Mortuary cave

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A mortuary cave or a mortuary sinkhole, alternately burial cave,burial sinkhole, or crevice interment, is a naturally formed cavity in the earth that is intentionally used by humans as a cache for dead bodies. There are a number of known Paleoindian mortuary sinkholes in Texas, [1] including Bering Sinkhole, [2] a number of mortuary caves have been identified in Virginia, [3] and at least one burial sinkhole was used by Native Hawaiians at what is now Kalaeloa Heritage Park. [4] The bodies of 30 Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek during the American Civil War were initially deposited in a natural sinkhole; the bodies were later excavated and relocated to Springfield National Cemetery. [5]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial</span> The ritual act of placing a dead person or animal into the ground

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural burial</span> Method of burial

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Alkaline hydrolysis is a process for the disposal of human and pet remains using lye and heat; it is alternative to burial, cremation, or sky burial.

The Bull Thistle Cave Archaeological Site is an archaeological site on the National Register of Historic Places, located in Tazewell County, Virginia. It is a vertical shaft pit burial cave. The distribution of the skeletal remains indicates that bodies were either thrown or lowered into the cave. On the surface of the cave floor, researchers have discovered the remains of a minimum of 11 bodies. Based on an artifact recovered from the site, it is estimated that the cave was used for burials between 1300 and 1600 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makauwahi Cave</span> Cave in Hawaii

The Makauwahi Cave is the largest limestone cave found in Hawaii. It lies on the south coast of the island of Kauaʻi, in the Māhāʻulepū Valley close to Māhāʻulepū Beach, and is important for its paleoecological and archaeological values. It is reached via a sinkhole and has been described as “…maybe the richest fossil site in the Hawaiian Islands, perhaps in the entire Pacific Island region”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candelaria Cave</span> Archeological site in Mexico

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jar burial</span> Burial in a ceramic vessel

Jar burial is a human burial custom where the corpse is placed into a large earthenware container and then interred. Jar burials are a repeated pattern at a site or within an archaeological culture. When an anomalous burial is found in which a corpse or cremated remains have been interred, it is not considered a "jar burial".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontbrégoua Cave</span> Cave and archaeological site in southern France

Fontbrégoua Cave is an archaeological site located in Provence, Southeastern France. It was used by humans in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, in what is now known as the Early and Middle Neolithic. A temporary residential site, it was used by Neolithic agriculturalists as a storage area for their herds of goats and sheep, and also contained a number of bone depositions, containing the remains of domestic species, wild animals, and humans. The inclusion of the latter of these deposits led the archaeological team studying the site to propose that cannibalism had taken place at Fontbrégoua, although other archaeologists have instead suggested that they represent evidence of secondary burial.

Bering Sinkhole is an early American archaeological site in Kerr County, Texas, United States. The mortuary sinkhole included human remains of 62 individuals, animal remains, and turtle-shell, marine-shell, antler and stone artefacts. Radiocarbon dating found that the earliest burials were from approximately 5000 years BC.

References

  1. Alvarez, Christine E. (May 2005). "Bioarchaeological Investigation of Human Skeletal Remains at the Stiver Ranch Burial Sinkhole (41KM140)".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Bement, Leland C. (1994). Hunter-Gatherer Mortuary Practices during the Central Texas Archaic. University of Texas Press. doi:10.7560/708174. ISBN   978-0-292-70817-4. JSTOR   10.7560/708174.
  3. "Burial Caves in Virginia". www.virginiaplaces.org. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  4. "Kalaeloa Heritage Park ʻEwa, Oʻahu FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT" (PDF). hawaii.gov. September 2014.
  5. "Sinkhole on Bloody Hill (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-02.