speleofact

Coined by Arthur Lange.

speleofact (plural speleofacts)

1. (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^[1], 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^[2], 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^[3]:

     Prehistoric humans intentionally modified stalagmites in the Cova Dones cave in Spain, forming over 100 structures—known as speleofacts—as a result.

• Jacques Jaubert, Sophie Verheyden, Dominique Genty, Michel Soulier, Hai Cheng (2016) “Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France”, in Nature‎^[4], 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^[5], American Geological Institute, →ISBN, page 611
• C.H.D. Cullingford (1 January 1953) British Caving: An Introduction to Speleology‎^[6], 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’.