Mendip Hills lithics. Large numbers of artefacts have been found near Neolithic, Iron Age, and Bronze Age features, such as the barrows and forts around Priddy and at Dolebury Warren. The caves of Cheddar Gorge have yielded many archaeological remains, as flood waters have washed artefacts and bones into the caves and preserved them in silt. The Cheddar Man, Britain's oldest complete skeleton, was found in Gough's Cave, part of the Cheddar Complex. Within the Mendip Hills AONB, good evidence exists for 286 definite examples of round barrows, including the Priddy Nine Barrows and Ashen Hill Barrow Cemeteries. The Historic England Archive
Wookey Hole Caves gate servicing the paper mill was built about 1852. The tunnel excavated from the third chamber to the ninth chamber and then out to daylight was dug in 1974–1975 by ex-coal miners from the Radstock area. The show cave was further extended in 2015 by excavating a tunnel from the ninth chamber to the 20th chamber. The constant temperature of in the caves is used by Ford Farm of Dorset to mature Cheddar cheese in the 'Cheese Tunnel' – an excavated side tunnel between the ninth chamber and the exit to the show cave. Archaeological investigations were undertaken from 1859