d of large limestone blocks and quartzite and gritstone boulders, partially encrusted in some areas by speleothem. Interspersed among the boulders were numerous human and faunal remains, some of which were also encrusted with speleothem. Boulders attached by speleothem to the cave wall indicate a former elevated position of the floor of the cave: the unconsolidated cave fill has slumped in places by as much as 1 metre below this former level. However, the presence of extremely fragile neonatal cranial bones indicated that at least some of the human skeletal remains had not moved very far from their original site of deposition.
In May 1998 all faunal and human skeletal remains visible on the surface of the 2nd Chamber were photographed in situ, recorded in three dimensions and lifted in order to prevent damage occurring to the archaeological material during further exploration of the cave system. One human cranium which was embedded in a thick stalagmite deposit at the side of the chamber was left in situ. Discrete deposits of small mammal bones were noted at various locations on the surface of the deposits near the middle of the 2nd Chamber (Figure 2 above, locations 103, 105 to 109, 112). These deposits were bulk sampled by James Williams for species identification and taphonomic analysis.
Monitoring of finds made during further exploration of the cave has been limited to the identification of bones revealed by the cavers’ excavation and the recording of their approximate location within the cave system. Three artefacts and numerous animal and human bones were exposed during the excavation of a 4m deep shaft to gain access to the 3rd Chamber (Figure 3 below).
This chamber is of a similar size to the 2nd Chamber and is roofed by a 1 metre thick flowstone deposit. The flowstone ceiling of the 3rd Chamber formerly rested directly on top of an unconsolidated deposit of silts, gravels and boulders: partial collapse of the unconsolidated deposits has created the 3rd Chamber as a 1 m high void space below the hanging flowstone ceiling. The 3rd Chamber showed evidence of prior entry by lead miners in the form of a dug trench through silt deposits, hob-nailed boot prints, pick marks on the cave walls and the bowl of a clay pipe. It has not been established how the miners gained access to this chamber, as there was no evidence for lead mining activity within the 2nd Chamber. It is possible that a mine shaft or adit breached the 3rd Chamber but if this was the case the point of entry must now be concealed by debris.
In 1999 a new excavation in the floor of the Entrance Chamber led to the discovery of further chambers of the cave system extending in a northerly direction. Both faunal remains and a small number of human remains are present in this part of the cave system, as well as prehistoric and Roman pottery and a few Roman coins.
The locations of human remains recovered from the 2nd Chamber are indicated on Figure 2 above. A minimum number of 20 individuals is represented in the assemblage and the demography of the sample suggests that all ages and adults of both sexes are included (Table 1, see below). The frequency of recovery of human remains declines as one moves vertically downwards through the cave system: of the 115 skeletal elements recovered, 66 (58%) were located on the floor of the second chamber and 38 (34%) were recovered from the excavation of the shaft between the second and third chambers. Only 6 human skeletal elements have been retrieved from the deep shaft excavated below the floor of the third chamber. This spatial pattern confirms initial impressions that the primary context for the deposition of the human remains was located in or adjacent to the second chamber, with the distribution in the lower parts of the cave system resulting from carnivore disturbance and/or partial collapse of the cave sediments. Within the second chamber there is a non-random spatial distribution of skeletal remains, with all of the neonatal remains being clustered near the centre of the chamber (Figure 2 above).
Table 1: Age and S