National Speleologi'c-Al Society
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Bulletin Number Five NATIONAL SPELEOLOGI'C-AL SOCIETY n this Issue: CAVES IN WORLD HISTORY . B ~ BERT MORGAN THE GEM OF CAVES' . .. .. • B DALE WHITE CA VE FAUN A, with Recent Additions to the Lit ture Bl J. A. FOWLER CAT ALOG OF THE SOCIETY LJBR R . B)' ROBERT S. BRAY OCTOBER, 1943 PRJ E 1.0 0 . ------------------------------------------- .-'~ BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Issue Number Five October, 1943 750 Copies. 64 Pages Published sporadically by THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 510 Scar Building, Washington, D. c., ac $1.00 per copy. Copyrighc, 1943, by THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. EDITOR: DON BLOCH 5606 Sonoma Road, Bethesda-14, Maryland ASSOCIATE EDITORS: ROBERT BRAY WILLIAM J. STEPHENSON J. S. PETRIE OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN *WM. ]. STEPHENSON J. S. PETR'IE *LEROY FOOTE F. DURR President Vice·Prcsidet1l & Secretary Treasurer Pina~iaJ Sect'eIM"J 7108 Prospect Avenue 400 S. Glebe Road R. D. 3 2005 Kansas Avenue Richmond, Va. Arlin-glon, Va. Waterbury, Conn. Richmond, Va. Archeology Fauna Hydrology Programs &. Activities FLOYD BARLOGA JAMES FOWLER DR. WM. M. MCGILL DR. JAMES BENN 202·8 Lee Boulevard 6420 14th Street 6 Wayside Place, University U. S. Nat. Museum Arlington, Va. Washington, D . C. Charlottesville, Va. Washington, D. C. Bibliography &. Library Finance Mapping PubliCity *ROBERT BRAY *l.EROY FOOTB GBORGE CRABB *·Lou KLBWEJ.t R. F. D. 2 R. F. D. 3 P. O. Box 791 Toledo Blade Herndon, Va. Waterbury, Conn. Blacksburg, Va. Toledo, Ohio BuIletin &. Publications Folklore Metnbership DON BLOCH "'CLAY PERRY SAM ALLBN RECORDS 5606 Sonoma Road East Acres 1226 Wel.Jesley Avenue *FLORENCE WHITLI!Y Deorhesda, Md. Piusfield, . Mass. Steubenville, Ohio 1630 R Street Commercial Caves Formation &. Mineralogy Paleontology Washington, D. C. BRUNO PETSCH *DR. R. J. HOLDEN DR. AIJPRBD BURRILL Other Board Members Geo!. Survey Dept. Geo!., V. P. I. Nat. Resources Museum Vermillion, S. Dak. Blacksburg, Va. Jefferson City, Mo. *GEORGE DARE 1599·a Quarrier St. Equipment &. S.fety General Geology Photography Charleston, W . Va. HERBERT VINCENT *DR. PAUL PJUCBt JOHN MEENEHANt 2812 Grace Slreet GeoI. Survey 1222 Euclid Street *MARnN MU)(A Richmond, Va. 1>"£organlown, W. Va. Washington, D. C. 4504 Guilford Road College Park, Md. Exploration &. Locatioa *ERWIN BISCHOPpt *DIl. R. W. STONB 136 PopJar Avenue '; 1943 Board of Governors. 311~ N. Franc St. San Bruno, Calif. tNow in the Armed Forces. Harrisburg, Pa. INDEX OF THIS ISSUE ON INSIDE BACK COVER COST OF REPRINTS OF ARTICLES IN B. N. S. S. Additional 50 100 150 200 250 100's @ .( pages .... ..... ... $2.00 $2.~0 $ 3.00 $ 3.50 $ 4.00 $1.00 8 pages . , .... ...... 3.25 4.00 4.75 5.50 6.2:5 1.:50 12 pages ... .... ..... 5.20 6.40 7.60 8.80 10.00 2.40 16 pages • • •• • t o ••••• 5,45 6.75 8.05 9.35 10.65 2.60 20 pages .... ........ 7.25 8.70 10.25 11.75 13.25 3.00 Extra costs for covers . 2.00 2.75 3.50 4.25 5.00 pO PRINTSD BY THE' DIETZ PiUNnNG COMPANY, IlICHMOND, VIRGINIA Bulletin Number Five National Speleological Society authenricated by the amount and rype of stalagmitic Ca'veJ in World History deposit which has covered them. For these reasons, (witth an Index and Bibliograph)l) several importanr archa::ological expeditions to the Somh west and to Cenrral America have specialized on the ••• By ROBERT MORGAN* exploration and study of caves, some even concentrating on one or two specific caves. AVES have always played an imporranr -parr in the life of man. In faG, men used caves for habita The -people who inhabit underg round homes are re C tion and for storing purposes before the beginning ferred to as troglodytes. This term applies not only to of rc.:orded history. During the thousands of years from the popular cave man of Europe, but also to the cliff the arrival of the first men up to the -presenr time these dwellers of the southwestern United States and to the rock shelters and grottoes, in addition to serving as people of Asia in Turkestan, India, and China, who homes and refuges from storm and cold, have been used lived in vast underground cities often of several as burial places, religious shrines and churches, art thousand population. galleries and museums and, more recenrly, as places for Even today we find the descendanrs of these people sightseeing. In times of war, caves ·have also been used living in homes scooped out of the mud and loess. extensively for the minin'g of saltpeter, used in the manu Some natural caves in limestone, sand'stone, and hard facrure of gunpowder; and, now, in countries on a score rock have been enlarged artificially to meet the require of warfronrs, they .have become narural air-raid shelters. menrs of an increasing civilization. According to Ella Man's inrerest in caverns and underground exploration K. Maillart in her book Forbidden !ollmey, thousands is shown by the frequenr use of caves in literature and of China's peasanrs not only li ve on the good earth in swries of romance and advenrure. but also live in it. To show further the extent of inrerest in the beauty Modern trog lodytes are found in the southwestern and ro mance of the "underworld," one need only consult United States, the Elgen Mounrains of . Kenya and the (fa,vel books on the shelves of any public library to Uganda in Africa, Bukhara and Turkestan in Siberia, find that one out of every twO or three such books will and in China. make w me reference to caves or grottoes. The oldest-known human remains are thos.e found in Ca\-es are very important to the archa::ologist and a cave near Cro-Magnon in France. The oldest known ethnologist, si nce they provide one of the most fertile remains of a white person were found at N eanderthal fields for the discovery of prehistoric remains. in Germany. Hence, the Neanderthal man is generally JU.St as caves provided a shelter for the ancient man assumed to be our oldest ancestor. himself thousands of years ago, they have provided a -Bones and stone implements were also found at shelter for his remains and tools in the intervening Auri.gnac and La -Madelein from which the names thous ands of years. Thus the explorer of today can Aurignacian man and Magdalenian man have been taken. reconstruct the life of the ,ancienr people and has been As pointed Ollt by Broca, the remains found at these able gradually to extend man's history to earlier periods. places though close together, were of widely separated In most cases the best preserved bones, tools, paintings, periods and represenr people living in different cultural and other relics of earlier times are found in caves or environmenrs. rock-shelters. It is possibly true that art was devel,?ped in pre-historic The imporrance given to such finds is illustrated by cave-dwellings, since paintings are found on the walls the exeellenr book wrirren by Mr. G ~ Fowke, describing of many caves throughout the world. In them, toO, in detail the results of the exploration of well over 100 have been found sculptured figures and carved bones. caves in Missouri , Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, and According to Casteret there are 60 caves, presumably Indiana. Mr. T . L. Bailey has made similar investi all in Europe, in which painrings are found. If we are gations in the State of Tennessee. to include the carvings and painrings of Indians and Where the question of authenticity of remains has aborigines found in other pares of the world, this fig ure been questioned, they can often be definitely dated and is much too low. Casteret also states that only two • A ,' ast anlOUllt of labor \\-' ent illto the compilation of this article, and the: ed itors wi!h to rxtclld particular apprrcialion here for tbe N. S. S. III \1 r. \1organ for hi:ol l'x('('II(,Ilt joh. BULLETIN FIVE, N. S. S. [l} Page 2 BULLETIN NUMBER FIVE caves-those at Tuc d'Audoubert and Montespan-are to suppose .that the designs might be letters or numerals known in which large, seul ptured figures are to be found. of an ancient alphabetical system. The cave might have These are prof.usely illustrated in his book, Tell Years been one of the world's first schoolrooms! . Under the Earth, and in an article, "Discovering .the In all parts of the world, caves have been used as Oldest Statues in the World," appearing in the National burial places by ancient people. It appears ·that most of Geographic Alagaz;l1e, for August 1924. the skeletons, mummies, and well-preserved human An exhaustive study of cave paintings has been made bones found in the famous European caves, such as the by G. Baldwin Brown in his book, The Art of the Cave Grimaldi caves of nor·thwestern Italy, were carefully and Dweller, which is illustrated with many photographs, purposely placed in the positions in which ·they were sketches, and maps. found. As pointed out by Me. Brown, the paintings a~e of In many instances the personal belongings of t.he varying degrees of perfection. Some of the drawings deceased were placed in the cave or tomb so that they may be compared to ·those of a school child, while others could be used in -the after-world. This practice was may be accorded equal honors wi-rh our more modern especially prevalent in Mexico and Central America. masterpieces. Such objects as vases and urns which have been recovered This ancient art has been classified by students into by .the modern grave-robbers, are invariably mutilated.