Box Gully archaeological site facts for kids

The Box Gully archaeological site is an important place where scientists have found old things left behind by Aboriginal people. It's located on the edge of a salty lake called Lake Tyrrell in northern Victoria, Australia. This site was once a small hunting camp.

Scientists have used a method called radiocarbon dating to figure out how old the things found here are. They found that people lived at Box Gully between 26,600 and 32,000 years ago. This makes Box Gully one of the oldest known places where Aboriginal people lived in this part of Australia, especially between the Murray River and the highlands of Tasmania.

What is the Box Gully Site?

The Box Gully site is found on the northwestern tip of a sand dune (called a lunette) next to Lake Tyrrell. It's along an old water channel that has worn away over time.

What Did Scientists Find?

When archaeologists dug at the site, they found several interesting things. These included:

• Hearths: These are old fireplaces where people cooked and kept warm.
• Stone chipping debris: These are small pieces of stone left over from making stone tools.
• Butchered animal bones: These are bones from animals that were hunted and eaten. Scientists found bones from animals like bettongs (small marsupials), hare-wallabies, shingle-backed lizards, emus, and even freshwater mussels.

Scientists believe that Box Gully was probably a camp used for short periods, mainly in late autumn and winter. It seems people visited this spot many times over different seasons.

The History of Lake Tyrrell

Lake Tyrrell is the biggest playa (a dry lakebed) in the Murray Basin area of southeast Australia. Scientists have studied the sand dunes around the lake to learn about its past.

How Old is Lake Tyrrell?

Using a method called optical dating, scientists found that Lake Tyrrell had its highest water level about 131,000 years ago. At that time, it was a huge lake called Lake Chillingollah. It was filled with water because of more winter rainfall. This big lake stayed full until about 77,000 years ago.

People and Climate Change

During their digs, scientists found signs of many small camping trips in the clay layers of the sand dune. They used radiocarbon dating on charcoal found in these layers. The dates showed that the oldest cultural materials were about 32,000 years old, and the newest were about 26,600 years old.

Adapting to a Changing World

These dates were confirmed by other dating methods. The evidence suggests that the people living at Box Gully had to adapt to very tough climate conditions. This was happening just before the Last Glacial Maximum, which was the coldest part of the last Ice Age.

As the weather got even worse after about 27,000 years ago, many areas like the Willandra Lakes Region and Lake Tandou were visited much less often. At Lake Tyrrell, the Box Gully site was completely abandoned. Around the same time, it seems that more people started living in the Murray River valley. Also, people began using rock shelters in the highlands of southern Victoria for the first time.

Images for kids

• Lake Tyrrell, Victoria.jpg

  Lake Tyrrell is a large, salty lake in Victoria, Australia.