Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

PRIORY FARM CAVE, MONKTON, PEMBROKESHIRE By W. F. GRIMES With A REPORT ON THE HUMAN AND Animal REMAINS. By LIONEL F. COWLEY, M.Sc. In 1906-7 Dr. A. Hurrell Style and Mr. E. E. L. Dixon discovered and excavated a cave at Monkton, near Pembroke. The event was noteworthy for the finding, amongst other things, of aboard of three bronze implements, consisting of a tanged chisel, a fragmentary palstave, and the only saw of the Bronze Age apparently known in this country the find was described in a note by Edward Laws1 and in a pamphlet published at Pembroke by Dr. Style.2 The bronzes were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries,3 and in due course these, with the remainder of the finds, were presented by Dr. Style to the National Museum of Wales, in the Archaeological Gallery of which they have been exhibited for some years. Recently, re-examination has shown that the cave had in fact been occupied in late Palaeolithic times, and a re-description of the site has therefore become necessary for the new discovery adds something to our knowledge of the upper Palaeolithic period in Wales, and derives a minor interest from the fact that, according to present knowledge, it appears to be the most westerly outpost of Upper Palaeolithic culture in this country. The town and castle of Pembroke stand on an arm of Milford Haven, tidal to a point beyond the eastern limit of the town, and known generally as the Pembroke River. The cave is about 300 yards west of the castle, and on the south side of the river. The bank above high water at this point has been much quarried on each side of the cave, but around the cave itself the ground appears to have been untouched. Here the ground rises more or less steeply upwards from the tidal bed to a height of about 35-40 feet above ordnance datum. At this height a platform, roughly level, and some 20-25 feet in width, leads to the cave mouth, above which is a low slightly overhanging cliff whose top is about 50 feet above O.D. In spite of a dense growth of hawthorn and bramble, the 1 Arch. Camb. 1908, 114 5. *A. Hurrell Style, Xotes on a Pembroke Cave. N.D.— Now unobtainable. 3 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2S. XXI (1907). 487 8.