Information About Archeology

Cave Exploring

by Laurie Moseley

A small collection of bones from the subject site - click for a larger image in a new window Click here for more pictures from this archeology site

In late February 2000, I received a call from Wayne Peplinski that human bones had been found in a cave he was exploring.  The Maverick Grotto Cavers had been looking for a water source for a landowner.  Water witchers had indicated that there was water in a collapsed sinkhole.   Indications were that there also was a cave.   The landowner had contacted the cavers to see if they could find the cave and the water.  As the cavers were taking dirt out of the sinkhole they found human artifacts.  When they explored a crack in the end of the sinkhole, they began finding the human bones.  After I went to see the bones, I contacted Dan Potter at the Texas Historical Commission.  I contacted landowner Jim Hill and Dan and I went to see the site in Palo Pinto County near the Hells Gate area of Possum Kingdom Lake.

When we met Mr. Hill, he showed us additional bones.  Some were limb bones and there were two jawbones.  One jawbone was of a twenty-year old male.  A Wisdom Tooth was turned 180 degrees in its socket and impacted at an angle.  He must have been very uncomfortable.  The other jawbone was from a thirty-year old male and had an abscess that had eaten down through the jaw and out the side.  The pain from the abscess would have been almost unbearable.  The teeth in both jaws were flattened from eating gritty food, but neither man had any cavities.  The lack of cavities indicated that the men were from the Archaic Period, which ended about 750 years ago when the bow and arrow was introduced.  The teeth had grooves in them from holding ropes or sinews in the teeth and using them as a third hand.

Jim Hill took us to the site.  A long crack in the one hundred foot thick limestone ledge underlying the ranch had been cracked.  Water had widened the crack and formed a sinkhole.  The sinkhole was teardrop-shaped and about forty feet long and ten feet wide at its widest point.  Dan and I explored the area.  Dan looked into the narrow crevice where the bones had been found.  Subsequent exploration of the crevice by Chad Jameson and the cave explorers revealed that the bones were lying on a shelf and appeared to have been placed there in an extended position.  In addition to exploring the crevice, Dan and I looked at the area where the spelunkers had removed dirt when looking for opening into cave.  Red dirt that was thousands of years old was found under a ledge.  Chert flakes and worked pieces of chert were found.  Later, when the area was mapped, hammer stones, flakes, and bones fragments were found in the red dirt area.

The dirt previously excavated by the cavers was screened.  A datum point was established and the sinkhole was mapped.  Many bones and pieces of stone tools were found.  Some bones were burned.  Rodents had gnawed most of the bones.  Some of the bones appeared to have been made into tools.  On the next visit, the map was overlaid with a grid, which was then replicated on the ground using flour to mark the lines.  Subsequent excavations were recorded as to natural level and square.  Bags were made for each level and each square.  Volunteer Archeological Stewards from the Texas Historical Commission, Tarrant County Archeological Society (TCAS) members, and cavers from the Maverick Grotto led by Butch Fralia continued to excavate; however they had to wear safety lines.  When I was excavating, I could feel cool air coming out from between the rocks and dirt began to disappear down holes between the rocks.  Blind cave crickets were found, and flowstone formations created by flowing water were seen by shining lights in the holes.

Excavated material was screened and bagged for study.  Archeological Stewards & TCAS members concentrated their excavations back from the deep pit excavated by the cavers.  The cavers broke through into a lower cave thirty-five feet below the surface.  The lower cave was about 25 feet long and about five feet high.  The floor sloped and a third cave was indicated.  Plans are to return and for the cavers to continue to explore the caves while TCAS members and Stewards explore the possibility that archaic people lived under the overhang before it collapsed.

Back to "Articles on Archeology"