Cave find
Cave finds are remnants of prehistoric times originating from humans or animals , which often lie under stalactite and sinter formations or deep under clay and sand deposits .
Deposits
Cave finds provide valuable material for gaining knowledge of the earliest periods in human history. A distinction is made between primary and secondary deposits . Primary shows the remains of animals that found shelter in the caves during their lifetime and perished here. In the case of secondary deposits, the finds entered the cave interior through geological earth movements or water. The bones are then almost always "rolled"; H. Abraded at the edges, and lying around randomly.
Fund types
Many cave finds in Central Europe come from animals that have now become extinct or have disappeared from Europe : mammoth , rhinoceros , cave lion , cave bear , hyena , aurochs , giant deer , etc. There are also finds of the current animal population such as wolf , fox , badger , goat , chamois , Bunny . Relatively few bones are of human origin. Famous is the discovery made in 1856 in the Neanderthal Cave with the skull of a Neanderthal man .
Often, however, there are remains of human use of caves as places of worship or burial sites such as the Lichtenstein cave . Here you can sometimes find considerable amounts of hand axes, chisels, scrapers, weapons, jewelry bottles, body jewelry (such as animal teeth) and axes. Also cave paintings often find themselves with drawings of reindeer, bears and other huntable animals.
See also
For the modern living options in caves, see Wohnhöhle .
literature
- Wilhelm Bleicher: The importance of the Iron Age cave finds of the Hönnetal: A contribution to the prehistory and early history of the northern Sauerland , Verlag Freunde der Burg Altena, 1991, ISBN 3923262043