Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research
Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the ic...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15429 https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10410 |
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ftunivwaikato:oai:researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz:10289/15429 2024-02-04T10:00:26+01:00 Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research McDowell, Matthew David, Bruno O. Mullett, Russell Fresløv, Joanna Delannoy, Jean-Jacques Mialanes, Jerome Thomas, Cath Ash, Jeremy Crouch, Joe Petchey, Fiona Buettel, Jessie Arnold, Lee J. 2022-12 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15429 https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10410 en eng John Wiley & Sons Ltd People and Nature https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15429 doi:10.1002/pan3.10410 2575-8314 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2022 The Authors. biogeographic change climate change East Gippsland first nations landscapes GunaiKurnai owl accumulation partnership research small mammals Journal Article 2022 ftunivwaikato https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10410 2024-01-09T18:25:47Z Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new excavation was combined with detailed chronometric dating, high-resolution 3D mapping and geomorphological studies. This allowed interpretation of a sequence of stratigraphic layers spanning from a lowermost excavated mixed layer dated to between 25,640 and 48,470 cal BP, to a dense set of uppermost, ash layers dated to between 1460 and 3360 cal BP. This long and well-dated chronostratigraphic sequence enabled temporal trends in the abundant small mammal remains to be examined. The fossil assemblage consists of at least 31 taxa of mammals which change in proportions through time. Despite clear evidence that the Old Ancestors repeatedly carried vegetation into the cave to fuel cool fires (no visible vegetation grows in Cloggs Cave), we observed little to no evidence of cooking fires or calcined bone, suggesting that people had little involvement with the accumulation of the faunal remains. Small mammal bones were most likely deposited in the cave by large disc-faced owls, Tyto novaehollandae (Masked Owl) or Tyto tenebricosa (Sooty Owl). Despite being well dated and largely undisturbed, the Cloggs Cave assemblage does not appear to track known Late Quaternary environmental change. Instead, the complex geomorphology of the area fostered a vegetation mosaic that supported mammals with divergent habitat preferences. The faunal deposit suggests a local ancestral landscape characterised by a resilient mosaic of habitats that persisted over thousands of years, signalling that the Old Ancestors burned landscape fires to encourage and manage patches of different vegetation types ... Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations The University of Waikato: Research Commons People and Nature 4 6 1629 1643 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Waikato: Research Commons |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwaikato |
language |
English |
topic |
biogeographic change climate change East Gippsland first nations landscapes GunaiKurnai owl accumulation partnership research small mammals |
spellingShingle |
biogeographic change climate change East Gippsland first nations landscapes GunaiKurnai owl accumulation partnership research small mammals McDowell, Matthew David, Bruno O. Mullett, Russell Fresløv, Joanna Delannoy, Jean-Jacques Mialanes, Jerome Thomas, Cath Ash, Jeremy Crouch, Joe Petchey, Fiona Buettel, Jessie Arnold, Lee J. Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
topic_facet |
biogeographic change climate change East Gippsland first nations landscapes GunaiKurnai owl accumulation partnership research small mammals |
description |
Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new excavation was combined with detailed chronometric dating, high-resolution 3D mapping and geomorphological studies. This allowed interpretation of a sequence of stratigraphic layers spanning from a lowermost excavated mixed layer dated to between 25,640 and 48,470 cal BP, to a dense set of uppermost, ash layers dated to between 1460 and 3360 cal BP. This long and well-dated chronostratigraphic sequence enabled temporal trends in the abundant small mammal remains to be examined. The fossil assemblage consists of at least 31 taxa of mammals which change in proportions through time. Despite clear evidence that the Old Ancestors repeatedly carried vegetation into the cave to fuel cool fires (no visible vegetation grows in Cloggs Cave), we observed little to no evidence of cooking fires or calcined bone, suggesting that people had little involvement with the accumulation of the faunal remains. Small mammal bones were most likely deposited in the cave by large disc-faced owls, Tyto novaehollandae (Masked Owl) or Tyto tenebricosa (Sooty Owl). Despite being well dated and largely undisturbed, the Cloggs Cave assemblage does not appear to track known Late Quaternary environmental change. Instead, the complex geomorphology of the area fostered a vegetation mosaic that supported mammals with divergent habitat preferences. The faunal deposit suggests a local ancestral landscape characterised by a resilient mosaic of habitats that persisted over thousands of years, signalling that the Old Ancestors burned landscape fires to encourage and manage patches of different vegetation types ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McDowell, Matthew David, Bruno O. Mullett, Russell Fresløv, Joanna Delannoy, Jean-Jacques Mialanes, Jerome Thomas, Cath Ash, Jeremy Crouch, Joe Petchey, Fiona Buettel, Jessie Arnold, Lee J. |
author_facet |
McDowell, Matthew David, Bruno O. Mullett, Russell Fresløv, Joanna Delannoy, Jean-Jacques Mialanes, Jerome Thomas, Cath Ash, Jeremy Crouch, Joe Petchey, Fiona Buettel, Jessie Arnold, Lee J. |
author_sort |
McDowell, Matthew |
title |
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
title_short |
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
title_full |
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
title_fullStr |
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
title_full_unstemmed |
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research |
title_sort |
interpreting the mammal deposits of cloggs cave (se australia), gunaikurnai aboriginal country, through community-led partnership research |
publisher |
John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15429 https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10410 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_relation |
People and Nature https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15429 doi:10.1002/pan3.10410 2575-8314 |
op_rights |
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2022 The Authors. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10410 |
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People and Nature |
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4 |
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6 |
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1629 |
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1643 |
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1789965703416119296 |