The Cave of the Glowing Skulls – Honduras - Atlas Obscura

The Cave of the Glowing Skulls

These Honduran caves earned their magical nickname thanks to reflective bone deposits. 

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After the Talgua Caves in Honduras were discovered, they were renamed “The Cave of the Glowing Skulls” because of how the light reflected in the calcite deposits found in the bones of the burial cave.

During the initial investigation following the discovery of the main ossuary chamber within the cave, another tunnel containing three passageways was also found.

In the cave, they found 23 deposits containing skeletons ,at least 20 of which contained the remains of more than one person. All of the vestiges were described as appearing to be secondary burials that were moved from their initial burial sites. The bones were most likely packaged in cloth material and carried into the cave through an old entrance which no longer exists. All of the skeletal remains in the cave have long since been cemented to the ground by calcite. In addition to the human bones, there were also at least 20 intact ceramic vessels found in the cave.

Researchers are still trying to discover who exactly lived in the cave, however numerous links between the people of Talgua has helped them determine that the site was definitively not a Mayan site.

Nowadays the Talgua Caves are open to the public, but the sites where the glowing bones were discovered are still under investigation.

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