Monument record MDR15465 - Dog Hole Fissure, Creswell Crags, Hodthorpe and Belph

The existence of Dog Hole Fissure was realised in 1977 during the mapping of Dog Hole Cave. In the western area of the cave entrance a substantial rock fall had caused the accumulation of sediment within and around the rock fall, after which layers of stalagmitic flowstone had formed and sealed the softer sediments between the cliff face and rock fall. A further rock fall in 1978 exposed an area of infilling deposit termed Dog Hole Fissure. Two flint artefacts (flint waste material) found in stratigraphic layer 3 could not be assigned to a specific chronological period, however 538 fossil bone fragments were recovered from the Dog Hole Fissure site, including an almost complete skull and other skeletal parts of an adult wolf were discovered in stratigraphic layer 3. The condition of the fossil bones and their distribution demonstrates that the wolf died and decayed close to the fissure. Radiocarbon dates of the wolf indicated a date of 9960 +/- 140 BP. Fox, wild cat, bats, mountain hare, mixed rodents, wild pig, horse, deer, cow, species of birds, frogs and fish were also found. Molluscan fauna found in sediments were used to estimate the deposits- 'Oxychilius cellarius' suggests the deposits collected more recently than 8400 years ago, but before the Roman period. (1) The lack of documentary material and surviving finds from Laing's or Armstrong's investigations at Dog Hole Cave (SMR34302) severly restricts any interpretation of the site. We do not know if either of these excavations uncovered archaeological material. The proximity to Pin Hole and the rich archaeological sequence found there may give the assumption that Dog Hole was also used in the Ice Age. Recently a late Palaeolithic black flint was found in the cave entrance. The more recent excavation at Dog Hole Fissure found an important assemblage of bone indicating the presence of woodland animals such as lynx. (2)