of the Derbyshire lead-zinc orefield. The limestone dips gently to the ENE, and the presence of reef facies and dolomitisation renders the limestone resistant to weathering, producing steep-sided hills with localised vertical exposures of bedrock. The limestone is extensively mineralised, mainly with lead and zinc ores together with gangue minerals. A dense network of mineral veins, principally trending WNW-ESE, permeates the limestone underneath Carsington Pasture and the local area has been mined intensively for lead probably from as early as the Roman period (Willies, 1995). A large number of mine shafts are located within 100 metres of the cave: Great Rake Mine, a substantial lead mine originally developed in the 17th century, is situated about 250 metres WSW of the cave (Slack, 1987).
Immediately to the west of the cave is Wester Hollow, a dry valley floored with Tertiary sands, clays and gravels of the Brassington Formation. These deposits are believed to have formed by the infilling of large solution hollows in the surface of the Carboniferous limestone, and they are sometimes associated with the formation of cave systems, as for example at Golconda Caverns (Ford, 1977). The presence of large numbers of quartzite pebbles in Carsington Pasture Cave provides evidence that the Wester Hollow pocket deposit was formerly more extensive and outcropped at a higher level than it does today.
Regional Archaeological Context
Carsington Pasture Cave is located in an area that is rich in archaeological finds of the Romano-British period. Nearby settlements of this date have been excavated at Rainster Rocks, 1 km WNW of Brassington, and at two sites alongside the former Scow Brook in an area which is now inundated by the creation of Carsington Reservoir (Ling and Courtney, 1981; Dearne et al., 1995). The line of the Roman Road from Buxton to Derby is conjectured to run about 300 m to the east of the cave (Willies, 1995) and sherds of Romano-British pottery have been found near the limestone outcrop 200 m north of the cave (Derbyshire SMR Number 3208). Roman lead pigs have also been found near Carsington, and the area is believed to have been an important centre of lead production in Roman times (Branigan et al., 1986).
There are two known archaeological caves within 3 km of the site (Gill and Beck, 1991), these being Rains Cave (SK 226 553) and Harborough Cave (SK 242 552). Rains Cave was excavated by J. Ward in the 19th century and produced Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery and the skeletal remains of at least six human individuals. Harborough Cave was excavated successively by W. Storrs Fox, A.L. Armstrong and by D. Bramwell, and has produced Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British artefacts and the skeletal remains of two human individuals.
Figure 2: Plan of the Entrance Chamber and 2nd Chamber in Carsington Pasture Cave. Locations of human bones are depicted as open circles for remains of neonates and as closed circles for remains of children and adults. Numbers indicate micromammal sampling locations.
In 1998 members of the Pegasus Caving Club created a passage through the clay and rubble fill of the Entrance Chamber of Carsington Pasture Cave (Steans & Scothon, 1998). The dug passage follows the sloping roof of the cave steeply downwards in a southerly direction for a distance of about 10m, terminating in the newly-discovered 2nd Chamber (Figure 2). The 2nd Chamber, which is also referred to as ‘Yorick Chamber’, is about 10m long E-W and 4m wide N-S with a low horizontal roof of limestone bedrock decorated with stalactite straws and pendants. The unconsolidated rubble floor of this chamber is forme