Bonsall C., Tolan-Smith C. (eds). The Human Use of Caves

Oxford: Archaeopress, 1997. — 218 pp. — (BAR International Series 667). — ISBN: 0-86054-859-7.The 28 papers which form this volume are the outcome of an International Conference on the theme The Human Use of Caves held at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 6-9 July 1993.
Throughout their evolutionary history humans have made frequent use of natural shelters for a variety of purposes. Thus caves and rockshelters constitute a major resource for archaeologists. Too often, however, these sites are treated simply as depositional environments and are investigated with a view to answering questions about the wider world and human behaviour in general. More rarely is the question asked: ‘what were the humans doing in the cave in the first place?’ . We trust that this book goes some way toward redressing the balance.
The idea for the Conference emanated from our collective archaeological experience of cave and rockshelter sites in coastal areas of Western Scotland. However, the meeting was never intended as a vehicle for our own research or cave archaeology per se, and we invited specialists in a variety of disciplines - anthropologists and ethnohistorians, as well as archaeologists - from throughout the world to address a number of themes in terms of the evidence for cave and rockshelter use in their areas. Those themes include caves as residential sites, defensive sites, waste disposal areas, storage facilities, ossuaries, theatres of ritual, and art galleries.
The Conference was participated in by over fifty specialists from five continents. With three exceptions, all of the original papers presented at the Conference are published here, and four new papers are included. Most of the papers have been revised since the Conference, although several authors wished to emphasize that their basic texts were prepared in 1993 and reflect their thinking at that time; where this is the case it is acknowledged in a note at the end of the paper.Lawrence Straus. Convenient Cavities: Some Human Uses of Caves and Rockshelters.
Pavel Dolukhanov . Cave vs Open-air Settlement in the European Upper Palaeolithic.
Marcel Otte. The Human Use of Caves in the Belgian Palaeolithic.
Ann Sieveking. Cave as Context in Palaeolithic Art.
Paul G. Bahn. Dancing in the Dark: Probing the Phenomenon of Pleistocene Cave Art.
Berit Valentin Eriksen. Settlement Patterns, Cave Sites and Locational Decisions in Late Pleistocene Central Europe.
Bettina Stoll-Tucker. The Human Use of Caves in the Postglacial Period: the Archaeological Evidence from the Franconian Alb (Bavaria, Germany).
Erwin Cziesla. The Weidental Cave (Germany): changing use in changing times.
Manuel Gonzalez Morales. Changes in the Use of Caves in Cantabrian Spain to the Palaeolithic/Neolithic Transition.
Luiz Oosterbeek. Back Home! Neolithic Life and the Rituals of Death in the Portuguese Ribatejo.
Robin Skeates. The Human Uses of Caves in East-Central Italy during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age.
Michael R. Eddy. Symbolism of Space in Guanche Culture Cave Sites of the Canary Islands.
Yuris Urtans. Cult Caves of Latvia.
Zarko Spanicek. Artificial Caves Used as Human Dwellings and Out-houses in the Croatian Region of Baranja.
Keith Branigan. Working in the Dark? Caves as Workshops in Roman Britain.
Roger Leitch & Christopher Tolan-Smith. Archaeology and the Ethnohistory of Cave Dwelling in Scotland.
Grigoriy M. Burov. Human Use of Caves and Rockshelters in the Crimean Mountains (Ukraine) in Prehistoric, Ancient and Mediaeval Times.
Alexander Borodin & Pavel Kosintsev. Human Use of Caves in the Northern Urals from the Late Pleistocene to Modem Times.
Mina Weinstein-Evron. The Natufian Use of el-Wad Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel.
Avi Gopher & Tsvika Tsuk. Nahal Qanah Cave: a Chalcolithic Burial Site in West Samaria.
Zоё Henderson & Johan Binneman. Changes in the Significance of a Site: the Klasies Cave Complex in the Middle and Later Stone Ages.
Yusuf M. Juwayeyi. Secrecy and Creativity: the Use of Rockshelters by the Nyau Secret Society, Malawi.
Josephine Flood. Australian Aboriginal Use of Caves.
Andrea Stone. Pre-Columbian Cave Utilization in the Maya Area.
Penny Dransart. Rockshelters and Ritual Activities in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile.
Christopher Tolan-Smith & Clive Bonsall. The Human Use of Caves.