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 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 for the interpretation of a sequence of stratigraphic layers spanning from a lowermost excavated mixed layer dated to between 25,640–48,470 cal BP, to a dense set of uppermost, ash layers dated to between 1460–3360 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 whic...