Bray's Cave facts for kids

Bray's Cave is a limestone cave found in Gibraltar, a British territory. It's a special type of cave called a solutional cave. Scientists have found human remains and important items from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Bronze Age periods here.

Three nearly complete skulls were discovered in the cave. What makes this find so important is that people kept coming back to the cave to use it for burials. Other skull pieces from different people were also found. It seems that older remains were moved to make space for new burials.

Exploring Bray's Cave: What is it Like?

Bray's Cave is located high up on the western side of the Rock of Gibraltar. It sits about 400 metres (1,300 ft) above sea level. This area is part of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

It's interesting that this cave is on the western side. Most caves in Gibraltar, like Gorham's Cave, are on the eastern cliffs. Before people started digging, the cave was mostly filled with dirt, rocks, and large boulders. It looked more like a simple rock shelter.

Digging out the cave was hard work. But it showed that Bray's Cave was formed along the natural layers of the limestone rock. It runs from north to south and has many different cave formations. These are typical of caves with long, tunnel-like passages.

Uncovering History: What Did Archaeologists Find?

The cave holds clues about three different times when humans lived there. There are also two layers of earth where no human traces were found. These layers help scientists understand the cave's long history.

Layers of Time: What Each Level Tells Us

Archaeologists dig through different layers of soil and rock. Each layer can tell them about a different time period.

Level I: Recent Times

This top layer shows signs of use from the 1700s to the 1900s. This means people were still using the cave even a few hundred years ago.

Level II: Medieval Period

This layer dates back to the 1300s, during the time of the Marinid Sultanate. People from this period used the cave as a temporary shelter. They left behind pieces of pottery and animal bones, especially from goats. This suggests they might have been shepherds. They also left behind remains of their cooking fires.

Level III: Bronze Age Burials

This is the oldest layer with human activity. It shows that the cave was used as a burial site during the Bronze Age. People used natural rock formations, like circular pools of rock, as part of their burial areas. It was an organized place for funerals.

Shepherds from the Middle Ages

Gibraltar was an important place for the Marinids in the Iberian Peninsula. You can still see parts of their history today, like the Moorish Castle. The Gibraltar Museum also has many items found from their time.

The items found in Bray's Cave show that shepherds sometimes used the cave. This was common in many caves during the Middle Ages. They found cooking pots, bowls, and many goat bones. Many of the goat bones were from young animals. This tells us about their food and way of life.

Bronze Age Burials: A Special Discovery

Finding Bronze Age remains in southern Iberia is rare. So, the discoveries at Bray's Cave are very important. Other caves in Gibraltar, like Judge's Cave, had also shown signs of being used for burials.

Deep inside Bray's Cave, there's a large, round rock formation. It's about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) across. Here, archaeologists found many rocks that had been carefully placed. These rocks covered a burial site. It seems people had used this natural rock formation like a special burial chamber.

The burials are spread out across the cave. This shows that there were specific burial areas. It also suggests that older remains were sometimes moved to make room for new burials.

Along with human bones, archaeologists found pottery from the Bronze Age. These included bowls and large round pots. They also found goat bones and shells. These tell us what these ancient communities ate.

The burials in Bray's Cave add to the list of known Bronze Age burial sites in southern Iberia. These include sites like Necrópolis de los Algarbes in Tarifa.