0
Found this in a storage tub while doing a cleanup at home
I wonder how many ancient Aboriginal sites he wants to blow up this time.
Not sure if that link will work
There's a bit more but the cut and paste is a pain in the arse on the mobile and I've reached the max amount of free articles on the PCAs demonstrators gather on Tuesday at Rio Tinto's Perth headquarters to protest against the blasting of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site, a neighbouring Aboriginal corporation anxiously awaits a decision from WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt on a 60,000-year-old Pilbara heritage site sitting squarely in the path of a mine.
Fortescue Metals Group's planned Queens mine expansion, part of the Solomon project, has a footprint covering more than 70 heritage sites, including rock shelters, campsites and rock paintings and engravings – the 60,000-year-old rock shelter among them.
The Eastern Guruma gained permission to excavate and investigate to demonstrate the sites' cultural value, said archaeologist Kathryn Przywolnik, who is heritage manager at Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation which represents the Eastern Guruma people.
But before this work could commence, she said, FMG sought a Section 18 consent from Mr Wyatt to destroy the first batch of sites.
So the Aboriginal corporation rushed out at the end of last year and completed brief and urgent excavations at two of the sites. The sites ran even deeper than anticipated.
When you have a cave that people were living in 40,000-50,000 years ago ... over those years the deposits built up slowly and ground surface rises,” Dr Przywolnik said.
“So as we excavate the younger stuff is at the top and the older stuff is at the bottom. A shallow deposit suggests a lesser age and a deeper deposit can indicate a much older age.”
Optically stimulated luminesc*ence testing of stone tools and other matter, uncovered more than a metre below the surface, showed the first two rock shelters’ use and occupation by humans dated back 47,800 years ago in one, and approximately 60,000 years in the second.
A third site contained rock engravings on a series of five stone panels – that depicted animal and human figures, animal tracks and geometric motifs that traditional owners described as “sacred texts”, because figures representing the major Dreaming narratives in the area were all contained within the same site.
There were only a handful of sites of comparable significance in Australia, Dr Przywolnik said.
Thanks for making the positive news a bit negative!! 😳
but how many?Jono