Just because this is Karstic doesn't mean it has to be caustic ... Dr. Robert Carter stated things to the effect that karstic caves are post-Flood, so, if Neanderthals are found in them, they lived post-Flood. This means, obviously, the cave is supposed to have been where they lived and so already there. Now, there are places where you find remains of Neanderthal makeshifts for lighting up the interior of what's presumed to have already been the cave, which argues that yes, it was a cave.
What if the cave wasn't there when then Neanderthal died? No, I don't mean the dead Neanderthal walked into a cave as a zombie. I mean a cave built around him, around where he was already lying dead.
Catalog of Neanderthal Remains Sites, 1 of 4
Neanderthal sites and remains, from the most ancient to 130 thousand years
https://dinoera.com/humans-ancestors/homo-ancestors/catalog-of-neanderthal-remains-sites-1-of-4/
Isernia La Pineta, volcanic, Atapuerca, karst, Visogliano, karst, Fontana Ranuccio ?, Galeria Pesada (Gruta da Aroeira), karst, Swanscombe, calcar, Qesem, karst, Petralona, stalagmites and stalactites, Orgnac 3 (Mattecarlinque), karstic dolina, Karain, calcar, Pradayrol / Caniac-du-Causse, karst (Jurassic), Castel di Guido ?, Lezetxiki ..., Vértesszőlős, travertine, Vergranne / Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (calcar ? sandstone ? both occur in the larger area and the wiki on Vergranne itself doesn't say which it is), Ciota Ciara, karst, Bad Cannstatt, Triassic (Keuperian) calcar ...
Karain is a complex of caves that consists of three main chambers and corridors, separated by calcite walls, narrow curves and passageways. Halls and galleries contain speleothems.
Yes, Karain was calcium.
Le causse de Gramat est constitué de plateaux calcaires jurassiques séparés par des vallées qui peuvent être profondes et souvent sèches : par exemple, le canyon de l'Alzou entre Gramat et Rocamadour.
L'aspect des paysages est souvent aride, typique des reliefs karstiques creusés de nombreux gouffres, igues et dolines.
Pradayrol being in "le causse du Gramat" was calcium.
We have identified three main clastic sedimentary processes as being significant at Lezetxiki II: 1) fluviokarst or runoff processes, which are characterised by yellow sandy illite-rich microfacies; 2) infiltration processes, which produce a massive red silty-clay vermiculite-rich microfacies; and 3) inwash processes, ...
Lezetxiki seems to have at least some krastic process involved.
...
Carter very clearly has a point that if the Neanderthals lived in these caves, as caves, they lived in a post-Flood world, if that's the only place for karstic caves. It's arguably very much richer in them than the pre-Flood world. But there is another side to it:
Skeletons typically are not whole, you see fragments. In Petralona*, the skull was found separate from the rest, which is found, but not yet described. In Ehringsdorf, you have fragments of 9 Neanderthals, with one skeleton of a woman age 20 to 30. In Altamura, the skeleton is complete, but dislocated, and overgrown with limestone. In Tabun, you have a partial skeleton, Tabun I, while Tabun II is a jaw.
The word "skeleton" occurs 9 times, with one in Sima de Huesos reconstructed from fragments, so not found as a skeleton, and Altamura skeleton mentioned two or three times, text and two images (not sure of the word skeleton was there in each), while "teeth" and "skull" occur 52 times each and "fragments" 21 times.
Catalog of Neanderthal Remains Sites, 2 of 4
Neanderthal remains sites, ranging in age from 130 thousand years to 75 thousand years
https://dinoera.com/humans-ancestors/homo-ancestors/catalog-of-neanderthal-remains-sites-2-of-4/
Skull, 30 times, teeth 43 and tooth 27, fragment 76 times, "skelet-" occurs 10 times, but once as "skeletal remains" and of 9 times "skeleton" Skhul-4 had this text:
Skhul-4. The skull is clearly visible, but part of the skeleton is still embedded in the matrix.
Plus a copyright sign for the image.
Catalog of Neanderthal Remains Sites, 3 of 4
Neanderthal sites and remains, ranging in age from 75 thousand years to 56 thousand years
https://dinoera.com/humans-ancestors/homo-ancestors/catalog-of-neanderthal-remains-sites-3-of-4/
Skeleton now occurs 21 times, including the "partial skeleton of an adult male" (Shanidar 1).
At images of Shanidar, it's clear, skeletons are embedded in sediment.
Catalog of Neanderthal Remains Sites, 4 of 4
Neanderthal fossils sites less than 56 thousand years old
https://dinoera.com/humans-ancestors/homo-ancestors/catalog-of-neanderthal-remains-sites-4-of-4/
Changes in temperature, water flows, and geological erosion gradually destroy the remnants of Neanderthals and traces of their material culture. Neanderthal fossils aged 50–40 thousand years differ from more ancient ones in terms of better preservation of remains. This allows for the investigation of DNA from such findings and the acquisition of previously unavailable information.
Skeleton now occurs 17 times and the first says:
Amud Cave. Israel. A cave near the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias). Amud 1 is an almost complete skeleton of an adult male. ...
There were more skeletons and skeletal parts at Amud, and Amud 7 is described as "burial in situ" ...
Le Moustier. France. Village of Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne. Two Neanderthal fossils of young individuals were found here. The complete skeleton (Mousterian-1), belongs to a Homo neanderthalensis adolescent aged about 15.5 years.
And what about the other one?
The nearly complete skeleton Mousterian-2 belongs to a 4-month-old infant.
So, in Le Moustier, one skeleton is complete and the other one is nearly complete.
I would say, parts 1 and 2 on this list represents people dying in the Flood and dated by non-carbon methods, including, for the volcanic parts, at least one site, a retention of excess argon, as lava solidified too fast in Flood waters. Caves formed and cut up their skeleta around where they had died. In part 3 some persons were buried before the Flood and this is even more common in part 4, carbon dated and therefore some centuries before the Flood. The caves in this process also replaced and destroyed what the Neanderthals would have been living in before the Flood, unless that was a cave too either a non-karst type or one of the much rarer (if at all extant) pre-Flood caves. We can agree that a cave before the Flood would have shielded what was inside it from Flood sediments and calcium deposits in the Flood. We can also agree that a tent that was flooded and is now a post-Flood karstic cave would not have been preserved, and it's sheer luck if one man actually is preserved (and partially accessible) in the speleothemes forming around him.
Hans Georg Lundahl
UL of Nanterre University
St. John Thaumaturge of Polybotus
5.XII.2025
Polyboti, in Asia, sancti Joannis Episcopi, cognomento Thaumaturgi.
Apart from the site linked to, I have cited wikipedia and a google hit I couldn't access, as to pre-view text./HGL
* pe-TRA-lo-na
