Aleš Hrdlička

“ The borders of the foramen are hardly as smooth as they would be had they transmitted some erratic tendon or artery, and outside of its borders there is no trace of any groove such as a large artery or a tendon would produce. As to tumor, there is very little if any excavation or absorption of the walls in the opening, and no thickening of the bone.
The formation must have taken place very early in the life of the individual, as the form of the entire head of the ulna is affected. In all probability the anomaly of the foramen is due to congenital causes. ”

“ Undoubtedly the burial place is a very old one, for many of the bones, even those which were still buried deeply in the earth and could not have been denuded by animals, do not show even a trace of the dry, tough, mummified tissues which for centuries cling to bones in similar locations. ”

“ The cave is situated in the picturesque valley of the Arroyo de las Iglesias. It is a very large, widely open cavern, which, when I visited it, contained numberless human bones, both fragmentary and entire, partly covered with stones or earth, partly lying on the surface. A tradition is current that the cave was once full of mummified bodies ”