Cave archaeology and post depositional processes affecting taphonomy session 4 Danielle Beilby

Post-Depositional Processes Within Cave

Sites Affecting the Taphonomy of Human

Remains

Why Caves?

• Because caves are cool• Contain some of the earliest human remains• Earliest depictions created by man

Cave Morphology

• Limestone caves

Cave Morphology• Sea Caves/Littoral Caves

Cosquer Cave

Sandstone Caves

Unnatural “Caves”

Use of caves

• Shelter

• Occupation

• Funerary

• Storage

• Quarries

Preservation And Degredation

• Caves can create a microclimate perfect for preserving, mummifying and fossilizing archaeological material.

• Caves however can also act as natural water courses and if deep enough can be affected by the water table

• Throughout history caves have often been used and reused by people and animals, each leaving their own impact, and destroying others.

Taphonomy?

• “Taphonomy is a multidisciplinary field that aims to understand how paleontological or archaeological remains are formed, distributed and modified”

Cova des Pas Menorca

Taphonomy in Cava Des Pas

• Macroscopic Changes to human remains when any human bone is buried and can be taphonomically altered in three ways.

1. Cortical Surface- Changes in chemical and physical weathering producing cracks, scaling decomp…

2. Fractures- absent or apparent, shape, type and pattern

3. Disturbce- momement from decomposition

Post depositional process on taphony caused by other natural processes

Rock falls + importance on archaeological recordBioturbation SoilMineral content of cave positive and negativeWater tableFluvial processesAll of these aspects can change the way in which we interpret the archaeological record

Fluvial Processes

“When a fresh bone becomes buried in the earth, it undergoes chemical changes differing in nature and degree with the chemistry of the surrounding matrix “ I. W Cornwall 1956

fossilisation

• Petrification

• Replacement

• Perimineralisation

• Coprolites

Difficulties in sorting

Tooth or Poop?

Archaeology- Destructive science which takes it toll on the material which is excavated.