Getting It Right: No Middle Palaeolithic at King Arthur's Cave (UBSS Proceedings v.23(1))

Abstract: In a reassessment of the site published a decade ago, the suggestion was made that King Arthur's Cave had been visited by hunters during the Middle Palaeolithic (ApSimon, et al. 1992). The purpose of this note is to withdraw that suggestion; the sealing of artifacts below stalagmite on which it relied is shown to be doubtful and the faunal and archaeological evidence is against it. It is alternatively suggested that the putative Middle Palaeolithic artifacts are Late Upper Palaeolithic. A firm suggestion for the location of the critical context is made, with the implication that doubts about the original excavator's account were unwarranted, and that potential exists for further investigation and recovery of speleothem samples for dating.