Archaeology of Caves and Caverns (Archaeospeleology)

A large portion of the ceramic assemblage recovered from the Maya cave site of Naj Tunich, Guatemala consists of undecorated and unslipped types generally considered to be “utilitarian” or “domestic” wares. This identification is based upon type-variety analysis rather than any evidence of the actual use to which they were put. That these ceramics were deposited in conjunction with domestic activities is at odds with the widely accepted interpretation that the Maya employed caves almost exclusively for ritual purposes. There is reason to believe that these ceramics were, in fact, used as incense burners. This study represents an attempt to identify the characteristic triterpenoid signature of copal incense in the residues on Naj Tunich ceramics by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. While the effort was ultimately unsuccessful, interesting insights into the applications of analytical chemistry in Maya cave archaeology were realized.

A detailed geomorphological study was performed in the Atxurra‐Armiña cave system (northern Iberian Peninsula) to decode landscape evolution, palaeoenvironmental changes and human use of a cave within an Inner Archaeological Context. The results show an average incision rate of the river of <0.083 mm a–1 for at least the last 419 ka, with interruptions due to sedimentary inputs. Moreover, allostratigraphic units comprising fluviokarstic deposits at the base and flowstone formation at the top have been shown to be climatically controlled, formed either during glacial–interglacial cycles or during interstadial cycles. Finally, when the cave was used by humans in the Late Magdalenian, the lower entrance was closed, and they must therefore have entered the cave through the upper entrance. To reach the sectors selected to decorate the panels, they probably travelled from the upper cave level, as the current crawlway was wider than today, according to our U/Th dating. Once these visitors reached the panels, the floor in the main gallery would have been around 15 cm lower than at present. However, the morphology of the conduit was similar; this has significant implications for understanding and interpreting the human use of the cave during the Palaeolithic.

Visibility has been the subject of study in Palaeolithic rock art research ever since the discovery of Altamira Cave in 1879. Nevertheless, until now, the different approaches have been based on subjective assessments, due to computational limitations for a more objective methodology. Nowadays, cutting-edge technologies such as GIS allow us to address spatial studies in caves and overcome their geomorphologically complex and closed characteristics. Here we describe an innovative methodology that uses computing tools available to any researcher to study the viewsheds of the graphic units in decorated caves. We have tested its validity on the recently discovered rock art ensemble of Atxurra Cave, in Northern Spain. We demonstrate that this technology (GIS), widely used in other fields of archaeology, especially in outdoor studies, is also useable in caverns, taking into account the complex morphologies -ceilings and diverse floor-levels, for example. These programmes have also allowed us to consider the lighting systems used by the prehistoric groups inside the cave, as well as various data previously estimated by other authors, such as the height of individuals during the European LUP. The dynamism of these tools −2.5D-, as well as the advancement of new 3D GIS technologies, will allow in the future remarkable progress in these types of structural studies for a better understanding of Palaeolithic cave art phenomena.

U/Th data obtained on CaCO3 layers covering rock art at Nerja Cave (Spain) evidence erroneous ages and an inverse relation between uranium concentration and apparent ages. This open system behavior could be due to a mechanism causing uranium mobility, resulting in apparent ages being too old with respect to their real age. This article also questions recently published U/Th data on samples from Ardales, Maltravieso and La Pasiega caves (Spain) where a few U/Th ages older than 40 ka BP, suggested that cave art could be attributed to Middle Palaeolithic population (Hoffmann et al., 2018). For these caves, U/Th data also display an inverse relation between U content and ages, indicating possible uranium mobility and erroneous ages.

A tree hollow or tree hole is a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree. They are found mainly in old trees, whether living or not. Hollows form in many species of trees, and are a prominent feature of natural forests and woodlands, and act as a resource or habitat for a number of vertebrate and invertebrate animals.

Hollows may form as the result of physiological stress from natural forces causing the excavating and exposure of the heartwood. Forces including wind, fire, heat, lightning, rain, attack from insects (such as ants or beetles), bacteria, or fungi. Also, trees may self-prune, dropping lower branches as they reach maturity, exposing the area where the branch was attached. Many animals further develop the hollows using instruments such as their beak, teeth or claws.

A tree hollow is a cavity in a living tree. Tree holes can be caused when an injury to the tree, such as breakage of a limb, creates an opening through the bark and exposes the sapwood. The sapwood is attacked by fungi and bacteria, which form a cavity in the bole of the tree. The resulting cavity can fill with water, thus becoming a type of phytotelma. Therefore, there are wet and dry tree holes. Tree holes are important habitats for many animals and even (prehistoric) humans.
In this case we speak of caverns.

26th EAA Virtual Annual Meeting, 24-30 August 2020

Although caves are dynamic landforms that have changed over time, both physically and culturally, their characteristically sheltered interiors can be assumed to have retained aspects of their past sensoriums across prehistory and history. With the aim of achieving a better understanding of human uses and experiences of caves, we therefore consider the sensorium as an essential component. We also believe that to record and analyse their sensory dimensions in a scientific manner will complement established forms of cave archaeology data, at the same time as contributing to the broader goal of developing a methodologically more rigorous sensory archaeology.

In this framework, we are gathering and comparing sensory archaeological data for a sample of caves from diverse prehistoric cultures, periods and regions across the Northern Mediterranean. The three currently selected caves are: Mala (Nova) Pećina in Croatia, with Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age occupation deposits; Grotta Pila in west-central Italy, with Epigravettian occupation evidence as well as Early Bronze Age mortuary deposits; and Cueva Merinel in Spain, which developed as a key itinerary for ritual pilgrims drawn from diverse settlements during Iron Age.

In this presentation, we detail how we are recording and analysing the environments of these caves focusing on the ways that people interacted with them in prehistory. In particular, we have begun to record their sensorially stimulating micro-climatic features, such as temperature, humidity, luminance, airflows, kinaesthetic and sounds, as well as mapping their archaeology remains. Based on previous work by Trimmis, we are employing a ‘Paperless Mapping Methodology’ for the cave survey and sensorial data georeferencing. Ultimately, we will correlate, in a computational environment, the archaeological data with the sensorial data, in order to define and compare the sensorial impact of embodied visits, occupations and performances in these spaces in different cultural, temporal and landscape contexts.

The paper approaches the embodied and material dimensions of human subjectivity through exploring the human encounters with caves through concepts of affect, emotion, body, materiality, performance and practice.  This approach explores how through pre-personal relations between material bodies, things and places combine to form affective fields.  These visceral engagements constitute a background within which the cave is apprehended. But there is always an excess.  This affective atmosphere in the cave can be described as “haunting”. Haunting is something attached to a place, it speaks of the sense of uneasiness. This unease can be described in different ways, using interrelated concepts of uncanny, sublime or abject. All revolve around the theme of boundary-blurring, destabilisation breakdown and destruction of boundaries and concepts, make the world intelligible and meaningful.

The subject, constructed in a process of creating the meaning of the world, through representations, is constantly faced by abjection.  Abject refers to the the raw vitality of material, to the powers of the earth, the meaningless chaotic nature, sublime non-human powers, the meaningless otherness which haunts caves and threatens the symbolic order and culture. Performances and representations emerge as ways of approaching the experience of ultimate alterity, erosion of certainty. Notions of sacred, numinous are ways of approaching the uncanny, sublime or abject. The subject is born out of a traumatic event of an encounter with the haunted, that makes it yearn for a return to someplace before entering into the symbolic order.  Human subjectivity is something that emerges as the effect of the symbolic order, constituting a break from the immediate encounter with the ultimate other.   

In the end, can archaeology contribute to the questions of subjectivity?  How can be located within the current landscape dominated by neuroscience on one hand and psychoanalysis on the other?

Balve is a town in the Märkischer Kreis district, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in Hönnetal, a narrow valley created by the river Hönne, which is near the Sorpe Dam, formerly part of Balve, and at the north end of the Sauerland, near Dortmund. The town was established in 1975 with several divisions including Balve, Beckum and Eisborn and Garbeck.

The first reference to Balve is from around 780, when it was mentioned that a Widukind owned a farm called Ballowa, another name for the town, although this reference has been disputed. The first undisputed reference was in 864, in which a blind girl from Balve was said to be healed at the grave of the Saint Ludger in the crypt of Werden Abbey.

Ballowa is also mentioned in the Thidrekssaga, a chivalric saga written in the mid-13th century in Norway. In the saga, Ballowa is the home of two dwarfs who taught Weyland much about making iron weapons. At the time of writing, Balve belonged to the county of Arnsberg.

In 1358 the town became the property of the Duchy of Westphalia, which belonged to the Archbishops of Cologne. In 1430 it was given the right to be called a city. During the Napoleonic period, it belonged for a short time (1802–1815) to Hesse, after which time it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Widukind
Very little is known about Widukind's life. His name literally translates as "child of the wood" (i.e. a wolf), more probably a kenning than a proper name.
In the chronicles he is accompanied by Abbi, they may have some close relation but it is not sure, because all sources about him stem from his enemies, the Franks, who painted a negative picture, representing him as an "insurgent" and a "traitor".
While Widukind was considered the leader of the Saxon resistance by the Franks, his exact role in the military campaigns is unknown.

During the autumn of 2019, based on some field surveys done for historical supporting studies in order to update the General Urbanism Plans, we started a perieghetic research in the border of the of Aștileu and Bratca communes, located in the northern area of the Pădurea Craiului Mountains.
On this occasion we tried to identify in the field, the archaeological sites already reported in the scientific literature, to identify new sites and to make topographic surveys (STEREO 70) in order to protect them. Thus, we were able to correlate the archaeological information with the speleological studies and the local oral history, managing to clarify some unclear or sometimes contradictory aspects of information.