News
Major session on Juukan excavations by the team at the Australian Archaeological Association Conference 2024
It was standing / sitting room only when the team presented the results of the ongoing excavations at Juukan Gorge at the Australian Archaeological Association annual conference in Cairns
The first published results from Juukan Gorge show 47,000 years of Aboriginal heritage was destroyed in mining blast
In May 2020, as part of a legally permitted expansion of an iron ore mine, Rio Tinto destroyed an ancient rockshelter at Juukan Gorge in Puutu Kunti Kurrama Country in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Society of American Archaeology Annual Conference 2024
Our recent trip to New Orleans to present the first session on the Juukan excavations by the team at the Society of American Archaeology Annual Conference 2024.
Amongst Lakers games, and jet boating the Louisiana swamps we found time to run a session at the World’s biggest archaeology Conference.
An Aboriginal corporation says a Tasmanian devil tooth has been found in a rock shelter at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara.
Rio Tinto received international condemnation for blasting two rock shelters in the area in 2020 while searching for iron ore.
Results from Juukan Gorge show 47,000 years of Aboriginal heritage was destroyed in mining blast
Working with the Traditional Owners, we had excavated the shelter—known as Juukan 2—in 2014, six years before its destruction. We found evidence Aboriginal people first used Juukan 2 around 47,000 years ago, likely throughout the last ice age, through to just a few decades before the cave was destroyed.
Research
Sarawak Museum Journal
Archaeological Investigations at the Trader's Cave,Niah National Park: Reports on the Second and Third (2018 & 2019) Field Seasons
In November 2017, 50 years after Tom and Barbara Harrisson completed their excavations in the West Mouth of the Niah Great Cave Complex (NGCC), we began archaeological excavations in the Trader's Cave.
Mohd. Sherman bin Sauffi, Darren Curnoe, Hsiao Goh Mei, Xue-feng Sun, Jarrad W. Paul, David R. Cohen, Hank Sombroek, Matthew McDowell, Roshan Peiris, Michael Slack, Clara Magalhães, Rosário Soares, Haidar Ali and Mortiza Jamil
Wiley
Preanalytical processing of archaeological mammal enamel apatite carbonates for stable isotope investigations
A comparative analysis of the effect of acid treatment on samples from Northwest Australia. Stable isotopic analysis of palaeontological and archaeological biogenic apatite carbonates from herbivorous mammalian species represents an important tool for worldwide palaeoecological research.
Jane Skippington 1,2, Peter Veth 1,5, Tiina Manne 3, Michael Slack 4,5
Australian Archaeology
On the need for cultural heritage practice to pivot to a new Australia
Fifty years ago Australian archaeologists would have had no idea just how many of us there would be now and how a largely academic interest has become a profession employing hundreds of people throughout the country.
In 1973, this would not have even been possible.
Fieldwork in remote areas not serviced by airlines, rather by dirty old Landrovers and long-distance drives; maps and compasses rather than hand-held tablets and GIS programs as the standard; aerial maps rather than satellite imagery and drones; and at the end of it all the daunting prospect of typing a report on an actual typewriter.
Michael J. Slack 2024
Quaternary Science Reviews
A 47,000 year archaeological and palaeo-environmental record
from Juukan 2 rockshelter on the western Hamersley Plateau of the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Michael J. Slack a,b,c,*, W. Boone Law b,c,d, Adelle C.F. Coster e, Kane Ditchfield f,g, Judith Field h, Jillian Garvey i, Luke A. Gliganic j,k, Patrick Moss l, Jarrad W. Paul m, Wendy Reynen g, Ingrid Ward n, Sally Wasef o, Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation p
The Conversation June 2024 (150,000 reads).
The first published results from Juukan Gorge show 47,000 years of Aboriginal heritage was destroyed in mining blast.
The Juukan 2 rockshelter was blown up in 2020. The results of an archaeological dig carried out six years earlier are only now being published for the first time.
Slack, M.J., Ralph, J., Law W.B. June 2024
Quaternary Science Reviews
A 47,000 year archaeological and palaeo-environmental record
from Juukan 2 rockshelter on the western Hamersley Plateau of the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Michael J. Slack a,b,c,*, W. Boone Law b,c,d, Adelle C.F. Coster e, Kane Ditchfield f,g, Judith Field h, Jillian Garvey i, Luke A. Gliganic j,k, Patrick Moss l, Jarrad W. Paul m, Wendy Reynen g, Ingrid Ward n, Sally Wasef o, Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation p
Journal of Archaeological Science
Tending to tradition
Dating stone arrangement maintenance in northwest Australia using optical methods
L.A. Gliganica, b,*, M. Slack c,d, M.C. Meyer b
Quaternary Science Reviews
The early occupation of the Eastern Pilbara revisited
New radiometric chronologies and archaeological results from Newman Rockshelter and Newman Orebody XXIX
Michael Jon Slack a, b, *, Wallace Boone Law a, b, c, Luke Andrew Gliganica, d
Journal of Field Archaeology
The Story is in the Rocks
How Stone Artifact Scatters can Inform our Understanding of Ancient Aboriginal Stone Arrangement Functions
W. Boone Law & Michael J. Slack
Archaeology in Oceania
Pleistocene settlement of the eastern Hamersley Plateau
A regional study of 22 rock-shelter sites.
Michael Jon Slack, Wallace Boone Law and Luke Andrew Gliganic
Australian Archaeology
Post-Last Glacial Maximum
Settlement of the West Angelas region in the inland Hamersley Plateau, Western Australia
Michael Slack, Kate Connell, Annabelle Davis, Luke Andrew Gliganic, W. Boone Law & Michael Meyer
Archaeological Prospection
Digital Terrain Analysis
Reveals New Insights into the Topographic Context of Australian Aboriginal Stone Arrangements
W. Boone Law 1,2*, Michael J Slack 2,3, Bertram Ostendorf 1 and Megan M Lewis 1
Quaternary Geochronology 32 (2016)
Post-depositional mixing processes
Sediment mixing in aeolian sandsheets identified and quantfied using single-grain optically stimulated luminescence
Luke Andrew Gliganica, b, *, Tim J. Cohen b, Michael Slack c, d, James K. Featherse