In the 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, a rush to better understand the European Palaeolithic led to the substantive removal of deposits from limestone caves. In the 21st century the situation has changed. Many caves are now excavated, leaving behind a human-made environment of diminished cave sediments and large spoil heaps, with the latter now targeted by those searching for artefacts missed during the original excavations. In an age in which archaeologists are increasingly attempting to balance their roles as cultural heritage educators and destroyers, the question remains - how much do we know about the taphonomy of these features? In this paper we report results from the excavation of a large spoil heap outside Švédův Stůl Cave, in the Moravian Karst region of Czech Republic. Results show heterogeneous sediment formation (revealed primarily through their field characteristics and ED-XRF and Itrax geochemical analyses) and patterns in artefact distributions (evident through assessment of Iron Age, Neolithic and modern artefacts) and faunal remains. This allows partial context to be provided for some artefacts and a methodology to be developed for excavation of overburden.

在 19 世纪和 20 世纪中叶，人们急于更好地了解欧洲旧石器时代，导致大量石灰岩洞穴中的沉积物被清除。进入21世纪，情况发生了变化。许多洞穴现在都被挖掘出来，留下了洞穴沉积物减少和大量弃土堆的人造环境，而后者现在成为那些寻找原始挖掘过程中遗漏的文物的人的目标。在考古学家越来越多地试图平衡他们作为文化遗产教育者和破坏者的角色的时代，问题仍然存在——我们对这些特征的埋藏学了解多少？在本文中，我们报告了在捷克共和国摩拉维亚喀斯特地区 Švédův Stůl Cave 外挖掘大型弃土堆的结果。结果显示了异质沉积物形成（主要通过其现场特征和 ED-XRF 和 Itrax 地球化学分析显示）和人工制品分布模式（通过对铁器时代、新石器时代和现代人工制品的评估表明）和动物群遗骸。这允许为一些人工制品提供部分背景，并开发用于挖掘覆盖层的方法。