Abstract

In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country), in the southern foothills of SE Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Detailed chronometric dating, combined with high-resolution 3D mapping, geomorphological studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. These results suggest a critical re-interpretation of what the Old People were, and were not, doing in Cloggs Cave during the Late Holocene. Instead of a lack of Late Holocene cave occupation, as previously thought through the conceptual lens of ‘habitat and economy’, Cloggs Cave is now understood to have been actively used for special, magical purposes. Configured by local GunaiKurnai cosmology, cave landscapes (including Cloggs Cave's) were populated not only by food species animals, but also by ‘supernatural’ Beings and forces whose presence helped inform occupational patterns. The profound differences between the old and new archaeological interpretations of Cloggs Cave, separated by five decades of developing archaeological thought and technical advances, draw attention to archaeological meaning-making and highlight the significance of data capture and the pre-conceptions that shape the production of archaeological stories and identities of place.

摘要

在本文中，我们报道了在澳大利亚东南部大分水岭南麓的克洛格斯洞穴（古奈库尔奈地区）的标志性考古遗址上进行的新研究。详细的年代测年，再加上高分辨率的3D绘图，地貌学研究和考古发掘，现在可以使密集的晚全新世火山灰层序列及其内容与古奈库尔奈人种学和当前的知识相关联。这些结果表明，对全新世晚期克洛格斯洞穴中老年人的行为进行了批判性的重新诠释。克洛格斯洞穴不再像以前通过“栖息地和经济”这样的概念而缺乏后来的全新世洞穴的占领，现在人们已经认识到克洛格斯洞穴已经被积极地用于特殊的神奇目的。由当地的GunaiKurnai宇宙学配置，洞穴景观（包括克洛格斯洞穴的景观）不仅由食用动物组成，而且还包括“超自然”生物和势力，它们的存在有助于了解职业模式。克洛格斯洞的新旧考古学解释之间的深刻差异，被五十年来不断发展的考古学思想和技术进步所分隔，引起了人们对考古学意义的关注，并突出了数据采集的重要性以及影响到考古学生产的先入之见。考古故事和地方特征。