Section II

Stratigraphy

A cave fill accumulates from the bottom up, so the order of the layers is the order of events. These entries cover the principle, what the sediment is made of, and the ways a sequence gets disturbed before anyone reads it.

• 01Depth is timeThe principle the whole discipline rests on: what is lower was deposited earlier, unless something disturbed it.
• 02Cave loam and the limestone floorCave fill is not soil; it is a slow accumulation of washed-in sediment, roof fall and occupation debris sitting on bedrock.
• 03Modern disturbanceQuarrying, earlier digging and animal burrowing all move material, and reading a section means spotting where that happened.