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Aboriginal sites of Victoria form an important record of human occupation for probably more than 40,000 years. They may be identified from archaeological remains, historical and ethnographic information or continuing oral traditions and encompass places where rituals and ceremonies were performed, occupation sites where people ate, slept and carried out their day to day chores, and ephemeral evidence of people passing through the landscape, such as a discarded axe head or isolated artefact. Victorian Aboriginal sites include shell middens, scarred trees, cooking mounds, rock art, burials, ceremonial sites and innumerable stone artefacts. These stone flakes represent the tools Aboriginal people used, such as knives, spear points, scrapers and awls, and the waste material left behind when they were made. Commonly referred to as ''stone artefact scatters'' such sites can be found on the surface or exposed by ploughing or erosion, or through careful archaeological excavation. ==Types of sites== Scarred trees result from removing bark for the manufacture of shields, coolamons, shelters and other utensils can be found where appropriate species of tree of sufficient age survive. Some trees were marked with designs and symbols. A large river red gum with a canoe scar is located at Heide Gallery in Bulleen. There have been more than 60 rock art sites identified in the Grampians National Park which contains about 80% of the known Aboriginal rock art sites in Victoria, with a number of new discoveries after the fires of January 2006.〔Brochure, ''(Grampians National Park (Gariwerd), Victoria )'', Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Accessed 25 November 2008〕 They depict humans, human hands, animal tracks and birds, while some are open to the public and are readily accessible including: Billimina (Glenisla shelter), Jananginj Njani (Camp of the Emu's Foot), Manja (Cave of Hands), Larngibunja (Cave of Fishes), Ngamadjidj (Cave of Ghosts), and Gulgurn Manja (Flat Rock).〔http://www.grampiansnationalpark.com/grampians/national/park/history.asp#aboriginal〕 Nearby Bunjil's Shelter, which illustrates Bunjil, the creator, is in the Black Range near Stawell. A painting thought to be of a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) is noted from Mt Pilot and the paintings at Mudgegonga rock shelter in north-eastern Victoria are possibly 3500 years old. Ceremonial sites are rare, but two large stone arrangements have been found at Wurdi Youang near Mount Rothwell and Carisbrook. others have been identified from Oral tradition, although archaeological remains are no longer evident such as the Corroboree Tree at Richmond oval was a significant gathering place for the Wurundjeri people. A number of earth rings have been identified in Sunbury,〔Frankel, David 1982 Earth rings at Sunbury, Victoria. Archaeology in Oceania 17:83-89〕 which, although lacking historical or ethnographic evidence, have been interpreted as ceremonial Bora rings.〔(Bowdler, Sandra, 1999, ''A study of Indigenous ceremonial ("Bora") sites in eastern Australia'', Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia, paper delivered at "Heritage Landscapes: Understanding Place &Communities" conference, Southern Cross University, Lismore, November 1999 )〕 Evidence of stone quarrying is rare, but the Mount William stone axe quarry 〔(Archaeological site at Mount William Lancefield Australia, Romsey Australia )〕 is one of a number of stone sources used for making tools which were traded long distances throughout central and western Victoria and into New South Wales.〔Coutts, P.J.F. & Miller, R (1977). The Mt. William archaeological area. Melbourne: Victorian Archaeological Survey, Government Printer〕 Only a relatively small number of burials have been identified in Victoria, most of which are associated with sand dunes along the coast or in the north west of the state. Kow Swamp is particularly significant for evidence of 13000 year old burial rituals using a headband of kangaroo incisors similar to those worn by Aboriginal people until recently, and for consistent burial practices over a long period. A burial on the banks of the Werribee river has been dated to about 7300 years ago. Shell middens occur along most of the coastline and some lake-shores and river banks. Most of these were relatively recent (due to the mobile nature of sand) such as Seal Point and Moonlight Head in the Otway Ranges, although some like Mallacoota Inlet in eastern Gippsland have been dated to more than 2500 years ago, and Wilsons Promontory 6500 years ago. Large earth mounds were built up by deliberate transport of soil and the remains of clay heat retainers in hearths, the collapse of seasonally abandoned turf huts and camp activities. Examples have been found on the Hopkins River flood plain in central western Victoria, and in the Nyah Forest, the oldest is dated to about 2500 years ago.〔Peter Coutts and Jane Wesson, Victoria Archaeological Survey Summer Schools in Archaeology: An Evaluation, ''Australian Archaeology'' No. 11 (Dec., 1980), pp. 19–127〕 Fish and eel traps were constructed on many rivers, and while most were probably of organic materials and have left little trace, some, such as at Lake Condah in western Victoria reveal complex systems of excavated channels and stone weirs, dated to 3000 years ago. Stone artefacts found near the bones of now extinct megafauna at Lancefield in central Victoria have suggested Aboriginal people were living alongside giant marsupials 26,000 years ago. While rock shelters are often the sites of cave painting and other art, they also provide deeply steratified occupation deposits because they are protected from erosion. New Guinea II cave on the Snowy River near Buchan has deposits more than 10 000 years old along with delicate cave paintings and engravings. Rock shelters were occupied in the Cape Bridgewater area about 12,000 years ago. Cloggs Cave rock shelter near Buchan, Victoria was occupied about 18,000 years ago, where bone tools and animal remains were found. At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia, while at Box Gully on Lake Tyrrell, emu eggs and other artefacts have been dated to 27,000 years ago.〔Josephine Flood, Pleistocene Human Occupation and Extinct Fauna in Cloggs Cave, Buchan, South-east Australia ''Nature'' 246, 303 (30 November 1973); , Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Box 4, PO, Canberra, ACT 2600〕 Stone artefact scatters are among the most common site types and provide evidence of tool use and manufacture. These are often extensive surface scatters and deep stratified deposits of flaked finegrained stone, of lithic flakes. Much of this material is waste flakes, discarded during the manufacture process. Specific types of artefacts such as blades, scrapers or burins may indicate what the area was used for, for example processing animal skins. Stone artefact material is usually rine grained silcrete, chert, and quartz. Hornfels is an unusual and rare material, but is highly distinctive. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aboriginal sites of Victoria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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