Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Man destroys $5m in ancient artefacts in museum row with girlfriend

Man destroys $5m in ancient artefacts in museum row with girlfriend

A man “mad at his girl” broke into The Dallas Museum of Art in Texas and destroyed three Greek artefacts, estimated to be worth up to $5 million and faces years in jail. 

Man destroys $5m in ancient artefacts in museum row with girlfriend
A man destroyed these Greek artefacts (Dallas Museum of Art) at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The destructive attacks follow a similar incident last week when an Italian man dressed as an elderly woman attempted to destroy the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

A Destructive Artifact Rampage

The Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, Agustin Arteaga, told The New York Times that “three ancient Greek artefacts dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC were seriously damaged.”

Brian Hernandez, 21, was arrested on Thursday and put into the Dallas County jail with a bond set at $100,000. Hernandez used a metal chair to break into the museum on Wednesday night and reports say he unleashed a “destructive rampage”.

Once inside the museum Hernandez broke into a display case and shattered a 6th century BC Greek amphora (clay vessel) dating to 450 BC. According to HypeBeast police said this item alone was worth “about $5m dollars,” but other reports say $1m dollars.

Hernandez also smashed a 6th century BC clay bowl estimated to be worth about $100,000, and a ceramic Caddo effigy bottle valued at about $10,000.

Two of the items that were damaged at the Dallas Museum of Art — a black-figure panel amphora, left, and a red-figure pyxis and lid, right — are ancient ceramics from Greece. (Dallas Museum of Art )

When Being Mad Hurts History

When the museum security guards saw the CCTV camera feeds and realized what was happening, they quickly apprehended the unarmed Hernandez. Charged “with criminal mischief” amounting to more than $300,000, according to an article in Greek Reporter, police said 21-year-old Brian Hernandez broke into the institution at 10 pm PT on Wednesday night because “he was mad at his girl.”

On Thursday, Hernandez was slammed up in the Dallas County jail with a bail bond set at $100,000. Only time will tell if his criminal mischief charge will get him five years or life in prison.

At times like this, we can choose to focus on the losses or the wins. In this case, the perpetrator smashed 3 Greek artefacts, but it could have been a lot worse because the Dallas Art Museum holds many unique ancient crafts from around the world which have no estimated worth, for they are culturally priceless.

While He Got Greece, He Missed Africa and America

The Museum’s Arts of Africa department looks after the famous Senufo helmet mask. This Game of Thrones-esq headgear was worn by leaders of the powerful male-only Komo society. 

Responsible for maintaining social and spiritual harmony in Senufo villages in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso, the mask was worn at funerals, initiations, harvest celebrations, and secret rituals.

Recent CT scans revealed “unexpected materials” both beneath the surface of the mask and within the attached animal horns. The scientists said these secret artefacts “empowered the mask.”

Closer to home, the criminal also missed 200 ancient and contemporary works of art in the first major exhibition dedicated to the art and culture of ancient Mississippian people. 

Although their vast earthen mounds are most often associated with giants, visiting foreign cultures, and other pseudo-historical narratives, the much misunderstood Mississippian peoples formed one of the first societies in North America. So while three Greek artefacts were destroyed, we can be thankful thousands of other pieces were left untouched.

The Senufo helmet mask is in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. (Dallas Museum of Art )

When Adults Throw Uncontrollable Tantrums

All of us have thrown tantrums and destroyed objects. However, for most of us, this occurred before turning six and the violence was restricted to Lego castles and dolls’ dresses. Why then do some adults destroy whatever they want, whenever they spin out emotionally? While you might race to find a solution in the IQ score of the vandal, or accuse them of behaving like spoiled, impudent children, the reality is much more complicated. Quite interesting too.

In a 2017 research paper titled ‘ Design as Means of Countering Vandalism, Sokolov sought design solutions for protecting aesthetically valuable objects against vandals.

The main goal of culture, according to Sokolov, is the harmonious development of society. Vandalism goes directly against this, and the researcher proposed that there are two distinguished forms of vandalism: “meaningless and meaningful.”

Meaningful And Mindful Vandalism

Meaningful vandalism is when objects with aesthetic or cultural value are targeted and generally “do not have a pronounced goal.” On the other hand, mindless vandalism, which includes littering, is a violation of physical and spiritual ecology.

Meaningful and meaningless vandals have different goals, but Brian Hernandez belongs to the meaningful vandal group, which destroys the “values” of other cultures through “different emotional motivations, but with no clearly defined goals.” This diagnosis became clear when Hernandez told Dallas police his prime reason for smashing millions of dollars of history was: “I was mad at my girl.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Newly Identified Inscription Names Ancient Greek Students

Newly Identified Inscription Names Ancient Greek Students

Experts in the UK have discovered that an ancient Greek marble slab which had spent more than a century in storage is inscribed with the names of graduates of the Ephebic College, an elite military academy that prepared young Athenian men for adulthood, British broadcaster ITV reported on Thursday.

“On seeing it we realized that this was not a copy of an already known inscription, but it was a completely unique new discovery which had been in the storerooms of the [National Museum of Scotland] for a very long time, since the 1880s, and it listed a group of young men who called themselves co-ephebes or co-cadets and friends,” Dr Peter Liddel, a professor of Greek history and epigraphy at the University of Manchester, told ITV.

“It turned out to be a list of the cadets for one particular year during the period 41-54 AD, the reign of Claudius, and it gives us new names, names we’d never come across before in ancient Greek, and it also gives us among the earliest evidence for non-citizens taking part in the ephebate in this period,” added Liddel, who led the team that made the discovery.

Similar to a “graduate school yearbook,” the marble slab would probably have been displayed in the college and was intended to “create a sense of camaraderie and comradeship among this group of people who had been through a rigorous training program together and felt like they were part of a cohort,” Liddel told ITV.

Containing the names of 31 young men who made it through the rite of passage, the marble slab dates to the first century AD and is believed to offer valuable insight into Athenian society at the time. 

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

2,100-year-old burial of woman lying on bronze ‘mermaid bed’ unearthed in Greece

2,100-year-old burial of woman lying on bronze ‘mermaid bed’ unearthed in Greece

Archaeologists have unearthed the ancient burial of a woman lying on a bronze bed near the city of Kozani in northern Greece. It dates to the first century B.C. 

2,100-year-old burial of woman lying on bronze 'mermaid bed' unearthed in Greece
A photo of the burial of a woman lying on a bronze bed. She lived sometime during the first century B.C.

Depictions of mermaids decorate the posts of the bed. The bed also displays an image of a bird holding a snake in its mouth, a symbol of the ancient Greek god Apollo.

The woman’s head was covered with gold laurel leaves that likely were part of a wreath, Areti Chondrogianni-Metoki, director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kozani, told Live Science in an email.

The wooden portions of the bed have decomposed. 

Gold threads, possibly from embroidery, were found on the woman’s hands, Chondrogianni-Metoki said. Additionally, four clay pots and a glass vessel were buried alongside the remains. No other people were buried with her. 

This image shows how the bed would have looked before the burial. It is made largely of bronze but had some wooden parts that have since decayed away.

Archaeologists are now analyzing the skeleton to determine the woman’s health, age when she died and possible cause of death.

The artefacts found with her suggest that she likely came from a wealthy background, and may have belonged to a royal family.

“We do not know much about the history of this area [during the first century B.C.],” Chondrogianni-Metoki told Live Science. Thousands of years ago, Kozani was near an important city called Mavropigi (the site is now a village) that housed a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo, Chondrogianni-Metoki said.

This mermaid head was found on the bed.

Historical records show that during the first century B.C., Roman control and influence in Greece was on the rise.

The Romans destroyed the city of Corinth in 146 B.C. and sacked Athens in 86 B.C. In 48 B.C. a crucial battle in northern Greece known as the Battle of Pharsalus saw the army of Julius Caesar defeat a force led by Pompey; the victory resulted in Caesar becoming the de facto ruler of Rome. 

It’s unclear when exactly in the first century B.C. this woman lived or if she would have witnessed or heard of any of those historic events. The woman’s remains are currently housed at the Archaeological Museum of Aiani in Greece.

Live Science contacted scholars not affiliated with the research for further insights on the discovery, but none were available to offer comment at the time of publication.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Rare 18th-Century Warship Rudder Found in the Solent

Rare 18th-Century Warship Rudder Found in the Solent

Rare 18th-Century Warship Rudder Found in the Solent
The rudder was discovered intact, 60m (200ft) from the main structure of the wreck

The lost rudder of a warship that sank in the Solent in 1758 has been discovered on the seabed, 60m (200ft) away from the main shipwreck. HMS Invincible – built by the French in 1744 and captured by the British in 1747 – is regarded as one of the most significant warships of its time.

The 11m-long intact rudder was spotted during a routine inspection of the site near Portsmouth.

Marine archaeologist Dan Pascoe said it was “unique and significant”.

“We weren’t particularly looking for it. A feature had shown up in geophysical surveys, 60m off the stern,” he said.

“It looks like it’s in pretty good condition and is complete from top to bottom.”

The 11m-long rudder has been scanned on the seabed

The 74-gun ship was lost when the rudder jammed and it ran aground on a sandbank between Langstone Harbour and the Isle of Wight, capsizing three days later. No lives were lost.

Mr Pascoe said: “The ship was highly manoeuvrable and the rudder was critical to its design.

“It’s the last piece of the jigsaw that tells the story of Invincible. It’s a fantastic, wonderful find and extremely rare – it only survived because it was buried.”

The rudder is due to be protected with sandbags to prevent it from being quickly eroded by the elements underwater, but bringing it to the surface and conserving it could cost up to £80,000, Mr Pascoe estimated.

“It’s a unique find – there are no other examples from warships of this era. Its future depends on whether it is financially viable to raise and find somewhere to display it,” he added.

HMS Invincible’s class of ships became the “backbone of the Royal Navy”, the National Museum of the Royal Navy said

A major excavation project, carried out by Poole’s Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST) and Bournemouth University experts, began on the wreck site in 2017.

Among the artefacts discovered were a gunpowder barrel, swivel guns, a bottle of corked rum and woodworking tools.

Many have since gone on display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

The 6500-Year-Old Grave of the Unfortunate Ladies of Téviec

The 6500-Year-Old Grave of the Unfortunate Ladies of Téviec

Téviec would be a rather anonymous island located somewhere in Brittany, France, if it wasn’t for its great archaeological value thanks to the many finds – mainly from the Mesolithic Period – that have been excavated there. These finds include the skeletons of two women, dated between 6740 and 5680 BC, who may have been violently murdered.

Archaeologists Put Téviec on the Mesolithic Map

Téviec Island, Brittany, France. ( BCD)

Téviec is one of the very few known Mesolithic sites in Brittany, along with Pointe de la Torche, Hoëdic and Beg er Vil on the Quibe.

It has been the subject of a biotope protection scheme for the past 35 years. Therefore, landing on the island has become a troublesome task for contemporary archaeologists, since it is generally prohibited from 15 April to 31 August.

That wasn’t always the case, though. From 1928 to 1934, archaeologists Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart discovered and excavated a culturally and archaeologically rich Mesolithic site on the island, dating to between 5700 and 4500 BC.

According to most historians, this is considered the end of the Mesolithic period in western France and it overlaps with the beginning of the Neolithic period.

Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart – after first discovering the tomb. 1928

The main finds at the site were substantial middens formed of oyster and clam shells and ten multiple graves containing 23 skeletons, including adults and children.

Among the shells were the remains of animals as well, such as dogs, crabs, fish, lobsters, seabirds, deer, and boar among others. Due to the acidity of the soil in the location, the bones have been remarkably preserved, even though many of the skeletons showed clear signs of brutality and violence, including one with an arrowhead embedded in its spine.

A midden, composed of shells, animal bones etc. provides insights into life on the island.

The Unfortunate Ladies of Téviec

The most fascinating and mysterious of all discoveries, however, is undoubtedly the grave that includes the skeletons of two women aged 25–35, dubbed the “Ladies of Téviec.” Their bodies were buried delicately in a pit that was partly dug into the ground and coated over with debris from the midden.

The corpses had been protected all these centuries by a roof made of antlers and supplied with pieces of flint, boar bones, and jewellery made of sea shells such as necklaces, bracelets, and ringlets for their legs. The grave collection was unearthed from the site as a whole and is now on display at the Muséum de Toulouse, where its restoration in 2010 earned several awards.

The Ladies of Téviec, both feature traumatic injuries to the skull.

The thing that shocked archaeologists the most though, was the blatant violence and brutality the two women sustained before they died. Scientists examining the skeletons concluded that one of them had suffered five blows to the head, two of which were possibly fatal, and had also received at least one arrow shot between the eyes.

The other body also had traces of injuries, but not as violent as the body of her “friend.” In recent years, however, this diagnosis is debated by some archaeologists, who claim that the immense weight of the soil above the grave may have been the cause of damage to the skeletons.

An obvious question that probably occurs upon reading this is: How could the weight and composition of any soil – no matter how heavy it might be –ever justify an arrow shot between the eyes? It doesn’t make any sense, does it?

A Very Cold Case: Attempts to Solve the Téviec Mystery Almost 6,500 Years Later

In 2012, replicas of the two skeletons were laid for the first time on a mortuary slab of Toulouse Natural History Museum, during an exhibition titled Prehistory: The Investigation, which became a big hit in France.

“When you create an exhibition, you need to create an atmosphere and a lot of TV shows are about CSI and forensics and they always start with a forensics table – and here it is,” said Dr. Francis Duranthon, the director of the Toulouse Natural History Museum, pointing to the mortuary slab.

In the city of Toulouse alone, more than a hundred thousand people visited the exhibition, while in Paris two hundred thousand people watched closely the attempt of the scientists to solve this prehistoric mystery.

Isotope analysis of the two women’s teeth showed a diet of seafood and meat. That caused scientists to speculate that the two females possibly came from a small community that farmed, harvested the sea, and hunted. The exhibition also revealed that this was probably a community where women fulfilled a more domestic role. “It is unusual to find women killed this way during this period,” said Duranthon and added, “What we know is that at least two people were involved in these killings.”

Exhibit A? Skull from the Téviec burial. This female died when she was 25 to 35 years old from a violent death with numerous skull fractures and bone lesions associated with the impact of an arrow.

According to several academics, raids, in order to steal food, were pretty common back then and they suggest that the two unlucky women could have been victims of a bloody raid. However, some historians claim that what possibly killed the women was a long series of unfortunate meteorological phenomena. Droughts back then would usually decimate a farming community, while an extreme hailstorm destroyed crops, and people would see these as signs that the gods needed to be appeased. Thus, the two women might have been sacrificed as victims of ritual murder, slain by people they knew – or even family members.

So, what really happened to the “Ladies of Téviec”? As it’s the case with many historical mysteries throughout the centuries…We will probably never know!

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Volunteer delighted to uncover very rude Ancient Roman graffiti at Vindolanda

Volunteer delighted to uncover very rude Ancient Roman graffiti at Vindolanda

You see them scrawled on school desks, toilet walls and underpasses across the UK. However, it seems that the tradition of drawing the male appendage as graffiti goes back far further than any of us would have realised – after a volunteer uncovered graffiti at Vindolanda depicting an explicitly carved phallus.

Dylan Herbert, the volunteer who discovered the stone

The popular museum has found some hugely significant archaeological finds over the years, including the world’s oldest boxing gloves and the largest collection of leather shoes, consisting of around 7,000 items.

Earlier this year, a Roman Altar from the 3rd century AD was uncovered, thought to be from a similar time period to the most recent discovery. Though this one is quite a lot ruder!

Not only was there a drawing, but the 40 x 15cm stone is also engraved with SECVNDINVS CACOR, making the graffiti a very personal insult. Specialists in Roman epigraphy, Drs Alexander Meyer, Alex Mullen and Roger Tomlin, recognised it as a mangled version of ‘Secundinus cactor’ or in English, ‘Secudinus, the sh**ter.”

Retired biochemist Dylan Herbert was delighted to make the discovery on May 19. He said: “I’d been removing a lot of rubble all week and to be honest this stone had been getting in my way, I was glad when I was told I could take it out of the trench.

“It looked from the back like all the others, a very ordinary stone, but when I turned it over, I was startled to see some clear letters. Only after we removed the mud did I realise the full extent of what I’d uncovered, and I was absolutely delighted.”

Volunteer delighted to uncover very rude Ancient Roman graffiti at Vindolanda
The stone with the depiction of a phallus and the insult

Dr Andrew Birley, director of excavations and CEO of the Vindolanda Trust said: “The recovery of an inscription, a direct message from the past, is always a great event on a Roman excavation, but this one really raised our eyebrows when we deciphered the message on the stone.

Its author clearly had a big problem with Secundinus and was confident enough to announce their thoughts publicly on a stone.

“I have no doubt that Secundinus would have been less than amused to see this when he was wandering around the site over 1,700 years ago.”

What do you think of Vindolanda’s latest discovery? Let us know!

Though the Roman phallus is often seen as a good luck charm or symbol of fertility, in this case, the author has taken the meaning and subverted it to their own aims. Each letter has been carefully carved, which would have taken a while, leaving little doubt about the depth of feeling held.

Described as a ‘fabulous’ bit of social commentary, it is expected to amuse visitors for many years to come.

According to the team at Vindolanda, carving such a message would have been one of the best ways to get a lot of people to notice a point of view, centuries before printed papers or social media existed.

Excavations have taken place at Vindolanda for almost 100 years, and in that time the site has chalked up more phallus carvings than any other on Hadrian’s Wall.

The new addition takes that tally up to 13, and while that’s considered unlucky for some, Vindolanda archaeologists hope it’s a great sign for the rest of the excavation season in a huge year for the Wall.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed

A team of anthropologists studying Salorno, a stretch of scorched earth in northern Italy, say the site is a Late Bronze Age cremation platform where the remains of at least 172 individuals may have been burned. What’s more, the researchers believe the remains were simply left on the ground for the last 3,000 years.

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed
The ustrinum at Salorno during excavations in 1987.

The site is called Salorno—Dos de la Forca, and it dates from 1150 BCE to 950 BCE. Besides the cremains (cremated remains) researchers found charred animal bone fragments, pottery shards, and bronze burial goods.

There was also a uniquely shaped boulder on the site (seen in the image above); it’s unknown whether it had any ceremonial purpose.

Though Salorno was first excavated in the 1980s, researchers only recently completed a bioanthropological analysis of the remains on the site. The team’s analysis was published last week in PLoS One.

“What is interesting at Salorno is that different from contemporary known cemeteries characterised by fields of cinerary urns or burials, this site appears as something very different: a pyre of dead bodies that were not selected for burial but intentionally left in the open, commingled with offerings and their own personal goods,” said Federica Crivellaro, a bioanthropologist at Stony Brook University and a co-author of the recent paper, in an email to Gizmodo.

“Salorno must have been a ‘sacred’ place for its community, in the way it was chosen but also protected from being looted or destroyed, but we cannot assess why exactly,” she added. “The fact that it serendipitously was preserved till today is simply very special.”

The site is a ustrinum, Latin for a cremation platform. Cremation was a widespread means of disposing of bodies in the Late Bronze age, but often the remains would be buried after they were burned.

At Salorno, they were simply left in situ, setting the site apart from other ustrina.

Tooth fragments from the site.

Crivellaro’s team looked at the number of human remains and calculated the likely number of individuals that were burned on the site at between 48 and 172, based on the total mass of the cremains. (The number of individuals represented at the site depends on whether all individuals were cremated and left in situ, or some bones were later buried elsewhere.)

In any case, the team knows the individuals were burned because of the bones’ condition (specific cracks in the fragments indicate heat-induced trauma) as well as their white colour (a shade distinct from ordinary, hydrated bones), which suggests the pyre temperatures may have exceeded 1292° Fahrenheit (700° C). The site was used over a couple of centuries, judging from the style of grave goods and pottery found on the site.

Because the individuals at Salorno were burned, it’s difficult to discern whether they were all related genetically.

“Cremated human remains are never sexy for traditional physical anthropology as they are fragmented, deformed, and skeletons and teeth are normally depleted of DNA,” Crivellaro said.

But based on the quality of the goods, and the sizes of contemporary settlements in the area, the team posited that the individuals burned and left in Salorno may have been a small number of nuclear families or a group of local elites.

Though the researchers don’t know who started the fire, they know it burned for about 200 years and incinerated nearly 50 people at a minimum in that time. ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ takes on a new meaning when the remains are left right where they were burned; if not fodder for worms, the remains are great fodder for archaeologists.

EUROPE, ICELAND, WORLD

Viking-Era Structures Explored in Iceland

Viking-Era Structures Explored in Iceland

Ongoing excavations of Viking-era, man-made caves near Oddi in South Iceland have revealed an extensive system of interconnected structures that is not only much larger than originally thought but also much older. Mbl. is reports that excavations, substantiated by tephra layers, show that the caves at Oddi were the first dugout in the middle of the 10th century.

“There really are no words to describe it,” archaeologist Kristborg Þórsdóttir said of the experience of standing in what is one of the best-preserved man-made structures of the Viking era. Kristborg is leading the current interdisciplinary study on the caves, which has been ongoing since 2020.

“The size of these structures is just so vast, there hasn’t been a study of such large structures, and definitely not from this time period in Iceland.”

An important medieval cultural and political centre

The first intact, man-made cave at Oddi was discovered in 2018, which was a remarkable discovery in and of itself. But further investigation of the site revealed a much larger cave connected to the first. It is this cave that is currently being excavated by Kristborg and her team.

The historic site of a church, farm, and vicarage, Oddi was once one of Iceland’s most important cultural and political seats and home to a powerful clan known as the Oddverjar. The current study has been ongoing for two years, with the primary aim of shedding light on the writing culture that was there during the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Oddverjar were at the height of their powers. Sæmundur fróði (Sæmundur the Learned, 1056-1133) was the most famous member of the clan. He studied in France and wrote one of the earliest histories of the Norwegian kings, although that manuscript was lost. Sæmundur’s grandson, Jón Loftsson, was a powerful chieftain who fostered Snorri Sturluson, the renowned historian, poet, and lawspeaker who is thought to have authored or partially authored major medieval works such as the Prose Edda (known as Snorri’s Edda in Icelandic), the most significant extant source on Norse mythology, as well as the Heimskringla, a saga of the Norwegian kings that was likely based on Sæmundur fróði’s lost manuscript.

Kristborg Þórsdottir. The excavation site seen from above

A race against time

“We’ve just partially opened up the large, collapsed cave that our little cave is connected to,” explained Kristborg. “We still have deeper to dig; we’re just working on making conditions safe. It’s gotten very deep and the rock isn’t sound. So it’s taken some time.”

Kristborg notes that the excavation is unique in terms of how demanding on-site conditions are. The caves are not only at a significant depth, which is dangerous for the archaeologists involved in digging them out, but also built into sandstone. “The rock is so porous that it just crumbles before our eyes.” It’s thought that the caves were not used for very long because they are so prone to disintegration.

Resources for the archeologists also remain limited. “We only have limited funds and time and you never know what’s going to happen next year. Maybe we can continue, maybe not. And information is always lost from year to year, preservation gets worse.”

A long and complex history, waiting to be uncovered

Kristborg says that the cave currently being excavated may possibly be Nautahellir, Bull Cave, which is mentioned in Jarteinabók Þorláks Biskups (Bishop Þorlákur’s Legends of Saints), which dates back to 1210 – 1250. The manuscript relates how Nautahellir collapsed with 12 bulls in it. One was then rescued from the rubble.

“Although it’s older than that, it’s likely that [the cave] was used for livestock,” explained Kristborg. “Whether it was for that specific bull, we don’t know. But the history of its use obviously goes back further than we’ve managed to trace yet.”

The caves at Oddi have a complex and fascinating story to tell, says Kristborg, but the scope of the current investigation is such that she and her team need to keep their focus narrow. “These are huge structures and an unbelievably large system of caves that we’re only just starting to come to grips with. […] We’d need to undertake a much, much larger study with a much bigger crew in order to get to the bottom of this and trace this history in full, the history of these caves’ use.”