The National Showcaves - Dan Yr Ogof

History and Archeology

It was not until 1912 that the Morgan brothers first explored the caves, and it is their descendants that run the National Showcave Centre for Wales today. The two brothers, Ashwell and Jeff, entered the Dan yr Ogof Showcave via a small passage which can just be seen inside the short mined tunnel now connecting the end of the dry passages with the outside world. Their way into the caves was by coracle, across the small lake now known as the Coracle Pool. Their lighting was from candles and oil lamps and they plotted their route through the caves by marking the sand or mud with arrows. When the brothers finally reached Bridge Chamber they discovered that there were in fact three lakes to cross, not one. For 25 years nothing more was done. Following further exploration in the 1930s and 60s over 10 miles of passageway were discovered. These are accessible only to experienced cavers, who believe that there is still much more to discover.

However, the Morgan brothers were not the first human life to enter these caves. The Bone Cave is so called because over 42 human skeletons have so far been found here, with many of the bones dating back over 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. The oldest bone to have been found in this cave is of a red deer, over 7,000 years old. More recent traces of human occupation have also been discovered here, from the second and fourth centuries A.D. The finds include early and late Roman pottery, iron, bronze and silver rings, bone pins, a brooch and some coins. The nearest Roman camp to Dan yr Ogof was at Coelren, while another camp was situated at Y Gaer, just outside Brecon.

The Bone Cave exhibits various scenes of ‘cave life’. The first, however, is that of archaeologists at work within the cave, uncovering evidence of past cave life. They are shown using survey instruments, drawing and photographic equipment, sieves and grids. Also displayed in the Bone Cave are two scenes showing a burial ceremony and a Bronze Age family carrying out typical daily tasks. Humans were not the only occupants of caves though, and in the Bone Cave are examples of four animals that used caves as dens during the Ice Age. These are the Cave Bear, the Sabre Tooth Tiger, the Hyena and the Wolf.

The reconstructions in the Cathedral Showcave give an impression of the ways in which humans have used caves through the ages. The first scene is set some 30,000 years ago. A group of Neanderthals are burying one of their dead in a shallow grave. Food and weapons have been put into the grave, and the legs and arms of the corpse have been bound, so that the spirit of the dead man will not return and haunt the living. In the second scene, the burial ritual is different. There, the people seem to have thought it necessary to leave the body to lie exposed outside the cave, until the flesh had been removed by weather or scavenging animals. The resulting skeleton was interred late, in the cave. The third reconstruction depicts a scene set about 20,000 years ago, of cave artists. Cave paintings have been found in many places in Europe, with some outstanding examples in France and Spain. Here, a ‘Shaman’ or medicine man is performing a magical ceremony, while the artists work. The pigments used were made from iron oxides, with the main colours being brown, red, yellow and black.

Further into the cave, in the small ponds, some of the animal life found in caves is shown. Here, you can see models, twice life size, of three of the bigger animals found in European caves. The first is Proteus - a salamander that occurs naturally only in caves in Eastern Europe. The second example is a Salamander from Southern Europe, and distantly related to Proteus. In some British caves, as shown in the third example, it is possible to find almost completely white fish. These are usually trout, which have lost most of their pigment through living in caves. If the fish return to live outside the cave, the markings seen on ordinary trout return.