Cannibalism in earliest Britain - The Real "Rats in the Walls?"

Cheddar Gorge at the turn of the 20th century
Image LC-DIG-ppmsc-08150 from the United States Library of Congress (Wikicommons)

Exhibit EXH001: The Gough's and Kent's Cave Bones


Recent study of disparate bits of hitherto unrelated knowledge have suggested some deep roots for the repellent behavior of the Delapores of Exham Priory, as chronicled in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls."

Anthropological testing of bones from Gough's Cave, in Cheddar Gorge, United Kingdom, have revealed some startling information about some of the earliest settlers of Britain after the glaciers started to recede. As reported in The Guardian, a battery of new tests and procedures suggest that immediately after a rapid warming in temperatures 14,700 years ago, Gough's Cave was inhabited by humans. The precision of dating the settlement derives from a new method for filtering carbon samples for radiometric dating, one primarily suited for bones as it isolates collagen.

Some of these humans were butchered intensively, stone tools used in a manner identical to the techniques used to butcher animals, and dumped in a pit. While the numbers are small and do not suggest a large-scale practice, and there is no evidence of violent death, the intensive processing methods are striking.

"They were stripping off all of the muscle mass. Brains seemed to have been removed. Tongues seemed to have been removed. And it is also possible that eyes were being removed. It was very systematic work"

It should be noted that this processing is not a guarantee of cannibalism, as the evidence only speaks to the intensive removal of flesh and marrow in a manner equivalent to animals assumed to be used for food.

Map of sites mentioned in the text. In addition, three other locations are noted. S. T. Joshi (1997) suggests that Alchester may have inspired Anchester, the general area of Exham Priory, while Hexham Priory in the north may have inspired the name of the place itself. Piltdown is referenced in the story in relation to the hominid remains found under the Priory.

It is notable that Cheddar Gorge is not very far from some other points of interest in regards to "The Rats in the Walls." Roman history is part of the de la Poer heritage, and while he made an error in the number of the legion stationed there, Lovecraft was clearly inspired by the Roman camp at Isca Silurum in Wales, a site that fascinated him. In 1923, the year "Rats" was written, Lovecraft had read about the place and fantasized of it, as demonstrated in a letter in May of that year to Frank Belknap Long (HPL letter to Frank Belknap Long, May 13, 1923, Published in Lovecraft 1965: 228) (he would write of it in a similar manner in other letters through the years). The inspiration by Isca Silurum with the invocation of the Cymric (Welsh) language suggests that the general area near the Wales/England boundary isn't a bad place to place Exham Priory.

Just to the south of Cheddar Gorge, another interesting piece of the Exham Priory puzzle can be found at Glastonbury. Though I am not aware of any evidence that Lovecraft was familiar with it, in 1919 Frederick Bligh Bond published The Gate of Remembrance (intriguingly, the New York Times did not get around reviewing it until January 1923, the same year Lovecraft wrote "Rats")(New York Times, January 14, 1923). In it, Bond discusses his employment of a psychic researcher in his excavations of Glastonbury Abbey a decade prior, similar to the presence of Thornton, a psychic investigator, in Delapore's party of explorers under Exham Priory. This revelation led swiftly to Bond's dismissal from Glastonbury, though I suppose this is not as harsh a fate as the committal to a mental institute suffered by Thornton.

Returning to Gough's Cave, the descendants of these early settlers would have not survived directly to the present, in Britain at least. Climate grew colder again with the onset of the Younger Dryas, sending the North Atlantic back into a glaciation for about a thousand years, before warmer and more familiar temperatures became the norm after 11,500 years ago. Britain was settled again, and once again the spectre of cannibalism would raise its head. In 1866, a human arm bone was excavated at Kent's Cave, Devon, amongst thousands of animal bones. Re-analysis of this bone in 2009 (as reported by the BBC) showed cut marks not unlike those from Gough's Cave. That said, cannibalism is a flashy topic, and taking a look at some of the promotional material from the Cheddar Gorge museum might give us pause before jumping to conclusions.

Similar sensationalism has been invoked in historical discussion of another tale of British cannibalism, this one much more recent, the infamous case of Sawney Bean. Like the de la Poers in "The Rats in the Walls," the Bean clan supposedly lived in a cave (since the nineteenth century associated with Bennane Cave) and ate hundreds or thousands of victims, leaving behind a vast subterranean bone bed. In both cases, this reign of terror came to an end during the reign of King James I, a monarch so obsessed with witchcraft that he became personally involved in witch hunts and wrote Daemonologie, a manual for hunters. The reality of the Bean legend is not entirely clear, and it has been suggested it may have been nothing more than a print media hoax of the eighteenth century (read original text here) based on earlier tales.

Such tales are alive and well today, though more often associated with paranormal folklore and tourism. Nicholas Redfern in his "gonzo" Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men includes relict (or time traveling) cave men and savages amongst the various terrors encountered or alleged during his journey up and down Britain in search of the strange. More than one reviewer has suggested (with a mix of praise and disdain) Redfern and his traveling companions resemble a punk version of Lovecraft's seekers of "strange horrors," and indeed the book plays with a mythology of (somewhat New Age-tinged) extradimensional old ones who can be found in forgotten places by those who disturb what should be left alone. Likewise, the tale of Sawney Bean appears to be a staple of the Edinburgh paranormal tourism industry (a development not approved by all).

Works cited above

Bond, Frederick Bligh (script by John Alleyne)
1921 The Gate of Remembrance: The Story of the Psychological Experiment which Resulted in the Discovery of the Edgar Chapel at Glastonbury. Fourth Edition. E. P. Dutton and Company, New York. Source Google Books.

King James the First (edited by G. B. Harrison)
1922 - 1926 Daemonologie [1597] and Newes from Scotland [1591] From the series Bodley Head Quartos published by John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd. Source Sacred Texts

Joshi, S. T. (ed.)
1997 The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, annotated by S. T. Joshi. Dell, New York.

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips
1965 Selected Letters: 1911 – 1924. Volume I. Edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. Arkham House, Sauk City, Wisconsin.

Redfern, Nick
2004 Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men. Paraview Pocket Books. New York.

The Innsmouth Genes

Exhibit INS001 - Actinodin 1 & 2 (Image source: Bjorn Christen Torrensen, via wikicommons)

University of Ottawa researchers Jing Zhang and Marie-Andrée Akimenko have discovered that if the proteins actinoden 1 & 2 are suppressed in fish, fin development gives way to something like leg development. These two proteins are found in fish, but not in reptiles, mammals, or other tetrapods. (discussion, original article). The date of this original transition is immensely far into the past, and new research continues to push it back into the temporal gulf.

That such a small alteration is all that governs such a huge change should not be surprising to those familiar with the history of Innsmouth and similar communities.

"everything alive come aout o' the water onct an' only needs a little change to go back agin."

- Zadok Allen, Innsmouth Massachusetts, July 15, 1927

One wonders what the researchers would find if they were able to examine biological samples collected by the federal investigation of Innsmouth.

UPDATE: Meet Tiktallik, the 375 million year old "fishapod" discovered six years ago. It has all the basic structures that will form the human body. Perhaps we should instead call it Dagon?

A Review of Archaeology in Antarctica

Hut built by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Photo by Mila Zinkova. Source Wikicommons.

Exhibit ANT004 - History of Antarctic Archaeology

David L. Harrowfield has written a paper on the history of archaeology on Antarctica. In addition to its general interest regarding the Heroic Era of Antarctic Archaeology (shortly before Miskatonic's expeditions), the following section of the abstract concurs with Professor William Dyer's warnings regarding the continent

"There is great potential for further archaeology in Antarctica; however, any future work must take place under strict controls."

Harrowfield, David L.
2005 Archaeology on Ice: A Review of Historical Archaeology in Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Vol. 26: 5 - 28. Available online at Polar Heritage

Crookes Tube - Ghostbusting Equipment from "The Shunned House"

video by AlastairWright


Exhibit PHY001 - Crookes Tube

Developed by physicist and spiritualist William Crookes, the Crookes tube would play an important role in the development of modern physics, including the discovery of x-rays, as outlined by this BBC report. Perhaps this is why they would be naturally considered as ghost busting equipment in Lovecraft's "The Shunned House."

Necronomicon cameo on "House, M.D."

On tonight's episode of House, M.D., one of the characters, a RenFaire and medieval enthusiast, is also at least interested in either modern magickal practices or historical alchemy (this is never exactly cleared up, and the props are a hodge podge of "spooky" stuff, so good luck with that). He's got a big book of forbidden knowledge, and it's title is shot twice, very prominently with a full-screen close up. It's Necronomicon. I nearly fell over laughing when I saw it tonight. I don't know if that was the director's intention.

The Vermont Flood in "The Whisperer in Darkness"

Trailer for the upcoming H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society film The Whisperer in Darkness

MIG001 - The Vermont Flood of 1927

As I write this, coastal New England, especially Lovecraft's beloved Providence, is cleaning up from what is being called the worst flooding in 200 years. Another devastating flood occurred in New England 82 years ago, focused on the hills and mountains of Vermont. In addition to the massive damage, 85 people were killed. Images of the destruction, and some of the locations today, can be seen at the Landscape Change Program. A newsreel can be viewed at the Vermont Historical Society as can more images. Middlebury College has postcard images from the flood. Time Magazine, a relatively new publication in 1927, covered the floods in this article. Closer to the events, Westminster History Project has a Bellows Falls Times article from two weeks after the flooding began. Rootsweb has an extensive section of their site devoted to the flood. The National Weather Service has several resources, including an overview with rainfall amounts, and a 50th anniversary retrospective.

This flood provides the opening hook for H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Whisperer in Darkness." Lovecraft had previously used real events as inspiration for his story. I have previously noted the influence of the Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake of 1925 on the story "The Call of Cthulhu," though in that case the date was shared, but the location of the earthquake moved to the South Pacific. In "The Whisperer in Darkness, written almost three years after the floods, Lovecraft incorporates the actual event. From the second paragraph of the story

"The whole matter began, so far as I am concerned, with the historic and unprecedented Vermont floods of November 3, 1927. I was then, as now, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts, and an enthusiastic amateur student of New England folklore. Shortly after the flood, amidst the varied reports of hardship, suffering, and organized relief which filled the press, there appeared certain odd stories of things found floating in some of the swollen rivers"

This aspect of the story introduction is reflected in the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation, viewable in the video at the top of this post. This weekend, officials are warning New Englanders that the 2010 flood waters contain hidden dangers, though I suspect they are not thinking exactly of fungal monstrosities from beyond the stars.

Like the earthquake, which HPL would have felt, Lovecraft did not need to rely solely on news accounts of the Vermont flood, as he visited the state the year after the disaster. This same trip also provided the setting and some of the inspiration for his story "The Dunwich Horror." Lovecraft would have seen some of the damage himself, and presumably talked to people about it. As someone who lived in New Orleans in 2005, I can tell you that the topic of that disaster continued to show up in everyday conversation for years afterward.

The Gamburtsevs: The Real Mountains of Madness

Topographic and bathymetric map of subglacial Antarctica. Source.


Exhibit ANT003: The Real Mountains of Madness

The Gamburtsevs Mountains, also known as the Ghost Mountains, are the last mountain range being mapped on Earth. They have eluded exploration for so long due to their location: under glacial ice in Antarctica. I am certainly not the first to note the comparisons that can be made with the Mountains of Madness (which have cast a shadow over Antarctic exploration), discovered by the Miskatonic University Expedition to Antarctica, and described in the novelized account of their exploits and discoveries, At the Mountains of Madness, as follows.

"10:05 P.M. On the wing. After snowstorm, have spied mountain range ahead higher than any hitherto seen. May equal Himalayas, allowing for height of plateau. Probable Latitude 76° 15', Longitude 113° 10' E. Reaches far as can see to right and left. Suspicion of two smoking cones. All peaks black and bare of snow. Gale blowing off them impedes navigation."

Those coordinates aren't too far off for the Gamburtsevs. First discovered by a Soviet expedition in 1958, The Gamburtsevs have recently been the subject of serious research. As with the Miskatonic Expedition’s experiences with the Mountains of Madness, airplanes have been the most vital tool for exploring these mysterious peaks. But rather than drill, these modern-day Professor Dyers are utilizing high-speed airborne laser mapping to reveal the form of the mountains. Dr. Michael Studinger, one of the directors of the AGAP project studying the mountains, discusses the mountains and the details of modern Antarctic exploration in this fascinating lecture video that certainly made me feel inadequate in terms of how tough my working conditions are, and what I’ve accomplished.

Their research is ongoing (here's a good index and intro for the AGAP project website), and while the maps are getting better, showing sharper peaks than had been expected, many mysteries (including why and when the mountains formed) are still being worked out. Earlier reports suggested both the origin and lack of erosion for the mountains was a big mystery, though some of this is addressed in the lecture above, utilizing newer data). Numerous recent research images from the project can be seen in this National Geographic slide show, while loads of field photos can be found here. The new research has also uncovered river erosion, suggesting that the mountains rose before Antarctica was shrouded in ice, and in fact this location may well be where glaciation started on Earth, and it may contain some of the world's oldest ice, over a million years old, invaluable for climate and other research. By this point, I shouldn't have to make any specific remarks regarding the dangers of digging up bizarre alien life forms in Antarctic ice.

EDIT: Dark Roasted Blend used the same title I did to refer to the Gamburtsev's. I've visited their site before, but I don't know if I read that particular article. But the similarity is unintentional, but sorry if it did bother anyone.

UPDATE: The history of the mountains has been pieced together, stretching back a billion years.