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at the Lesser Garth Cave, Pentyrch By M. S. HUSSEY Final excavation of the Lesser Garth Cave, Pentyrch (Glam.) was carried out by the writer during the period April 1963 to February 1964. Members of several South Wales spelaeological societies-mainly the Llandaff Technical College Caving Club and the Distillers Caving Club-took part, and the writer is extremely grateful for their assistance. Dr. H. N. Savory of the National Museum of Wales willingly gave his assistance and co- operation, without which the excavation could hardly have been successfully concluded. The Steetley Dolomite Quarry Co. kindly allowed us passage across their land making access to the site much easier. Through the generosity of the Earl of Plymouth the finds are now housed in the National Museum of Wales (Accession No. 64.135). The Lesser Garth Cave is situated on the side of the heavily wooded Lesser Garth hill just north of Radyr, Glamorgan (ST 126822, O.S. one-inch sheet 154). The approach to the cave entrance from the south is a steep slope with outcropping carboniferous limestone, heavily glaciated, with a thin covering of earth and leaf mould (Plate 1). The cave, the entrance to which is a small hole at the foot of one of these outcrops, is 300 ft. to the west of the Tynant Quarry and 50 ft. below the ridge. It has a main passage approximately 100 yards long, some 50 ft. high and 20 ft. wide, at its largest point (plan, Fig. 1). Several smaller passages run off from this main chamber, which is filled with loosely packed large boulders to a height of 20 ft. These no doubt represent a roof collapse which, as will be seen, probably occurred during the history of human occupation of the cave. A very large quarry, exploited by the Steetley Dolomite Quarry Co., is now beginning to encroach on the area of the cave from the west, and this made its final exploration highly desirable. There have been two previous excavations of which we have knowledge, little though it may be. The first took place in 1912, and was carried out by a Mr. T. E. Lewis of Morganstown, Radyr. His excavations were apparently extremely haphazard and his findings never published. He did, however, deposit his finds together with a few notes in the National Museum of Wales. These notes contain a rough list of finds and sketch maps of the excavations, which unfortunately do not seem to relate to the cave as it is at present. The finds, although unstratified, are quite plentiful and in certain cases of great interest. Amongst them are sherds of a late Bronze Age knobbed pot (Fig. 3.8), a re- construction of which can be seen at the National Museum of Wales,1 some metallic objects which have been identified by L. Alcock as Dark Age and of Irish origin,2 and Romano- British coarse sherds.3 The finding of human remains at the bottom of a 20 ft. crevice at this stage was explained by John Ward, then Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, by the theory that the cave was originally a Neolithic burial chamber and that later occupants had removed the skeletons to make room for themselves. The fact that the entrance was small and could easily have been blocked is thought by Ward o support this theory, but the only real evidence was the presence of two flint objects wfiH h could be assigned to the Neolithic period.4 A large collection of sherds was thought y Final Excavations DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE PREVIOUS EXCAVATIONS