Kirkhead Cave: Biostratigraphy and Magnetostratigraphy

Abstract

Existing hypotheses concerning the speed and timing of the recolonisation of Britain by man after the last glaciation have largely been developed in the absence of securely‐dated Later Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) sites in the marginal areas of colonisation. In Kirkhead Cave, the most important LUP site in northern England, palynological, molluscan and palaeomagnetic evidence indicate that LUP occupation did not commence until mid‐pollen zone III of the Late‐glacial. This suggests later and slower colonisation of marginal areas than indicated by previous hypotheses.

The Stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an Upper Palaeolithic Site in Northern England: a comment.

“…Several spectra from Section B, in being omitted from the pollen diagram, are assumed by this reader to be non-polleniferous. Comments by Gale et al (1984) appear to confirm this. Such omissions may justifiably give rise to doubts concerning the size of pollen sums reached in the depicted spectra.…”