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English
Etymology
Coined by Arthur Lange.
Noun
speleofact (plural speleofacts)
- (geology) item deliberately extracted from a speleothem for the purpose of usage in a particular function
1967 March 1, Arthur Lange, “Caves and Karst, Volume 9, No. 2, March/April 1967”, in Caves and Karst, volume 9, number 2:Speleofacts, like artifacts, are formed by removal of material, addition of material, or both. Speleofacts are of two general types: speleogens, such as scour troughs, dome-pits, and drip pockets, form by solution and corrasion excavating cave rock and sediments; speleothems, such as flowstone, stalactites, and cave pearls, form by deposition of calcite within the cave.
2016, Jacques Jaubert, Sophie Verheyden, Dominique Genty, Michel Soulier, Hai Cheng, “Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France”, in Nature, volume 534, number 7605, →DOI, →ISSN, page 114:Note that the burnt bone was covered by a reddish and blackened speleofact
2025 June 4, Dario Radley, “Over 100 prehistoric structures uncovered in Cova Dones cave, Spain”, in Archaeology News Online Magazine:Prehistoric humans intentionally modified stalagmites in the Cova Dones cave in Spain, forming over 100 structures—known as speleofacts—as a result.
References
- Jacques Jaubert, Sophie Verheyden, Dominique Genty, Michel Soulier, Hai Cheng (2016) “Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France”, in Nature, volume 534, number 7605, →DOI, →ISSN, page 114:
A speleofact is defined as any element extracted from a speleothem (stalagmite, stalactite, drapery, flowstone, stalagmitic column, etc.) with the intent to use it for a precise purpose, thus removing it from its original formation location. This use is linked to a human activity, such as in the realization of any type of modification or construction, use as a utensil or for decoration, or for any other purpose.
- Julia Jackson (1997) Glossary of Geology, American Geological Institute, →ISBN, page 611
- C.H.D. Cullingford (1953 January 1) British Caving: An Introduction to Speleology, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., page 78:
The evolution of the form of cave walls has been studied by Lange (1959) in an endeavour to trace the shape of the original form from which a cave passage developed. He has coined the term speleofact to cover solutional forms, formally described as ‘secondary cave structures formed by mass transfer from solid to fluid’.