s, 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 formed 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 f