New Guinea II is a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

cave and rockshelter on the

Snowy River The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the ...

at the end of New Guinea Track, near

Buchan, Victoria Buchan ( ) is a town in the east Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The town is situated adjacent to the Buchan River, in the Shire of East Gippsland, upstream from the river's junction with the Snowy River. At the 2011 census, Buchan a ...

. The cave was within the country of the Krowathunkooloong clan of the

Gunaikurnai The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) people, also referred to as the Gunnai or Kurnai, are an Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slop ...

nation. The deep cave system has an overhanging cliff that creates a rock shelter at the entrance facing the river. Excavations in the 1980s carried out by archaeologist Paul Ossa and a team from

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

found stone artefacts, and other signs of occupation that were dated to almost 20,000 BP. New Guinea II is one of three major cave systems that have so far been investigated in the middle Snowy River area, along with New Guinea Cave (NG-1), and Nuigini Namba Fav Cave (NG-5, NG-6. New Guinea II is largely joint-controlled, although the entrance area is formed along bedding planes and has a large chamber and passage with a perennial stream and several entrances. Finger or tool marks made in the dried mud on the cave wall are thought to be of prehistoric Aboriginal origin and are similar to those of

Koonalda Cave Koonalda Cave is a cave in the Australian state of South Australia, on the Nullarbor Plain in the locality of Nullarbor. It is notable as an archeological site.

on the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...

. New Guinea II is the first place where such markings have been recorded in Victoria. Animal origin has been proposed for the wall markings, although many appear to be in regular patterns, including circles and diagonal crosses. They are also generally on smoother parts of the walls and some are in now-dark and inaccessible parts of the cave. The cave is used by Bent Wing bats, which congregate in the large chamber, deep inside the cave. The cave has been occupied intermittently for more than 20,000 years (''21,900 +900/-800 BP and 4,660 +/- 110 BP'') with a small, but constant amount of lithic material and bone artefacts, as well as evidence of a hearth on a dry floor near the stream within the cave. Vertebrate fauna remains are abundant but mostly of non-cultural origin, representing animals that used the cave at times it was vacated by humans. The artefact assemblage is similar to that at the nearby Cloggs Cave in Buchan, and in conjunction with Birrigai in the ACT they represent a general signature of human occupation and resource exploitation of the southeastern uplands during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. This reveals a non-intensive use of caves and shelters and consumption of local fauna. In comparison, southwestern Tasmanian Pleistocene sites appear to have a different signature of cave occupation and the primacy of a single vertebrate resource.Paul Ossa, Brendan Marshall, Cathie Webb 1995, New Guinea II Cave:A Pleistocene site on the Snowy River, Victoria, ''Archaeology in Oceania'' Volume 30, Issue 1, Article first published online: 14 NOV 2014

References

;Notes * 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:New Guinea II cave Pleistocene paleontological sites of Australia History of Victoria (Australia) Caves of Victoria (Australia) Rock shelters in Australia

See also

References