The Big Questions?

[Pitlamp]

Archaeologists naturally tend to take the long view, given that a lot of the best stuff that had been happily sat in the ground for thousands of years was ruined by digging in the last two hundred by 'Antiquarians'. They will naturally prefer stuff to sit in the ground for some future archaeologist rather than be dug up today in a way that loses information - after all, if it's a thousand years old already what's another 100 years before a future archaeologist digs it up?

Sucks for the digging, of course.

I can't disagree; they take the view that future archaeologists will have better techniques, so would get more information from a dig than present day archaeologists.

The other side of the coin is that blanket obstructiveness to cave explorers will lead to them becoming wary of reporting archaeological finds in the first place, so more may be lost than saved. (I'm not advocating that approach, just saying it's likely to happen).

It's all about balance; when archaeologists and cavers work together in parnership, everyone benefits. That seems to have been the case in the Dales over recent years, perhaps helped along by the fact that we have some notable caving archaeologists.

Why is Eldon Hole so archaeologically important? It's not like it's an occupation site; any artefacts down there will have been chucked down. (That's a genuine question Mark - I'm interested in its archaeological potentail as well as the more obvious speleological potential.)

 

[paul]

See on the forum for the Eldon Hole - Trip Reports from May 2015.

I can't work out how to link it.

Here's the link: https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/eldon-hole-trip-report.18285/

 

[Lankyman]

Why is Eldon Hole so archaeologically important? It's not like it's an occupation site; any artefacts down there will have been chucked down. (That's a genuine question Mark - I'm interested in its archaeological potentail as well as the more obvious speleological potential.)

I'm surprised that so few open shafts are archaeological sites given how obviously they were portals into an underworld realm. I think that water was seen as sacred by the Iron Age tribes of Britain and Ireland hence the many deposits of weapons, gold and even human bodies.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Phah... If archeological artefacts and found, just re- bury them in careful geometric patterns with the lot roughly aligned to solstice sunrise/sunset.
They'll spend years pondering the shapes and what kind of ritual behaviour must have been involved, before they realise and get cross with anyone.

pwhole has pointed out a mud/rubble blocked "portal" seemingly carefully picked away at <<location withheld>> . Having examined it a couple of occasions - it's definitely been picked. It could extend North a good 100mm or 100m or another number in-between. Apologies for a broad range of magnitude in my "survey" measurement there

It's such an intriguing lead, at least in my head... I'm wondering why it wasn't mentioned in this thread already. An elephant in the room? So I didn't name the location above in case it's something that shouldn't be mentioned currently?