Basic Analysis of the Baraćeve Šplije Human Remains

Judkins, Fallon

Publication

Basic Analysis of the Baraćeve Šplije Human Remains

Judkins, Fallon

Description

Baraćeve Šplije are a set of caves located in the Rakovica reigon of Croatia that house a large assortment of human remains. There is a story among locals of this area that says a village living in the valley closest to the caves would sometimes take refuge in them from Ottoman raiders, however at one point they were discovered and the soldiers massacred all inside the cave. In recent years locals have also developed a theory that perhaps the cave was used for funerary purposes and was not a massacre site. No evidence has been found to support either of these stories, however 368 individual bones were excavated from the cave in 2015 by the University of Wyoming in cooperation with Karlovac archaeologists and speleologists which were then sent back to the University of Wyoming for a basic analysis to be completed.