In 1993, a strange sight was encountered in a cave in Altamura, southern Italy. Inside the Lamalunga cave, formed by a sinkhole, was an almost complete fossilized human skeleton embedded in a rock.
In addition, the remains were covered with tiny dot-like marks all over the bones in what has been described as “cave popcorn.” The “popcorn” appearance is easily explained by the accumulation of calcite on the surface of the cave floor or whatever is on the surface after it dissolves in rainwater.
“Cave popcorn usually occurs in wet areas where the cave can flow on the water’s surface,” said Lee-Gray Boze, a physicist at the United States Geological Survey, in an interview with “How Stuff Works.” “With some notable exceptions, most of the tallest cave systems tends to be drier, and these dry areas tend to be less ornate. However, cave popcorn is a common feature in wet areas, often displaying a wet environment and airflow. Other common environments may contain dripping water; where the drops can cause popcorn to form in an area around the drip zones.”
The popcorn image also helped a research team discover the man’s possible cause of death.
“The faunal remains found in some of the galleries are usually isolated bony elements accumulated in cave depression areas, suggesting that they were transported and dispersed by water,” said a team that examined the body. “Given that it is highly represented and concentrated in a small area, human This was not the case with his skeleton. Therefore, we can assume that the skeleton collapsed where it was found after death and decay of the body.”
The team believe the man probably fell into a sinkhole and got stuck. There he probably died of starvation or thirst before being covered in popcorn and discovered by scientists a hundred thousand years later. However, the Altamura man still had a few surprises.
The skeleton was left where it was, as irreparable damage could be done if disturbed, and scientists began examining the body with on-site observations and photographs of others. When a sample from the skeleton (part of the scapula) was analyzed, they were able to determine that it was not a Homo sapiens but a Neanderthal who died between 128,000 and 187,000 years ago, supporting earlier theories.
Further analysis of the man’s teeth by another team in 2020 found wear on the teeth and suggested that he was an adult, if not older, at the time of his unfortunate death.
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