ANCIENT remains of humans and animals, which were found near Frome and have since been housed by Frome Museum, have now been radiocarbon dated.
The findings, which are being published this month, reveal the two skulls are 4,000 years old and would probably have been part of a Bronze Age burial site. The animal remains date to before the last ice age, but a human skeleton at the same site was not from the same time and is dated to before the Roman invasion.
The human skulls and animal bones were discovered in caves near Frome, at Browne’s Hole and Stoke Lane Swallet in Stoke St Michael, 70 years ago. One of the caves was discovered by the Browne family from Frome and named after them. The family carried out excavations at the cave between 1947 and 1955, where they found a large collection of bones which included bear, wolf and hyaena. Human remains were also found at both sites.
The bones have been packed away at Frome Museum, but during the last decade, museum curators have worked on the collection and looked for evidence they provide. In 2016, Frome Museum staged an exhibition of the finds telling the story of how hyaena bones were found in the cave close to Frome alongside other carnivore remains and some of the animals they were feeding on.
Quest
More recently, museum trustees have joined with scientists in a quest to find out the age of the remains by radiocarbon dating. Biomedical scientist, Andrew Edwards, explained, “This collection of remains is similar to the types of mammal remains also found at the hyaena den at Wookey Hole and Pin Hole Cave, Cresswell Crags, Derbyshire. Naturally, all volunteers at Frome Museum including Simon Carpenter and Colin Wisbey, the curator of the museum, were interested in the date of the human remains from that same site. More specifically, the museum needed to know if the human remains were of the same age as the hyaena remains.
“By working together, professor Andrew Chamberlain (bioarchaeologist from Bournemouth University), Graham Mullan (University of Bristol Spelaeological Society), trustees of Frome Museum, Linda Wilson and Graham Mullan (both from the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society), and myself applied for funding from the British Cave Research Association in order to get these human remains radiocarbon dated. In addition, human remains from another Stoke Lane Cave site, called Stoke Lane Swallet, were also examined.
Complete human skull
“These consisted of one almost complete human skull and several human skulls that are also housed at Frome Museum. It was decided to send these off for radiocarbon dating as well. It needs noting that no hyaena or woolly rhinoceros remains were found at Stoke Lane Swallet. Dr Timothy Knowles of the University of Bristol Chemistry Department undertook the radiocarbon dating procedures on all the human bone samples.
“In a commentary kindly provided by Professor Andrew Chamberlain, the results of the radiocarbon dating from Brownes’ Hole indicate that the human long bone was relatively recent in age, dating back to the last century BC, just prior to the date that a Roman coin was also deposited at Brownes’ Hole. Professor Andrew Chamberlain explains to us that many of the caves on Mendip were used as natural burial chambers at around that time. This included the Wookey Hole cave that was also used for cave burials.
“Professor Chamberlain says that the results from the dating of the skulls recovered from nearby cave, Stoke Lane Swallet, indicated that they were much older than those at Brownes’ Hole; they were approximately 4,200 and 3,800 years old, we might refer to this as the Bronze Age. The age difference of 400 year raises questions about the use of the Stoke Lane Swallet site. Approximately 4,000 years ago the bone chamber, where the skulls were deposited, would have been more accessible than it is today. Bronze Age finds in Mendip are particularly rare.”
Any enquiries about the finds from Brownes’ Hole and Stoke Lane Swallet can be directed to Colin Wisbey of Frome Museum or Brian Marshall at the reception desk at Frome Museum. Both of whom can arrange an appointment to view the diaries, notebooks and some of these specimens and other artefacts recovered over that time.
