Throughout history, primitive peoples have made use of caves for shelter, burial, or as religious sites. Since items placed in caves are protected from the climate and scavanging animals, which means caves are an archaeological treasure house for learning about indigenous people.
Cave paintings are of particular interest. One example is the Great Cave of Niah, in Malaysia which contains evidence of human habitation dating back 40,000 years. The main cave is one of the largest limestone caves in the world. The cave system is an important prehistorical site with human remains dating to 40,000 years ago. Painted Cave has rock paintings dated at 1200 years. The caves are also well known for the birds' nest collection.
Caves are also important for geological research because they can reveal details of past climactic conditions in speleothems and sediment layers.
The word 'cave' is sometimes a metaphor for the mind, hidden within is sacred knowledge that yearns to be discovered.
Caves around the world contain information in various forms about the ancient history of planet Earth as if markers in time. Hidden within caves we find:
Access to Subterranean Civilizations
Quamran Caves - Dead Sea Scrolls
Petroglyphs - Pictographs - Cave Paintings - Geoglyphs
Cave at Lascaux, France Oldest Petroglyphs
Lascaux is a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its cave paintings. The original caves, located near the village of Montignac. They contain some of the earliest known art, dating back to somewhere between 13,000 and 15,000 BCE, or as far back as 25,000 BCE.
The Ajanta Caves in India are 29 rock-cut cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art (which depict the Jataka tales) as well as frescos which are reminiscent of the Sigiriya paintings in Sri Lanka. The caves were built in two phases starting around 200 BCE, with the second group of caves built around 600 CE.
Since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon, just outside the village of Ajintha. Caves are only about 59 kilometers from Jalgaon Railway station (on Delhi - Mumbai, Rail line of the Central railways, India); and 104 kilometers from Aurangabad (from Ellora Caves 100 Kilometers).
Iraq: The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave Smithsonian - March 2010
A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture.
Shanidar Cave Wikipedia
Iraq The Hidden Story Google Videos (48:40)
The Cave of Tayos is a natural cave located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains in the Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador.
The cave was popularized by Erich von DanikenŐs 1973 book The Gold of the Gods, in which he wrote that Juan Moricz had claimed to have explored Cueva de los Tayos in 1969 and discovered mounds of gold, unusual sculptures and a metallic library. These items were said to be located within artificial tunnels that had been created by a lost civilization with help from extraterrestrial beings. Von Dniken had previously stirred public imagination by suggesting that extraterrestrials were involved in ancient civilizations in his popular book Chariots of the Gods?.
As a result of the claims published in von DnikenŐs book, an investigation of Cueva de los Tayos was organized by Stan Hall from Britain in 1976. One of the largest and most expensive cave explorations ever undertaken, the expedition included over a hundred people, including experts in a variety of fields, British and Ecuadorian military personnel, a film crew, and former astronaut Neil Armstrong. The team also included eight experienced British cavers who thoroughly explored the cave and conducted an accurate survey to produce a detailed map of the cave. There was no evidence of Von DnikenŐs more exotic claims, although some physical features of the cave did approximate his descriptions and some items of zoological, botanical and archaeological interest were found.
In the 20th century, a Roman Catholic missionary named Father Carlo Crespi helped the local Indians, the Shuar culture, who gave him some unique gifts that often took the form of elaborately carved artifacts some made of gold or other precious metals. Many of these artifacts feature elaborate carvings and symbols not know to be associated with the Shuar people. One of the presents was metal tablet with 36 symbols that no one could translate.
In 1991, an Ecuadorian manned named Patronio Jaramillo who claimed to have entered the cave through a secret entrance back in 1946 as a teenage boy. He claimed that he had to dive into the water, swim through an underwater tunnel then came up. He described wandering through chamber after chamber of ancient relics, including a vast room of books made from gold and other metals - books with unrecognizable writing possibly like those in Father Crespi's collection - symbols of unknown origin. Jaramillo died before he could show anyone where the cave was located.
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Xibalba, roughly translated as "place of fear", is the name of the underworld in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobn, Guatemala. According to some of the K'iche' Maya presently living in the vicinity, the area is still associated with death. Cave systems in nearby Belize have also been referred to as the entrance to Xibalba. Another physical incarnation of the road to Xibalba as viewed by the K'iche' is the dark rift which is visible in the Milky Way.
Blue Holes
WikipediaA blue hole is a cave (inland) or underwater sinkhole. They are also called vertical caves. There are many different blue holes located around the world, typically in low-lying coastal regions. The best known examples can be found in Belize, the Bahamas, Guam, Australia (in the Great Barrier Reef), and Egypt (in the Red Sea).
Life Beyond Earth? Underwater Caves in Bahamas Could Give Clues Science Daily - January 27, 2012
Discoveries made in some underwater caves by Texas &M University at Galveston researchers in the Bahamas could provide clues about how ocean life formed on Earth millions of years ago, and perhaps give hints of what types of marine life could be found on distant planets and moons. Tom Iliffe, professor of marine biology at the Texas A&M-Galveston campus, and graduate student Brett Gonzalez of Trabuco Canyon, Calif., examined three "blue holes" in the Bahamas and found that layers of bacterial microbes exists in all three, but each cave had specialized forms of such life and at different depths, suggesting that microbial life in such caves is continually adapting to changes in available light, water chemistry and food sources. "Blue holes" are so named because from an aerial view, they appear circular in shape with different shades of blue in and around their entrances. There are estimated to be more than 1,000 such caves in the Bahamas, the largest concentration of blue holes in the world.
8 Amazing Caves Around the World Live Science - October 6, 2010
Photos and Text
Dominican Republic: Clues to Caribbean's earliest inhabitants PhysOrg - August 18, 2009
... prehistoric water-filled cave has become a "treasure trove"
stone tools, a small primate skull in remarkable condition, and the claws,
jawbone and other bones of several species of sloths.
World's Biggest Cave Found in Vietnam National Geographic - July 24, 2009
Hand Stencils Through Time National Geographic - June 26, 2009
Clusters of hand stencils dating back 2,500 years cover the walls of Argentina's Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) in Patagonia.
Prehistoric European Cave Artists Were Female National Geographic - June 26, 2009
Inside France's 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave, hand stencils surround the famed "Spotted Horses" mural.
Australia: Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion Live Science - May 11, 2009
Modern Australia lacks big land predators, but until about 30,000 years ago, the continent was ruled by Thylacoleo carnifex, the marsupial "lion." Several well-preserved skeletons of the leopard-size beast have been found. Now, a newly discovered cave painting offers a glimpse of the animal's external appearance.
Hawaiian Makauwahi Cave Reveals Ancient Secrets National Geographic - October 25, 2008
This may be the richest fossil site in the entire Pacific Island region, loaded with bird and fish bones and ancient Polynesian artifacts
Gigantic River Cave Revealed in Laos National Geographic - October 20, 2008
Oldest Skeleton in Americas Found in Underwater Cave? National Geographic - September 3, 2008
Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico? National Geographic - August 22, 2008
Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico Reuters - August 15, 2008
Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.
According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site. "The souls of the dead followed a mythical dog who could see at night," de Anda said.
Excavations over the past five months in the Yucatan caves revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead. "They believed that this place was the entrance to Xibalba. That is why we have found the offerings there," de Anda said. The Mayans built soaring pyramids and elaborate palaces in Central America and southern Mexico before mysteriously abandoning their cities around 900 A.D. They described the torturous journey to Xibalba in the Popul Vuh sacred text, originally written in hieroglyphic script on long scrolls and later transcribed by Spanish conquerors. "It is very likely this area was protected as a sacred depository for the dead or for the passage of their souls," said de Anda, whose team has found ceramic offerings along with bones in some temples.
Different Mayan groups who inhabited southern Mexico and northern Guatemala and Belize had their own entrances to the underworld which archeologists have discovered at other sites, almost always in cave systems buried deep in the jungle. In the Yucatan site they have found one 1,900-year-old ceramic vase, but most of the artifacts date back to between 700 and 850 A.D. "These sacred tunnels and caves were natural temples and annexes to temples on the surface," said de Anda.
Chile: Incredible Discoveries Made in Remote Caves Live Science - July 31, 2008
Cavers Chart "Snowy" Crystal River in New Mexico National Geographic - July 25, 2008
Lebanon Caves a New Wonder? National Geographic - July 3, 2008
Stone Age Art Caves May Have Been Concert Halls National Geographic - July 3, 2008
Cave Men Loved to Sing Live Science - July 3, 2008
Earliest Oil Paintings Discovered Live Science - April 22, 2008
Oil paintings have been found in caves behind the two ancient colossal
Buddha statues destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, suggesting that Asians -
not Europeans - were the first to invent oil painting
Earliest Oil Paintings Found in Famed Afghan Caves National Geographic - February 7, 2008
Petroglyphs - Pictographs - Cave Paintings - Geoglyphs Crystalinks
Florida: Divers Break Record for Longest Cave Passage National Geographic - December 17, 2007
Completing the longest dive from one cave opening to another, divers on a
treacherous 20-hour journey proved that vast underwater networks in Florida are linked.
Found! World's oldest caves News in Science - July 26, 2006
The Jenolan caves west of Sydney date back some 340 million years, making
them the oldest known open caves in the world, Australian geologists say. The oldest previous dating for an open cave was around 90 million years. In geological terms, 340 million years is a very long time. To put it into context, the Blue Mountains began to form 100 million years ago; dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, and Tasmania was joined to the mainland as recently as 10,000 years ago. The discovery opens the possibility that there could be evidence of other ancient geological events in the caves that scientists haven't looked for yet. For example, the researchers think the clay in the cave was formed when volcanic ash entered.
Jenolan Caves
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Ancient cave in western France contains rare finds, experts announce PhysOrg - June 3, 2006
A 27,000-year-old human skeleton laid out in a room decorated
with ancient art was among the rare finds at a cave in western France
whose subterranean art predates that of the famed Lascaux caves.
Explorers Discover Huge Cave and New Poison Frogs Live Science - February 21, 2006
Actually, "Cueva del Fantasma" - Spanish for "Cave of the Ghost" - is so vast that
two helicopters can comfortably fly into it and land next to a towering waterfall.
Catacomb Find Boosts Early Christian-Jewish Ties National Geographic - July 20, 2005
There are also catacomb-like burial chambers in Anatolia, Turkey; in Susa, North Africa; in Naples, Italy; in Syracuse, Italy; Trier, Germany; Kiev, Ukraine. Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily were used as late as 1920s.
In Ukraine and Russia, catacomb (used in the local languages' plural katakomby) also refers to the network of abandoned caves and tunnels earlier used to mine stone, especially limestone. Such catacombs are situated in Crimea and the Black Sea coast of these two countries. The most famous are catacombs beneath Odessa and Ajimushkay, Crimea, Ukraine. They served as bases for Soviet World War II guerillas. Ajimushkay catacombs hosted about 10.000 fighters and refugees. Many of them died and were buried there, and memorials and museums were later established (it is now a territory of Kerch city). Read More
Cavers smash world depth record BBC - April 2005
Cavers have ventured deeper into the Earth than anyone
has been before at Krubera, the world's deepest known cave.
Arizona Tries Tourism to Save "Living Cave" National Geographic - April 2005
Mexico: Cheve Cave: Expedition Seeks World's Deepest Cave Record National Geographic - March 2004
Israeli cave linked to John the Baptist MSNBC - August 16, 2004
SACRED PLACES AND TEACHINGS INDEX
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
