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A post-contact Aboriginal mortuary tree from southwestern Victoria, Australia

journal contribution
posted on 2012-03-01, 00:00 authored by T Richards, Catherine BennettCatherine Bennett, H Webber
Here we document the investigation of the first Australian Aboriginal mortuary tree found since the early 20th century and the first studied by archaeologists and Aboriginal traditional owners. In 2001, a landowner discovered Aboriginal skeletal remains inside a fallen, dead tree while evaluating the tree’s potential as firewood, leading to the investigation of the site. The tree was located near Moyston, in southwestern Victoria, in traditional Djab Wurrung country and held the partial skeletons of three Aboriginal individuals—two adults and a child. Clay pipe-stem wear on several teeth belonging to the two adults indicates that these remains were broadly contemporaneous secondary placements from the early post-contact period (ca. A.D. 1835–1845). Along with five additional mortuary trees within 30 km of the Moyston tree, this practice constitutes a previously unknown traditional mortuary pattern and contributes to our understanding of the complex mortuary behavior of the Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria.

History

Journal

Journal of field archaeology

Volume

37

Issue

1

Pagination

62 - 72

Publisher

Maney Publishing

Location

Leeds, England

ISSN

0093-4690

eISSN

2042-4582

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Maney Publishing