While the archaeological investigation of caves with these dark zones has been developing for some time, this work has almost exclusively focused on prehistoric activities. This paper demonstrates the value of a historical archaeological examination of dark zone caves. Archaeology in caves with extended dark zones offers unique insight into the interaction of the natural world with the encroaching capitalist world system due both to the difficulty of access and the lack of generalized occupational sites. We propose a theoretical and methodological framework to explore how these caves have interacted with modern capitalist enterprises in the historical perio
