Buried Underground: The Excavation of Iron Age activity at Read's Cavern, SW U.K | Christopher Kerns

Dr. Christopher Kerns, TMHC Inc. Consulting, London, Ontario, speaking on the results and conclusions from excavations he conducted at Read’s Cavern during April and May 2010. While the excavation revealed intact Iron Age deposits consistent with those reported by earlier 1920’s excavations, analysis of the material from the 2010 excavation has indicated a significantly more complex set of depositional practices than previously suggested. The cave will be placed in its broader Iron Age context in southwest England, which includes activities in the Mendips and the Somerset levels as well as Britain and Western Europe more broadly.

A more detailed understanding of the taphonomic processes raised questions regarding the original conclusions that Read’s Cavern was a site of habitation and domestic activity. The possible uses of the cave have been reconsidered through comparisons to activities taking place at other Iron Age sites around Britain, including other cave sites. The defining aspect of Read’s Cavern as a space is its lack of visibility, as both a feature in the landscape and as a place in which it was difficult to penetrate the darkness. Concepts of contamination and cleanliness may have had an important role in forming the intricately structured deposits within Read’s Cavern.

Such an interpretation of the cave may also give insight into how people in the Iron Age viewed and understood the landscape around them. It may even give further insight into cosmological concepts and structures during the Iron Age outside the context of the cavern. The contextual aspects of the site combined with the new archaeological material recovered during the excavation has led to the proposal that the cavern may have been utilized to contain and/or negate profane objects and material within a changing and developing Iron Age cosmology.

Formalities 0:00
Introduction 1:56
Context: Cave in the Mendips 3:31
Context: The Iron Age 8:14
Past Excavations 17:00
2010 Excavations 26:58
Interpretations of Evidence 44:40
Conclusion 1:00:31