Koonalda Cave
Koonalda Cave | |
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Location | Nullarbor Plain, South Australia |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Discovery | 1935 |
Koonalda Cave is a cave located in Nullarbor Plain within South Australia which is notable as an archeological site.[1][2]
Thousands of square metres in the cave are covered in parallel finger-marked geometric lines and patterns, Indigenous Australian artwork which has been dated as 20,000 years old,[1][3] making it older than any known prehistoric art in Europe.[4] It is located about 97 kilometres (60 mi) north east from Eucla[5] within the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area.[6]
The cave was abandoned 19,000 years ago, and rediscovered by archeologists in 1956.[3]
The cave was explored by an expedition led by Captain J. M. Thompson in 1935. The team entered the cave by a ladder and found themselves in a chamber some 244 metres (800 ft) in circumference and walked down tunnels over 366 metres (1,200 ft) in length.[5]
Later excavated by Alexander Gallus in the 1960s, he found that Aboriginal peoples had used the area as a flint mine.[7]
Koonalda Cave was inscribed onto the Australian National Heritage List on 15 October 2014[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Koonalda Cave", Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ "Koonalda Cave" Australia Thru Time. Retrieved 2014-3-17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Koonalda", Minnesota State University
- ↑ BLAINEY, Geoffrey, Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Australia, 1976, ISBN 0-87951-084-6, p.84
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Use Australian English from May 2015
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- Sinkholes of Australia
- Archaeological sites in Australia
- Australian Aboriginal cultural history
- Prehistoric art
- Paleoanthropological sites
- Australian National Heritage List
- Caves of South Australia