Icebutik
  • Home
  • World
  • Anomalies
  • Unexplained
  • Phenomena
  • Weird
  • Odd News
  • Mysteries
  • Contact us
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Icebutik
  • Home
  • World

    Rights Groups Question ‘Pregnancy Register’ for Polish Women — Global Issues

    July 5, 2022

    Phosphorus bombs: What you should know about Russia’s alleged use | News

    July 5, 2022

    Ukraine’s prime minister says rebuilding will cost $750 billion

    July 5, 2022

    Highland Park shooting: Six dead in 4 July parade shooting near Chicago

    July 4, 2022

    Why We Need a Digital Safe Space for LGBTQ Youth

    July 4, 2022
  • Anomalies
  • Unexplained
  • Phenomena
  • Weird
  • Odd News
  • Mysteries
  • Contact us
Icebutik
Home»Unexplained-phenomena»Mystical Mummification: Latest Secret of Scotland’s Covesea Caves
Unexplained-phenomena

Mystical Mummification: Latest Secret of Scotland’s Covesea Caves

SteinarBy SteinarJanuary 31, 2022No Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp VKontakte Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


The Covesea Caves range just short of Inverness on Scotland’s northeastern coast have been known to archaeologists since 1929, but each round of exploration and analysis throws up fresh surprises. The latest, truly astonishing discovery is evidence of a deliberate mummification process — most unexpected for the United Kingdom — in the human bones found strewn on their floor, according to a report in the Express.

Interior of the Sculptor’s Cave. ( The Sculptor’s Cave Publication Project )

A “Dark Magical Mystical” Place: Analyzing Covesea Caves

The remote, almost inaccessible Covesea Caves were first explored by Sylvia Benton in the 1920s and 1930s and then again by Ian and Alexandra Shepherd in 1979. The most famous of these caves is the Sculptor’s Cave, so called because of the Pictish carvings scratched on its walls. Pictish is an extinct language used by the Picts who inhabited northern and eastern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. By the ninth century, the Pictish kingdom had merged with the rest of Scotland and Pictish was replaced by Gaelic.

However, the Sculptor’s Cave, which has a history stretching back 3,000 years to the Late Bronze Age, has more secrets of the past to offer than just the Pictish carvings on its walls. From crucibles to gold covered rings, a swan’s neck pin and bronze arm rings, a host of artifacts have been recovered from within the cave.

Most mystifying and shocking are the human bones, mostly of children, scattered across its floor that have caused epithets such as “dark”, “magical” and “mystical” to be used to describe this damp, deathly and silent cavern. Even more bizarrely, there is evidence that some of these children were decapitated and their heads displayed on poles at the entrance to the cave in what may seem a gruesome ritual to modern sensibilities.

However, as a 2017 article in Ancient Origins explains, it does not necessarily point to sacrificial killing. These child remains were likely brought here after death from different parts of northern Scotland, and even as far as Ireland, for it to serve as their final resting place. The decapitation was probably part of the mourning process.

3D imaging technology being used within the Covesea Caves. The results were revealed in a book published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. (The Sculptor’s Cave Publication Project)

3D imaging technology being used within the Covesea Caves. The results were revealed in a book published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. ( The Sculptor’s Cave Publication Project )

Mummies in Britain?

In 2020, a book written by Ian Armit and Lindsay Büster and published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland brought together new analysis of data from the Sculptor’s Cave and the results of terrestrial laser scanning and 3D imaging of the cave and its carvings, the Society’s website reports.

It is in this research by Armit and Büster that mummification of the human bones found in the cave has for the first time been discussed. A documentary by Smithsonian Channel entitled the Mystic Britain: Mummies , has followed this research and suggested that the cave could have been an ancient “lab” for preserving dead humans.

To Dr. Büster, the fact of these ancient Britons making the “hazardous journey [to these very out of the way caves] time and time again carrying the bodies of their dead” is itself remarkable and indicates perhaps that they were perhaps less aware of the dangers involved and the possible consequences of such expeditions, reports the Express.

“For prehistoric people to make the effort and to make the journey would have been really arduous and quite a difficult thing to do,” she says. She adds that they perhaps did so because there was “something about this place that gave it mystical, perhaps even magical properties.”

Screenshot of Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Smithsonian Channel / YouTube)

Screenshot of Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Smithsonian Channel / YouTube)

A “Really Significant Find”: Finding Soft Tissue at Covesea Caves

The bones that the archaeologists found were unlike anything previously seen in ancient human remains in Britain. Hand bones from more than one specimen showed the presence of soft tissues, more precisely ligaments. While these may appear to be odd and chance scraps, the narrator of the Smithsonian documentary warns that “it may only be scraps, but don’t be fooled. This is preserved human flesh dating to the Bronze Age.” Dr. Büster adds that it was “a really significant find,” not expected from a site over 3,000 years old.

The fleshy bones could once have been part of an entire corpse, preserved by the saltiness of the air in the ancient cave. While researchers cannot declare with certainty that the bodies were brought here given this unique preservative quality of the air, they did find some evidence of fires being lit “at the same time presumably as bodies are being laid out.” Smoke too has a preservative quality and, according to the narrator of the documentary, bodies preserved by smoking and salting sounds “a lot like mummification.”

One of the bones discussed within the Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Smithsonian Channel / YouTube)

One of the bones discussed within the Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Smithsonian Channel / YouTube)

Dr. Büster believes that ancient Britons came to these caves specifically to mummify their dead. “I think once bodies began to be brought into the cave and were behaving in ways that they didn’t normally do on above-ground sites, those characteristics were probably well noted and became a factory of people coming back again and again over centuries to deposit their dead,” the Express reports her as saying.

Even today, with modern science explaining many complex natural phenomena that older human civilizations tended to view as divine will and magic, death and the world beyond are still governed by a sense of mystery. The Sculptor’s Cave, according to Dr. Büster on the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland website, “provides a window into the complex rituals used by past inhabitants of Moray to navigate the difficult transition between life and death”.

Top image: Covesea Caves with screenshot of one of the bones discovered inside. Source: Society for Antiquaries of Scotland

By Sahir Pandey



Source link

Related

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
Previous ArticleNewsom, California Dem leaders defy state’s own universal mask mandate at Rams-49ers game
Next Article Bizarre new worm species has one head and countless bodies
Steinar
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest

Related Posts

Perfectly Preserved Chimu Sculpture Found at Chan Chan, Peru

July 5, 2022

Mexican Mayor Weds Alligator in Colorful Ancient Indigenous Ceremony!

July 5, 2022

The Problem With Labelling Alexander, The Macedonian King With A Mercurial Character

July 5, 2022

The Beloved Sandwich Was Invented by The Earl of Sandwich!

July 5, 2022

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Categories
  • Anomalies (432)
  • Icebutik Store (271)
  • Odd News (618)
  • Unexplained-mysteries (328)
  • Unexplained-phenomena (641)
  • Weird (10)
  • World (692)

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

Latest Posts

Maine coast sees alarming number of dead seals washing up, avian influenza is to blame

July 5, 2022

Perfectly Preserved Chimu Sculpture Found at Chan Chan, Peru

July 5, 2022

The Lure of Lake Monsters, Part 1

July 5, 2022
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
© 2022 Designed by icebutik

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.