244 ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



must have been outside, or else just within the entrance, which at 

 that time was probably much larger than even at the present 

 moment. In either case we failed to reach it, our diggings 

 hereabouts being merely sufficient to produce a convenient slope 

 into the cave. 



The presence of human bones in this bed at first sight sug- 

 gests cannibalism. But there are several circumstances which, 

 taken together, prove that the cave was used also as a burial place, 

 (i) These bones were not so evenly distributed as one would 

 have expected, had they been cast away as the exuvicB of human 

 food in common with the animal bones. (2) The long bones 

 were sometimes found unbroken ; and in several instances when 

 broken, their component parts were lying near one another, 

 indicating that when originally deposited they were whole. 

 Moreover, the fractured surfaces, when sufficiently preserved to 

 judge therefrom, were not such as would be produced in a fresh 

 bone, smashed to extract the marrow ; on the contrary, they were 

 identical with what is habitually seen in ancient interments, 

 where the bones, having become brittle through the loss of 

 gelatinous matters, are very liable to fracture through unequal 

 subsidence of the surrounding soil, or the interference of burrow- 

 ing animals. (3) In one case, at least, some bones were lying 

 in anatomical relationship to one another. On March 22nd, 1890, 

 we distinctly traced through a maze of animal and human bones, 

 potsherds, etc., in the central region, a pair of human fibulae, one 

 associated with its tibia ; fragments of femur ; a few lumbar, 

 dorsal, and cervical vertibrte ; some broken ribs ; an atlas ; part 

 of a lower jaw, and an upper one ; and a radius — all evidently 

 belonging to one individual, lying on its left side, and with its feet 

 towards the back of the cave. (4) In no case was a bone, or 

 fragment of one that could be identified as human, scraped or 

 hacked ; nor during the systematic excavation was there found a 

 gnawed one. In the earlier diggings, two femurs were found near 

 the surface, with their lower extremities broken off apparently 

 when in a new condition, and for two or three inches above the 

 fractured ends extensively gnawed. These bones belonged to one 



