Cloggs Cave is a limestone cave and

rockshelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...

with significant

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

archaeological deposits, located on a cliff along the Snowy River gorge near the town of Buchan, Victoria. The cave was within the country of the Krowathunkooloong (Krauatungalung) clan of the Gunaikurnai nation. The roof of the rock shelter outside the cave is heavily blackened, evidently from campfires. A passage leads to an inner chamber with a high cathedral-like roof. Cloggs Cave was the first Pleistocene occupation site to be found with intact bone. Evidence of bones from

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...

and extinct marsupials was found to be dated between 27,500 and 24,500 years old, but were not associated with the human occupation layers. 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 A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...

-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 Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

and a rich faunal assemblage. The artefact assemblage is from what is described as the Australian Core Tool and Scraper Tradition. 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.Geoffrey S. Hope, Altered Ecologies: Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes An excavation reported in early 2021 revealed microscopic remains of bogong moth on a small grinding stone, estimated to be about 2,000 years old. This is the first confirmed evidence of insect food remains discovered on a stone artefact in the whole world. The Gunaikurnai people were one of several Aboriginal peoples who used to travel to the mountains to obtain the high-fat, energy-rich moths as food, and stories of these travels had been passed down in their

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

. The excavation was done by researchers from Monash University in collaboration with the traditional owners, represented by the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Corporation (GLaWAC). 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 fluorescent, which aided identification of the

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole ...

and proteins, being the remains of the moth left on the rock.

References

* 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cloggs Cave Pleistocene paleontological sites of Australia History of Victoria (Australia) Limestone caves Caves of Victoria (Australia) Rock shelters in Australia

See also

References