A team of archaeologists are digging at Creswell Crags to find evidence of links to witch markings that are found inside the caves.
Episode 2 of Series 8 of Digging for Britain, where Professor Alice Roberts follows British archaeology, aired on BBC Four's 20th birthday night at 9pm, called 'North'.
Featured in the episode is a team from the University of Sheffield who is digging at Creswell Crags in Worksop to understand the lives of people who occupied a village near the famous caves.
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell on the Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire border, and contains caves that were occupied during the last ice age at least 10,000 years ago.
The Sheffield team is digging just outside the entrance to the caves where a medieval village is thought to have been.
Dr Kevin Kuykendall, of University of Sheffield, said: "By doing an archaeology excavation there, we might find some information on the materials that were used by people living there.
"We found a flint blade tool, or a flake, which is interesting because it's much older than what we thought we were going to find.
"It's a reminder the archaeology here spans an incredible period of time."
The excavation is in the early stages, and the team hopes to find evidence that links to witches symbols found inside the caves.
The walls in the caves are covered in strange marks scratched into the rock.
Two amateur symbologists visited the site in 2019, and recognised single marks as witches marks.
Witches marks were used by locals in the hope to ward off evil spirits.
Alison Fearn, of University of Leicester, said: "The most common mark at Creswell is the conjoined V, which refers to the Virgin Mary, and we sometimes find marks with Christ's name.
"We find IX, which is known from other cave contacts and from churches and buildings as well."
King James I published a compendium of witchcraft lore called Daemonologie in 1597, and witchcraft was believed until the 19th century.
There are dates of 1717 and 1718 inscribed on the cave walls, in the middle of the period it's believed the markings date to, and there's also a date of 1505 further in the tunnel.
A large concentration of the witch marks are in the area dubbed 'The Gateway to Hell'.
Cave guide John Charlesworth said: "There's a gaping chasm in the middle of the chamber which is around 12-15 feet deep.
"There may have been a draft blowing through that, and evil spirits are meant to follow flows of air, so that could have been concerning them.
"Maybe there's been some mortality, or cows aren't producing enough milk, which they might have thought was down to an evil influence, and that might want to do something about it and drive that evil into the furthest parts of the cave to trap it there."
The caves were featured in Series 1 of Digging for Britain too, where its art was discussed.
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