The Lateglacial mammal fauna of Gough's Cave, Cheddar (UBSS Proceedings v.17(3))

Abstract: Reappraisal of a Late Devensian mammal fauna from the cave earth and breccia unit of Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset, St 4670 5391, has shown it to be a human predation assemblage, dominated by horse Equus ferus, red deer Cervus elaphus and arctic hare Lepus timidus. New carbon 14 age determinations place the bulk of the faunal remains at around 12,000 years bp corresponding to a period within the Lateglacial Interstadial. The first directly dated British material referable to saiga antelope Saiga tartarica belongs to this period. An existing date of c. 10,000 bp on reindeer Rangifer tarandus from higher in the same unit provides tentative evidence for a later phase of faunal input. Surviving information relating to the stratigraphic occurrence of faunal remains is examined in detail.