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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Related Research Articles

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

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Excarnation</span> Burial preparation

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The Xagħra Stone Circle, also known as the Xagħra Hypogeum or the Brochtorff Circle, is a Neolithic funerary complex located in Xagħra, Gozo, Malta. It consists of a series of caves which were used to bury the dead, and which were surrounded by a walled enclosure. It mainly dates back to around 3000 to 2400 BC, although the earliest tombs at the site date back to 4100 to 3800 BC. The caves collapsed sometime before 2000 BC, and the site was later used for domestic and agricultural purposes.

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

Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to typical contemporary Western burial methods and modern funerary customs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave Without a Name</span> Limestone cave in the Texas Hill Country

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water cremation</span> Body decomposition process

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<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">Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area</span> Protected area in Texas, United States

Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area is a natural bat habitat near the city of Rocksprings in Edwards County in the U.S. state of Texas. Carved by water erosion, the cavern is home to several million Mexican free-tailed bats that emerge at sunset during April through October.

<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.
  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.