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.