Archeological Investigations

by Gerard Fowke

Two feet from corner of west wall, almost under a point projecting from it, 4 feet below surface, was a cranium from which the upper jaw, one orbit, and part of the right parietal were missing; with it were a lower jaw, a clavicle, a sternum, the bones of the left arm, and some phalanges, all in good condition, except the ulna, which was broken. No other bones were present. The skull lay on right side, face toward the wall; the arm bones were on it, and the other bones by it. With and around them were some deer bones. The entire lot had the appearance of being thrown together here at one time, and it would seem that the flesh of all of them had been eaten.

Fourteen feet north from the corner, halfway down to the water, in the wet earth at the bottom, were human bones evidently placed here entire, but so decayed and broken that nothing could be ascertained except that it seemed a closely folded body or skeleton had been deposited. The teeth were worn down to the gums.

The refuse behind the corner of the west wall was cleared away as far as the conditions would permit. The amount of water at the rear of the cave varies with the rainfall; sometimes it almost disappears, again it may be fully 2 feet deep; but at all times the earth and ashes near it are saturated above its lowest level. Consequently, on account of the mud, excavations could not be carried fully to the end in either direction. As scarcely anything was found in the last few feet, this omission was not important.

The entire distance worked over, from the front margin to the line where no further advance could be made, at 14 feet from the water, was 91 feet. No spot that could be reached throughout this length was left undug.

The small openings in the west wall presented no features worthy of special mention; but those in the east wall yielded interesting results.

First of these was a small cave 39 feet from the main entrance. At the front its width was 11 feet; 6 feet within it narrowed to 4 feet. A hole on the north side ended at a crevice that led to a chamber higher up, from which, in turn, another crevice extended. All this space, even beyond the point to which a man could worm his way, was filled with fine earth and ashes containing much refuse. Worked objects were found at the greatest distance which could be reached.

A few feet within the entrance this minor cave divided into three parts. A crevice trending northward is too small to follow. The two others extend in a general easterly direction. The central branch, the left of the two, also closes within a few feet. Neither of these contained anything but natural earth. In the one to the right, 7 feet from the entrance, was a pocket on the south side, 18 inches wide, 30 inches high, and 4 feet deep; it was filled with ashes containing bone and shell, but no worked object except a flake scraper. At intervals, within the next few feet, were two mortars, a much used pestle, some bone awls, and flints, all of them in places where it was scarcely possible for a man to sit erect, as the tunnel-like cavity, circumscribed by solid rock, was nowhere as much as 4 feet in diameter. At its narrowest part it measured only 3 feet high and 18 inches wide.

At 20 feet the cave opens into a well-like enlargement, 5 by 6 feet, and 5 feet high. Bone and shell in small amounts were found here, and among them the skiver shown at d in plate 36.

From this well-like cavity three branches start; one continuing in a direct line east, one to the north, and one to the south. The east (middle) branch is only 24 inches high and 17 inches wide, with solid rock all around. It contained ashes, with a little refuse, as far as a man could reach.

The branch to the north is entered through an opening 3 feet high and 31 inches wide in a thin wall of the original rock, just within which it widens to nearly 7 feet, holding the same height of 3 feet. Within this doorway, on the red earth bottom, were a small mortar and a grinding stone worn by much use; both were stained with red paint. A foot farther in was part of a skiver; and 2 feet beyond this was a large knife of white chert almost as clear and compact as chalcedony, shown at a in plate 27. Ashes continued in the north tunnel for 26 feet from the entrance, beyond which no further progress was possible. Before this point was reached, the refuse which had been continually decreasing in amount no longer appeared.