History Hangs in the Balance
With another skull in the background, veteran climber Pete Athans is seen recovering human remains from a severely eroded cliffside cave in Nepal's Mustang region last year (Mustang region map).
The 1,500-year-old bones are among the remains of 27 human corpses—many of which had been stripped of flesh—found in the human-made cave system. The findings point to a previously unknown Himalayan death ritual, the team announced Friday.
Because the caves—and the entire cliff face—are highly unstable, retrieving the remains could be done only by expert climbers.
Read the full story: "New Death Ritual Found in Himalaya—27 Defleshed Humans."
—With reporting by Ker Than
Pictures: Bones Evidence of Himalaya Death Ritual?
Found in dangerously high Himalayan cliff caves, newfound bones—many of which had been defleshed—point to an unknown ancient ritual.
