Random things in caves

[mikem]

The things diggers get up to when the tubs aren't filling...

Mike

 

[Elaine]

Ah - I love the detail (pocket on sleeve)! Brilliant.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Human skulls, fashioned into drinking bowls.

 

[estelle]

The things diggers get up to when the tubs aren't filling...

at least the ones in white pit are a bit 'cleaner' (so far) than the ones we created in our Cuthberts dig...

 

[Roger W]

Human skulls, fashioned into drinking bowls.

Reference here:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20110217/tuk-ancient-britons-out-of-their-skulls-6323e80.html

If they had been found in Tibet, I would have gone along with the drinking cup idea.

But Gough's Cave?  More likely some early Mendip cavers trying to fashion some helmet shells for their kids.

 

[Rich West]

For a more scientific take on the subject of the skulls from Goughs Cave being used as drinking cups -
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026

 

[Roger W]

For a more scientific take on the subject of the skulls from Goughs Cave being used as drinking cups -
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017026

A good article, that, and well worth reading in full.

This particular "random thing" has spawned its own thread in "Mendip" and that's probably the best place for further discussion/comment.

 

[kay]

Human skulls, fashioned into drinking bowls.

that was on the news this morning, with Chris Stringer giving a blow by blow account of how to do it. Not the most appetising thing to wake up to.

 

[droid]

Bombs and bullets in caves near El Mazuco, the site of a battle in the closing phase of the Spanish Civil War (scary).

We found a hand grenade in a hole near Vega Huerta in the Picos.

 

[Rich West]

Tripod mount & seat for a Civil War era Maxim .303 Machine Gun and several hundred rounds spilled on the ground from rotten wooden ammo boxes & canvas belts. In shelter cave on cliff face of the Vega de Liordes, Picos de Europa. Samples of the ammo were taken to show the local Guarda Civil in the vague hope that they would supply a nice helicopter ride up to the site thereby avoiding the long grind up from the valley floor - they were not in the least interested - and no doubt went back to sleep!

 

[Subpopulus Hibernia]

A stash of War of Independence/Civil War guns was also found in the Gunmans Cave entrance to Pollnagollum in Co. Clare. The helpful rebels had also buried the entrance to hide them.

 

[graham]

A stash of War of Independence/Civil War guns was also found in the Gunmans Cave entrance to Pollnagollum in Co. Clare. The helpful rebels had also buried the entrance to hide them.

Exaggerating somewhat there. I suggest you go back to E.A. Baker's account of what they found there in the 1920s.

I have been told that another (very) well known Clare cave was also a hideaway in those troubled times despite not being known by cavers until the 1970s but I don't believe a word of it.

 

[robjones]

In July 1983 UCW Aberystwyth CC found a human skull in Poll Gorm, County Clare, The local police were most unenthusiastic to get involved and in retrospect it can probably be attributed to the civil war period with the identity of the deceased quite possibly being known locally but not talked about.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I once found a Thompson sub machine gun down the bottom of a deep rift. Sadly the police confiscated it. The Slaughter dog is well known but I heard yesterday he has started to moulder due to being covered over with film.

Well here he is in his prime as it were.