Cloggs Cave
Location | Snowy River gorge, near Buchan, Victoria |
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Region | Australia |
Coordinates | 37°31′S 148°10′E / 37.517°S 148.167°E |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1970s |
Archaeologists | Josephine Flood |
Cloggs Cave is a
The cave was within the country of the Krowathunkooloong (Krauatungalung
The first European known to have found the cave was Josephine Flood, when driving to another site in eastern Victoria. Her subsequent excavations within the dry floor of the rock shelter revealed extensive evidence of stone tool-making from the Australian Small Tool Tradition, with the basal layer dated to the last 1,000 years. Further inside the cave dates from the excavation showed the site was probably first occupied around 17,000 years ago, but appears to have been abandoned by 1,000 years when the outer area was occupied. Based on the relatively small quantities of discarded stone tools, the site has been interpreted as an intermittently occupied hunting site rather than a permanent campsite, with deeply stratified layers containing both stone and bone tools along with ochre and a rich faunal assemblage. The artefact assemblage is from what is described as the Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition.[3]
The cave was also important in demonstrating the antiquity of Aboriginal occupation in south-east Australia and for its almost continuous sequence of occupation layers, extending into the post European settlement period in the 1830s and 1860s.[4]
An excavation reported in early 2021 revealed
The findings were analysed using a special staining process. After the residues were placed on a microscope slide, they were stained with a special dye which turned
See also
References
- ^ a b c Costa, Jedda (15 February 2021). "Discovery of ancient Bogong moth remains at Cloggs Cave gives insight into Indigenous food practices". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
- ^ Josephine Flood, Pleistocene human occupation and extinct fauna in Cloggs Cave, Buchan, South-east Australia. Nature 1973 Nov 30;246(5431):303.
- ^ Josephine Flood, Pleistocene Man at Cloggs Cave: his Tool Kit and Environment, Mankind Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 175–188, June 1974
- ^ Geoffrey S. Hope, Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes
- Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, J. B. Publishing
- Phillip J. Habgood & Natilie R. Franklin, The revolution that didn't arrive: A review of Pleistocene Sahul, Journal of Human Evolution, 55, 2008