Abstract

Recent studies conducted in Murujuga Sea Country have confirmed that Indigenous Australian archaeology does not end at the modern shore. Since the earliest peopling of the Australian continent, sea levels have fluctuated significantly, dropping as much as 130 m below modern mean sea-level during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). During this period, the continent (including Australia and New Guinea) represented a landmass one-third larger than present day Australia. As sea levels rose following the LGM, this extensive cultural landscape was inundated. The recent reporting of archaeological remains in a submerged context at Murujuga has enabled an integrated analysis of the archaeological landscape, based on direct evidence from archaeological sites that were originally formed on dry land, but are now located in intertidal and submerged environments. This study applies a landscape analysis centred on the submerged Cape Bruguieres channel site, and the Gidley Islands, where submerged, intertidal and coastal archaeology has been recorded. Aerial, pedestrian, and intertidal archaeological surveys were conducted to investigate the onshore and offshore landscape, providing new evidence with which to place the stone artefacts in the Cape Bruguieres channel into a wider context. Rock art engravings, grinding patches, quarries and upstanding stones – some of which are in the intertidal zone – point to the use of a landscape that is now submerged and to the possibility of discovering new underwater sites. By integrating evidence from subtidal and intertidal contexts with the onshore record, we explore the cultural landscape above and below the ‘waterline’ as a continuum.

摘要

最近在 Murujuga Sea Country 进行的研究证实，澳大利亚土著考古并没有在现代海岸结束。自澳大利亚大陆最早的人类以来，海平面波动很大，在末次盛冰期 (LGM) 期间比现代平均海平面下降了 130 m。在此期间，该大陆（包括澳大利亚和新几内亚）的陆地面积比现在的澳大利亚大三分之一。随着 LGM 之后海平面上升，这片广阔的文化景观被淹没。最近对 Murujuga 淹没环境中考古遗迹的报告使得能够根据考古遗址的直接证据对考古景观进行综合分析，这些考古遗址最初形成于旱地，但现在位于潮间带和水下环境中。本研究应用了以布鲁吉埃角水下海峡遗址和吉德利群岛为中心的景观分析，在那里记录了水下、潮间带和海岸考古。进行了空中、步行和潮间带考古调查以调查陆上和近海景观，为将布鲁吉埃角海峡中的石制品置于更广泛的背景中提供了新的证据。岩画雕刻、研磨斑块、采石场和直立的石头——其中一些位于潮间带——表明现在被淹没的景观的使用以及发现新的水下遗址的可能性。通过将来自潮下带和潮间带环境的证据与陆上记录相结合，我们探索了“水线”上下的文化景观作为一个连续体。