[chubasco]

Does it strike anyone else as odd that the two skulls found practically "nose-to-nose" are 40,000 years apart in age? How do two humanoid skulls coincidentally end up right next to each other with 40,000 years gap between them?

[EliRivers]

Sea mines placed miles apart during the second world war sometimes end up settling right next to each other, several miles away. Sometimes tens of miles away. Sometimes next to a leftover mine from the first world war that arrived the same way.

The environment in which they exist subjects them to varying pressures and forces, making them move. When do they stop moving? When they reach a point at which those pressures and forces cease. That point is the same for all items that get swept there. Wait long enough, and if another one is part of the same system of forces that directs towards the same null point, it'll turn up. Happens with sea mines over the course of a few decades. Could it happen with skulls over tens of thousands of years? Sure could. Happens with lots of objects.

[Sylamore]

One of the articles I read stated they suspected the skulls were originally in different caves but had been caught in a flood that washed them into a common area.

[arcadeparade]

It was an ancient museum.

[Jill_the_Pill]

You probably mean this as a joke, but we often underestimate our ancestors who were as smart and curious as we are (and surely as dopey and uncurious as well).

[riffraff]

Neanderthal had rituals of some kind, maybe they just buried one of theirs with a skull s/he had found laying around?

Although I imagine the likely explanation is just that sometimes things fall next to each other.

[camjohnson26]

What’s the margin of error on these dating methods? Seems like a simpler explanation is that one of the dates is wrong.

[BurningFrog]

It's a good burial place and/or a good place to preserve bones.