Picken's Hole

Picken's Hole is a small cave on the southern side of Crook Peak in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, designated as a scheduled monument. Named after M. J. Picken who found teeth in badger-disturbed earth, the cave sits 8 m below the plateau and 27 m above the valley floor. It yielded Middle Palaeolithic artefacts and faunal deposits from approximately 35,000 BP, including spotted hyena, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and reindeer remains. A human premolar radiocarbon-dated to 3695-3500 BC confirms Early Neolithic use of the cave.