The torch fragments on the cave floor are exactly where the ancient miners dropped them.

The footprints in the soft sediment are exactly where the ancient miners stepped.

The gourd bowls positioned near mining walls are exactly where the miners set them down.

The sandals in their caches are exactly where the miners left them.

Nothing disturbed any of this for two thousand years between the end of the mining period and the arrival of European Americans in the cave.

And even after European Americans arrived, the passages not on major tour routes remained largely undisturbed, because the commercial and practical use of the cave focused on specific areas.