Remains found in cave hold ancient mystery

Human remains found in a Southern Kentucky cave may wind up in the ultimate "Cold Case" file.

State police answered a call from southwestern Green County last month after two boys found remains from two bodies while exploring a cave concealed beneath an abandoned house.
"There's an old cabin that is built actually around the cave and a concrete floor that many years ago was poured around the cave opening," Lt. Eric Wolford said.

Troopers used a makeshift ladder to lower themselves through the opening some 15 feet almost straight down into the cave. The bones were 15 to 20 feet farther back.

Only the cave knows
Eudell Stilts, the Green County coroner, called in the state medical examiner, Dr. Emily Craig, to examine remnants of two skulls and other skeletal remains.

"She couldn't put an exact age on the bones, but she said they would probably be thousands of years old," Stilts said. "One archaeologist here in the county said that they could be as much as 3,000 years old. One of the jawbones still had the teeth in it."

Investigators found that a stalactite more than a foot long had descended from an overhang and partially formed around one of the skulls of a skeleton that faced a low cave wall. The other remains were found toward the center of the chamber.

"We've got some people missing around here -- one for about 15 years -- and we thought maybe in the beginning it might have been one of them," Stilts said.

"I'm surprised that somebody hadn't called sooner on this one, because you could see where there'd been a lot of traffic in there," he added.

No one has determined the sex of the remains. And the bones give no visible clue to how the two died, Stilts said.

George Crothers, director of the University of Kentucky Museum of Anthropology, said he knew of the discovery but his office had not been asked to investigate.

"Obviously we're concerned about the loss of scientific information from these sites, and Native Americans are concerned about the destruction of sites that are important to them and their ancestors," Crothers said. "We try to work together with Native American tribes and Dr. Craig's office to come to a solution … and hopefully return remains back to the original location."

Remarkable finds
Early researchers left many accounts of evidence that caves in Kentucky were used for both refuge and burial among prehistoric inhabitants of the region. Bennett H. Young's "The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky," published in 1910, tells of the seeds of a "sugar trough" gourd found among prehistoric remains in a cave in Hart County that germinated and produced gourds about the year 1900.

"A history of this remarkable find was written for the Western Farmer's Almanac," he wrote.

State police said that no ancient artifacts were found with the bones in the Green County cave, and that the few bones that were examined were returned to the site.

"As far as I know they're going to be left there," Stilts said. "You can get in trouble pretty quick fooling with remains like that."

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