Monument record MDR15440 - Arch Cave, Creswell Crags, Hodthorpe and Belph

Large highly eroded cave mouth high in the rock face known to have been eroding bone material for some years. The first reference to the cave is by Armstrong who calls it 'Lion's Mouth'. The site has seen several small unorganised excavtions, the first formal excavation being by Collcutt (1975) who confined exploration to a small area at the back. There has recently (1978) been a large amount of resistivity surveying over this site (Jenkinson and Sampson) showing the cave is buried and continues for another 35 meters. (1) The site appears to be a collapsed cave some 30m above the base of the gorge and extending some 12m into the rock face. Exploratory excavations by Collcutt (1975) recovered a small amount of bone material, principally rhinoceros and wolf. Since these excavations, further bone material has been collected. All the material has been collected from the mud slide which runs from the in situ deposits in the rear area of the cave, through the cave mouth and onto the talus slope. None of the material has a firm stratigraphic context. A Devensian date has been suggested for the eroding deposit, suggested by the fauna material. The post cranial material is in a highly weathered condition and comprises limb shaft fragments some of considerable thickness, suggesting a large undetermined herbivore. (2)