1. Post-Depositional
Processes Within Cave
Sites Affecting the
Taphonomy of Human
Remains

2. Why Caves?
• Because caves are cool
• Contain some of the earliest human remains
• Earliest depictions created by man

3. Cave Morphology
• Limestone caves

4. Cave Morphology
• Sea Caves/Littoral Caves

5. Cosquer Cave

6. Sandstone Caves

8. Unnatural “Caves”

9. Use of caves
• Shelter
• Occupation
• Funerary
• Storage
• Quarries

10. 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.

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

12. Cova des Pas Menorca

13. 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

14. Post depositional process on taphony
caused by other natural processes
Rock falls + importance on archaeological record
Bioturbation
Soil
Mineral content of cave positive and negative
Water table
Fluvial processes
All of these aspects can change the way in which
we interpret the archaeological record

15. Fluvial Processes

16. “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

17. fossilisation
• Petrification
• Replacement
• Perimineralisation
• Coprolites

18. Difficulties in sorting

19. Tooth or Poop?

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