Býčí skála Cave (, , ) is part of the second longest

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

system in

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It is also famous for archaeological discoveries. Except for the entrance, the cave is not accessible to the public, although occasionally it is opened for visitors. The cave is in the central part of the

Moravian Karst The Moravian Karst () is a karst landscape and protected landscape area to the north of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It encompasses a number of notable geological features, including roughly 1100 caverns and gorges an ...

, in the Josefovské Valley (''Josefovské údolí'') between the town of Adamov and the village of

Křtiny Křtiny is a market town in Blansko District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Geography Křtiny is located about southeast of Blansko and northeast of Brno. It lies in the Drahany Highlands, on th ...

. Together with the cave system Rudické propadání Býčí skála forms the second longest cave system in the country, after the Amatérská Cave. Its known length is over 13 km.

History

The entrance to the cave was always known locally, with the first written mention coming from 1669. The cave was visited by two European monarchs: on 7.9.1804 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and on another occasion Alois I, Prince of Liechtenstein. Alois I, of Liechtenstein is buried nearby - in the Mausoleum of Liechtenstein in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Brno-Vranov During 1867-1873, the part named ''Předsíně'' was explored by the archaeologist

Jindřich Wankel Jindřich Wankel ( German: Heinrich Wankel; 15 July 1821, Prague – 5 April 1897, Olomouc) was a Bohemian palaeontologist and archaeologist. Wankel was born to Damian Wankel, a clerk, and his wife Magdalena, née Schwarz, in a bilingual environm ...

, who discovered a

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

settlement from around 100,000 - 10,000 BCE. Later, a statuette of a bronze bull was found, and starting in 1872 a large

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...

site had been excavated. The site contained animal and material offerings, crops, textiles, ceramic and sheet-metal vessels, jewellery, glass and amber beads. According to Wankel, the skeletons of one man and forty young women were found. Some women were beheaded, some missing legs or hands. On a small "altar" a skull and severed hands were placed. Wankel's romantic interpretation was that he had discovered the grave of a nobleman, accompanied by ritually killed women. Other theories suggest the death of people hiding in the cave during a war or from an explosion of a gas or dust. Later research identified seventeen skeletons as men; the people ranged from children up to adults of 50–60 years old. In 1920, when water was pumped out, another cave was discovered, the "Nová býčí skála" (The New Bull Rock Cave), with the Jedovnický brook (''Jedovnický potok'') running through it. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Nazis built an underground factory in the cave, damaging the entrance area. After the war, a few more caves have been discovered (''Sobolova (Barová)'', ''Májová'', ''Prolomená'' and ''Proplavaná''). In 1992, exploration of the brook was completed. The cave contains a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

picture, a geometrical shape resembling a grill with a size of 30x40 cm, painted in charcoal on the cave wall. The carbon was dated with the C14 radio-carbon method to be 5,200 years old. The pattern resembles the decorations on some ceramic vessels from that period.
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Citations and notes

References

External links

Short overview

*
Býčí skála website
*
Rudické propadání website

Image:Býčí skála 3.jpg, Býčí skála cave, interior Image:Býčí skála 2.jpg, Býčí skála cave, interior Image:Býčí skála 5.jpg, Býčí skála cave, interior Image:Býčí skála F Richter 1828.gif, Drawing of Býčí skála by Richter 19. C. Image:Jeskyně Býčí skála 1.JPG, Býčí skála cave, interior {{DEFAULTSORT:Byci skala Cave Caves of the Czech Republic Prehistoric sites in the Czech Republic Blansko District Geography of the South Moravian Region

History

See also

Citations and notes

References

External links