Illuminating Lesser Garth Cave, Cardiff: the human remains and post-Roman archaeology in context

Madgwick, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4396-3566, Redknap, Mark and Davies, Brian 2016. Illuminating Lesser Garth Cave, Cardiff: the human remains and post-Roman archaeology in context. Archaeologia Cambrensis 165 , pp. 201-229.

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Abstract

During a series of relatively poorly documented excavations carried out during 1912–14 and 1963–64 human bone was recovered from Lesser Garth Cave near Cardiff. Published reports of the cave investigations focused on the artefactual evidence, and the wide range of possible dates and interpretations concerning the human bones have failed to provide a reliable basis for understanding the significance of the remains within the cave’s biography. This paper presents new scientific evidence regarding the human remains including findings from full osteological analysis, targeted carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotope analysis and a programme of radiocarbon dating. Analysis records seven individuals, with a minimum of five if the fifty-year excavation gap is ignored. The radiocarbon dates suggest intermittent human presence in the cave from the post-Roman to the postmedieval periods. The paper also offers a reappraisal of post-Roman artefacts, and re-assessment of this site in the context of the diverse ways in which caves are now understood to have been used during this period.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology
Publisher:	Cambrian Archaeological Society
ISSN:	0306-6924
Related URLs:	http://www.academia.edu/28957343/Illumin...
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 October 2016
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 13:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/95172

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