Cave Woman Is Laid To Rest After 1,900 Years

Yorkshire Post ^ | 4-29-2008 | Rob Preece

[blam]

Cave woman is laid to rest after 1,900 years

29 April 2008
By Rob Preece

THE remains of a woman have been laid to rest in a hidden location in the Yorkshire Dales – about 1,900 years after she died.

She was returned in a special ceremony to the mysterious limestone cave where she was discovered by two Yorkshire divers more than a decade ago.

Phillip Murphy, an academic at Leeds University, and his friend Andrew Goddard found the woman's skullADVERTISEMENTby chance during a diving mission at the cave, dubbed the Wolf Den, in 1997.

Carbon dating tests confirmed that the remains dated back to Roman times, and further visits to the site unearthed the bones of some medieval wild dogs and the first set of prehistoric cave footprints ever seen in Britain.

A forensic expert at Sheffield University, Dr Stephanie Davy-Jow, has even managed to draw a reconstruction of how the woman's face would have looked, using the latest 3D computer modelling techniques.

Mr Murphy, a technician in Leeds's school of earth and environment, said: "We know that our Roman lady wasn't thrown down the cave shaft to her death because there were no injuries on the skull consistent with that.

"The bones were definitely placed in the cave, but they weren't found in an articulated skeleton, so they may have been placed there after her body had decomposed elsewhere, which was common in those times."

While returning the skull to the cave, Mr Murphy and Mr Goddard found yet more bones – the femur of a large man, who would have been more than 6ft tall, a large Roman Age horse and some Neolithic cattle.

The cave entrance has now been resealed, and its location kept secret, so the important archaeological site will not be disturbed by the public.

Mr Murphy said: "It is in the northern part of the Yorkshire Dales, and this particular cave is interesting because the style of burial is unlike that we have seen in caves near Settle; the style here is much more like we've seen at North York Moors sites."

In 2002, Mr Murphy discovered that one of the Yorkshire landscape's best-known features, Malham Cove, was nearly four times older than previously thought.

Scientists had believed that the cove was formed during the last glaciation, which ended 14,000 years ago, but Mr Murphy found a stalactite at the site which proved it must be at least 50,000 years old.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Red Badger]

It's about time........

[C210N]

Her name was Bertha.

Bertha Butt.

[Red Badger]

You are old.......

[Intimidator]

I’d like the roast duck with the mango salsa please.

[squarebarb]

Thanks Blam.

I wish they had a picture of the reconstruction but no dice.

Interesting that they found wild dogs from medieval times. Wonder what they were like? Didn’t know there were any wild dogs in Englad since the Ice Ages.

Also that they found bones of a large Roman-era horse. Most experts think that the horses during Roman times in Britain were the size of the Fell pony. I hope there is a follow-up on this.

[TigersEye]

The cave entrance has now been resealed, and its location kept secret, so the important archaeological site prehistoric woman will not be disturbed by the public Bill Clinton.

[C210N]

I resemble that remark!

and if you recall the some i'm referring to, you are undoubtedly old y'erself.

[C210N]

“some” should be “song”.

[InsensitiveConservative]

I just blew soda out my nose... LMAO!

[blam]

"Didn’t know there were any wild dogs in Englad since the Ice Ages."

We still have wild dogs here in the South:

The Dixie Dingo

"Genetic (mitochondrial DNA) testing being performed at the University of South Carolina, College of Science and Mathematics, indicates that these dogs, related to the earliest domesticated dogs, are the remnant descendants of the feral pariah canids who came across the Bering land mass 8,000 to 11,000 years ago as hunting companions to the ancestors of the Native Americans."

Still living Wild in the bottom land swamps and forests of the Southeastern United States.

[zeestephen]

Note To Future Generations.....

If you find my dead body in some sh**house cave, please don’t assume I wish to be sealed inside it forever.

[SunkenCiv]

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[MaxMax]

Yea, don't let them stink up my cave with your carcass.

/Grin

[wildbill]

Title blew me away. Worst case of insomnia I ever heard of.