NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF HUMAN

REMAINS IN CALIFORNIA CAVES

John C. Merriam

In the course of an investigation of some of the limestone caverns
in California during the last four years, a number of cases have been noted
in which human remains were found in such situations as to indicate that

their entombment was not of historically recent date. In no instance have
any specimens been discovered which can be said to be of Quaternary age,

although some of the occurrences are of such nature that it would be diffi-
cult to prove that the remains were buried during the present period.

The writer has already called attention   to the occurrence of human
remains in Mercer's Cave in Calaveras County, and in the Stone Man Cave in
Shasta County, under conditions which certainly suggest a considerable

antiquity. In Mercer's Cave a number of human skeletal remains were found

in close proximity to the bones of a Quaternary ground-sloth. The bones of
both sloth and man were encrusted with a deposit of stalagmite, the en-

crustation on the sloth bones being considerably thicker than that on the

human remains; and it is not probable that they were buried at the same time.
It is, however, true that stalagmite deposits may be very uneven, and it is
possible that the covering on the ground-sloth was formed in a shorter time
than the thinner layer on the human bones.

The remains in Stone Man Cave were discovered in a remote gallery
of this extensive cavern. The greater number of the bones were embedded in
a layer of stalagmite which enveloped them to the thickness of one eighth

of an inch or more. A vertebra which was obtained many years ago from this

locality is found to have lost most of the organic material, and the cavaties
are largely filled with calcite crystals.

In neither of the cases just described is it possible to fix the

age of the remains, but the impression given in both instances is that some
centuries have elapsed since the skeletons came into the position in which
they were found.

Another interesting occurrence of human bones has recently been
brought to the notice of the writer by Dr. J. C. Hawver, of Auburn, Cali-
fornia. During the past few years Dr. Hawver has engaged in an energetic
exploration of the limestone caves in the vicinity of Auburn, partially at

the instance of the University of California, but largely on his own resources.

Hawver Cave, discovered by him and recently named in his honor, has been explored
and described by Mr. E. L. Furlong,2 but Dr. Hawver has continued the exploration

1"Recent Cave Exploration in California", American Anthropologist, N. S.,

Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 221.

2Furlong, E. L., SCIENCE, N.* S., Vol. 25, p. 392.

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of this cavern farther than it was carried by the university. In March, 1908,
while attempting to open what Dr. Hawver supposed to be an ancient passageway
into the lower cave, a number of human bones were found at a depth of twenty

feet below the surface, under a mass of cave earth, fallen rocks and soil, over
twelve feet in thickness. The remains lay at the lower end of a passageway

which has evidently been closed for a long period. In this case, as in that
of Mercer's Cave, remains of extinct animals undoubtedly of Quaternary age
were found near the human bones, but the degree of alteration of the

unquestionably Quaternary bones differs from that in the human skeletons.

Some of the human bones were embedded in a cemented breccia consisting largely
of angular fragments in limestone. So far as examined the bones seem to
have lost most of their organic matter. A fairly preserved skull in the

collection does not differ strikingly from the crania of the modern California
Indians, although no comparative study has yet been made by a specially
trained craniologist.

It is not possible in the case of the Hawver Cave relics to prove
Quaternary age for the human bones. As in the other instances mentioned,
the inference is, however, that the date of their entombment preceded the
present day by centuries, if not by millenniums.

John C. Merriam

University of California

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