A Simpler Time: Archaeological Excavations and Assessment at Juukan Gorge 2008–2014

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper discusses the archaeological excavations at Juukan Gorge in 2008 and then in 2014. We present a Late Pleistocene and Holocene chronology for the Gorge (see Slack et al. 2009), indicating that Aboriginal people first occupied the interior of the Hamersley Plateau in Western Australia over 46,000 years ago. Human settlement in the region continued throughout Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) and Stage 2 (MIS2), including the height of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ca. 23,000–19,000 years ago. The archaeology of the Juukan 2 site is presented in detail, a record of thousands of stone artifacts, bone implements, organic material, and sacred items unrivaled by any other Australian arid zone site. The results show unequivocally how the Juukan Gorge sites were of international significance and should never have been disturbed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Juukan Gorge: The Story of Destruction, Excavation and Rebuilding   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39133.0