The high-tech 3D mapping of Homo naledi's Dinaledi chamber

The extremely difficult conditions in which University of the Witwatersrand’s (Wits) Professor Lee Berger’s Rising Star team was forced to work, gave rise to the use of space-age technology to map the Dinaledi chamber and Rising Star Cave, in which over 1500 Homo naledi fossils were found.

Ashley Kruger, a PhD candidate in Palaeoanthropology at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits, who was part of Berger’s initial Rising Star Expedition team, roped in the use of high-tech laser scanning, photogrammetry and 3D mapping technology to bring high resolution digital images to Berger and team members on an almost real-time basis in order to make vital decisions regarding the underground excavations.

“This is the first time ever, where multiple digital data imaging collection has been used on such a sale, during a hominin excavation,” says Kruger. Read more.

Israel wards off antiquity looters high above the Dead Sea

It may be the world’s most unusual anti-theft operation, set in a cave high above a desert canyon, with the blue of the Dead Sea visible in the distance.

Israeli authorities have been at work at the site, believed to have been used by ancient refugees, seeking to rescue important archaeological remains, possibly including the next Dead Sea Scrolls.

The aim is to do so before the artifacts are looted, which is a real threat that has occurred in the past.

That means deploying teams of archaeologists and ragtag bands of volunteers who descend about 80 meters down a cliff with the help of ropes to what is known as the Cave of the Skulls, with the Tzeelim Canyon plunging below.

Some then crawl inside the recesses of the limestone cave on their hands and knees, headlamps shining in the darkness, and scoop rocks and dirt into buckets that are carried back to the entrance. Read more.

Clay sculpture, 15,000 years old…

Back in 1912, the three sons of a local count were exploring a cave in the foothills of the Pyrenees (one of the core areas for Palaeolithic parietal art), and discovered the marks of prehistoric people within, including this bull and cow bison pair moulded out of the cave wall clay and propped against a boulder on the ground, then left for many millennia. The preservation is remarkable considering the time span and the unfired nature of the clay. The only damage are a few cracks due to desiccation.

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Experts once considered cave dwellers to be evolutionary dead ends. Charles Darwin himself wrote of these “wrecks of ancient life,” and “living fossils.” But now we know better. As scientists find new cave species and probe their DNA, we’re learning that this hidden world is as dynamic as the one above ground. Far from being dead zones, caves are evolutionary laboratories.

The cave spider (Trogloraptor marchingtoni), first discovered in the dark zone of a cave in the coastal forests of Oregon, differs from other spiders so much that scientists created a new family to classify it. One feature that sets it apart: unmatched toothed claws at the end of each leg that are likely used for capturing prey.

Meet more amazing creatures in Life at the Limits, open for one more month!

Archaeologists Excavate Jerusalem Cave and Tunnel Network

Archaeologists excavating in the ancient Ophel area near the Temple Mount (or Haram Ash-Sharif) of Jerusalem have uncovered a plaster-lined cave with an associated system of subterranean tunnels that may tell a story about life there when the Romans besieged the city during the First Jewish Revolt in 70 CE. 

Under the overall direction of Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University, excavators removed uncounted bucket-loads of dirt and rock fill from the cave, discovering in the process that its walls had been lined with a layer of plaster. This, along with the cave’s apparent connection to a structure dated to the First Temple period (10th to 6th centuries BCE) above it which featured water channels for directing water into the cave, told the archaeologists that they were actually exploring what was originally an ancient water cistern. Read more.

Chauvet cave paintings about 17000 - 30000 years ago France

Located in the buffer zone of Cuc Phuong National Park, Con Moong Cave in Thach Yen commune, Thanh Hoa, has been known for many years as a unique archaeological site in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

After excavation, archaeologists have demonstrated that Con Moong represents the cultural…

Discovered: This ordinary-looking door in an old British pub is actually very special

Most people walking into The Old Angel Inn in Nottingham would be more interested in the arcade game there than the very ordinary-looking black door next to it. That is until they learn that this door is not like the other doors; it opens out into a secret underground cave system that is centuries old.

Called the “Beer Caves”, these underground passages used to entertain gentlemen providing them with a quiet getaway to chatter and drink and make merry. Over time these caves fell off the radar and people stopped coming but there’s now a sort of revival effort by archaeologist David Strange-Walker through his “Nottingham Caves Survey” project which is mapping and 3D-scanning all five hundred caves under Nottingham, as the first step in an even more ambitious caves regeneration initiative. You can follow the progress here with details on other caves they’ve explored so far. Since watching Gintama and Speed Grapher, to an extent even Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Alice in Wonderland way back when, my desire to build out a large underground lair of my own right under the city, my own kingdom where I am the law, has burned brighter than ever before. My mind paints a fantastic picture of this scene: guests from far-and-wide, Japanese, American and Italian, gather in my underground lair. The bustling city’s right above, oblivious to our presence under their very noses. Fun and games and party follow, sometimes even spilling over a little bit into controversy just like wine spilling just a drop over the lip of the glass. And when we’ve had our fill, we exit. Back out in the real world, there exists now a secret network of people — Bankers, Lawyers, Scientists, Doctors, Teachers, Politicians, Entrepreneurs, Sportstars, Rockstars — spread all around the world, not acknowledging each other’s secret acquaintance save for a knowing smile as they pass each other, continuing to lead their very normal lives, until the day of the next gathering. Seeing these caves smack in the middle of a modern settlement, brought it all back to me. I really, really start to build one. Maybe it’s not coincidence that a day after running into Ryo Chijiiwa, who’s building his own hut in the mountains, I run into underground caves in England that line up perfectly with my fantasies.

Skye cave find western Europe's 'earliest string instrument'

Archaeologists believe they have uncovered the remains of the earliest stringed instrument to be found so far in western Europe.

The small burnt and broken piece of carved piece of wood was found during an excavation in a cave on Skye.

Archaeologists said it was likely to be part of the bridge of a lyre dating to more than 2,300 years ago.

Music archaeologist Dr Graeme Lawson said the discovery marked a “step change” in music history.

The Cambridge-based expert said: “It pushes the history of complex music back more than a thousand years, into our darkest pre-history.

“And not only the history of music but more specifically of song and poetry, because that’s what such instruments were very often used for.

“The earliest known lyres date from about 5,000 years ago, in what is now Iraq, and these were already complicated and finely-made structures. Read more.

Ancient cave speaks of Hades myth

Hades wasn’t the happiest place, the Department of Motor Vehicles of the ancient Greek afterlife.

There, in a gloomy underworld, departed heroes such as Achilles gathered mostly to grouse about their boredom, and await the verdict of the judges of the dead.

“I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man’s house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead,” said Achilles, the greatest of Greek heroes,commenting on the scenery, according to the ancient poem, The Odyssey. (Tough break for Achilles, but perhaps he was later cheered to learn that Brad Pittwould play him in the 2004 filmTroy. )

But for archaeologists, a Greek cave that has sparked comparisons to Hades looks more like heaven. Overlooking a quiet Greek bay, Alepotrypa Cavecontains the remains of a Stone Age village, burials, a lake and an amphitheater-sized final chamber that saw blazing rituals take place more than 5,000 years ago. All of it was sealed from the world until modern times, and scholars are only now reporting what lies within. Read more.