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When
you visit Wookey Hole Caves your guide
will relate the 50,000 year history
of the caves as home to both humans
and animals.
Archaeologists’
finds indicate man has lived in and
around the caves for 50,000 years.
For people
in ancient times, the caves at Wookey
Hole were a safe and even comfortable
place to live. They were dry, easy
to defend, warm in winter and cool
in summer.
The bones
of tropical and Ice Age animals, such
as rhinoceros, bear, mammoth and lion,
were found in the Hyena Den, along
with flint tools.
Archaeologists
reckon that the cave was occupied
by hyenas and man alternatively between
35,000 and 25,000 BC.
It seems
that packs of hyenas drove their prey
over the cliff edge and then ate the
remains. There is even a theory that
early man may have done the same!
The Celts
were farmers who had lived in or near
the cave entrance for more than six
hundred years. They used the part
near the entrance because it was still
quite light.
They
burnt animal fat in simple lamps to
explore deeper into the caverns. They
reached as far as Chamber 4 which
they used as a burial chamber.
2,000
years ago the Romans arrived to settle
the region, build roads and exploit
the rich mineral resources of the
Mendip Hills. They subdued the local
Celts in order to safeguard their
newly opened lead mines and transport
routes.
During
the Dark Ages the Legend of the Witch
of Wookey grew. Some said King Arthur
came over from Avalon and slew her,
others that the Abbot of Glastonbury
sent Father Bernard to exorcise her,
and he turned her to stone by sprinkling
holy water on her.
Not a
lot is known of the history of the
cave until the 18th century, when
the poet Alexander Pope visited it
and had several stalactites shot down
out of the roof to take home as souvenirs!
Today
the caves are home to different animals.
Horseshoe bats hibernate in the caves
during the winter and sleep there
at other times of the year.
There
are no fish but divers have seen frogs,
eels and freshwater shrimps in the
underground waters.
Insects
such as moths and mosquitoes spend
their winters in the caves.
They
are food for the only creature that
lives there all the year round - the
cave spider.
The Witch
is said to remain in residence in
the caves to this day - watching over
all these creatures.
The Wookey
Hole Caves site has provided rich
pickings for archaeologists and anthropologists
over the years, and several exciting
excavations have been undertaken.
In 1912
an archaeologist Herbert Balch found
the almost complete skeleton of an
old woman, the remains of some goats,
a dagger, some household items and
a polished alabaster ball among Iron
Age remains.
Workmen
digging the canal in 1857 found the
remains of prehistoric man, including
flint tools, as well as the bones
of animals such as hyenas, mammoths,
rhinoceros and lions.
Many
of these are now on display at the
nearby Wells City Museum, but most
were retained and are now housed in
Wookey Hole Cave’s very own museum.
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