bray’s, a cave with a long history

Archaeological stratigraphy is the study of the superposition of layers or strata of sediments on the ground with an archaeological purpose in mind. Each layer has a different age, and depending on where we find an object, we can establish its antiquity. The study of the objects contained in each of the strata reveals what happened at each moment.

We will read the stratigraphy at Bray’s Cave from bottom to top – in other words from oldest to most modern. Thanks to the combination of various dating methods: ceramic typology, uranium-thorium and carbon-14, we can fairly accurately reconstruct the cave’s history.

The first time the cave was used by humans was during the Bronze Age (3,900 years ago), when the cave was used as a burial vault. Two graves have been recorded structured with stones, with one of them taking advantage of the natural rimstone to form the tomb, containing grave goods and offerings such as ceramics, remains of limpets and mussels and necklace beads.

We later recorded some large fallen boulders, which would have been due to a collapse of the cave ceiling.

We then came across a medieval occupation level, which by the type of ceramics found is attributable to the Marinids-Nasrids of the 14th century. The remains of fires, ceramic kitchenware and many goat bones appeared and was therefore interpreted as a result of use by goatherds.

Finally, the stratigraphy ends with a 19th century level which included smoking pipes, stoneware bottles along with a large number of rocks and sediments which seem to correspond to landslides above the cave at the time when works were being carried out to create roads on the Rock as well as further ceiling collapses.

The last major event at Bray’s Cave was the arrival of our archaeologists to discover the information it contained!

We hope you enjoy the GIF.
Note: BP = Before Present.