Catastrophic Mine Explosion in Australia Obliterates 47,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Cultural Site

Catastrophe at Australian Mine Destroys 47,000-Year-Old Aboriginal Artifacts Site

Reverse Shenanigans: Big Mining Blows Up Ancient Aboriginal Site, Causes a Storm

Back in 2020, staggering news rocked the world as global construction behemoth Rio Tinto leveled Juukan Gorge's ancient rockshelter in Puutu Kunti Kurrama Country, Western Australia, during an expansion of their iron ore mine.

Y'all, wecrashed the party with the Traditional Owners back in 2014, unearthing Juukan 2 — the rockshelter we just bombed — filled with signs of Aboriginal occupation going back 47,000 years, even when it was chilly as Hell during the last ice age.

The shindig had all sorts of goodies: human hair, tools, artwork, and critter bones. We found a 3,000-year-old plait of hair linked to the excavation team that dug up the site. That's some long-lasting handiwork, right there!

This wasn't supposed to happen. Last-ditch efforts to protect the site failed. The revelations about our destruction of the treasure trove only spilled out recently in the literary journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

So, where's this Juukan dang ol' place, anyway?

Juukan’s a gorgeous gorge system with caves in Puutu Kunti Kurrama Country, around 60 km northwest of Tom Price in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Back in the day, this spot boasted fresh water holes, massive camping areas surrounded by ironstone mountains, and a big ol' river flowing sometimes and drying up other times.

Today, you might find prospectors hanging around Juukan 2, ’cause it's part of Rio Tinto's iron ore mine. Oh, and did we mention we blasted the rock shelter to bits during our mine expansion activities? Yep, we broke well-documented heritage laws.

This move earned us big ol' side-eyes from folks worldwide and really put the spotlight on Western Australia's soon-to-be-obsolete heritage protection laws.

What made this hideout so damn special, anyways?

Juukan Gorge was named after an ancestor of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama, and it's more than important—it’s deeply spiritual for the locals. This place is witness to the past and represents the enduring connection of these folks to their land.

Scientifically, Juukan 2 is a goldmine. It's one of the oldest known spots where Aboriginal people settled Australia, with only a few places being discovered that are as old. Brazil nuts, anyone?

Juukan used to be almost 1,000 km from the coast about 10,000 years ago when sea levels rose. People living there in the desert back then were, apparently, Macgyver-level survivors. This is supported by the fact that they used the cave even during the last ice age (from around 28,000 to 18,000 years ago).

Whenever we look at archaeological finds, usually a handful of items tip us off about the site's use. But at Juukan 2, we found thousands of artifacts, including some broken spinifex resin, which was the homemade glue people used to hold their fancy tools together.

Juukan 2 also gave us insights into the wildlife at the time. We found broken critter bones from critters that died naturally and some bones that demonstrated people were cookin' up kangaroos, emus, and echidnas at the site. How about that for a recipe?

Among this pile of bones, we discovered a plait of human hair dated to roughly 3,000 years old. We believe it belonged to the community that was digging up the remnants alongside us. How cool is that?

Not only did we find a bone point made from a kangaroo's shinbone that's about 30,000 years old, but we also spotted ochre on its tip. While we don't exactly know what this tool was used for, the ochre might suggest a ritualistic function.

So, what now?

Well, after our demolition derby in 2020, we got back to work and started gently cracking open the rubble that was once the roof and walls of the cave. Surprise! Beneath the mess, we found bits of organic material and remnants of the cave floor. This past couple of years, we've carefully uncovered even more cool stuff, like a braid of hair, some shell beads probably swiped from the coast, and jaw fragments from an extinct Tasmanian devil.

The publishing of these 2014 excavation results earlier this month is just chapter FUCKING TWO of this archaeology book on Juukan 2. It's a sacred place to the Traditional Owners, but it's also a crucial site for learning about our rich, ancient history.

The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation was our co-collaborator on this research article and the upcoming remnants find-a-thon. This article was originally published in The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation (2021). Juukan’s astonishing history: New archaeological findings reveal continuous Indigenous occupation of Australia for at least 46,000 years. The Conversation. Reprinted under the Creative Commons license.

Technology from approximately 46,000 years ago, remnants of kangaroo, emu, and echidna bones, and ancient tools made from spinifex resin and kangaroo shinbone were discovered in the rockshelter Juukan 2, located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, during excavations in 2014.
In the future, it is likely that further archaeological discoveries will be made in Juukan Gorge, uncovering additional insights about the early Aboriginal presence in Australia, as research continues at the site.
Science has shown that the Juukan Junction area was inhabited by humans during extreme climate changes, such as the last ice age, demonstrating the remarkable adaptability of Aboriginal tribes to the Australian desert environment.
Exploring the Juukan Gorge site further might yield further evidence of the close connection between Aboriginal peoples and their land, a connection that has continued for thousands of years, reinforcing the spiritual and historical significance of the area for the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal nations.