Wala-gaay Guwingal: A twentieth century Aboriginal culturally modified tree with an embedded stone tool

Abstract

Aboriginal culturally modified trees are a distinctive feature of the Australian archaeological record, generating insights into Aboriginal interactions with wood and bark, which rarely survive in archaeological contexts. However, they are under-studied, in decline and typically presumed to pre-date the 20th century. Here we investigate the origin of a scar with a stone tool embedded in the scar overgrowth, located in the Central Tablelands, New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country. We consider three datasets for this purpose: the tree and scar features; macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the embedded stone; and chronology and age of the tree and scar. The origin of the scar and its relationship with the stone tool are unclear. However, the results, together with documentary and oral evidence, suggest that Aboriginal people quarried the stone and probably used it as a wedge to lever bark from the tree, or to make a sign. The results provide a rare glimpse into the continuation of Aboriginal cultural practices and knowledge transmission in the second half of the 20th century.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-contact
• culturally modified tree
• stone tool technology
• wooden technology
• functional analysis
• radiocarbon bomb-spike dating

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, we thank the Orange Aboriginal community, including Elders, for the opportunity to work together to study this Aboriginal place, and for discussions about the results of this study. John Duggan and Phil Purcell (Office of Environment and Heritage) assisted with the study and provided support to ensure that legislative requirements were met. Brian Parker from Blayney Shire Council supplied traffic control signage and pruning of surrounding (non-cultural) trees to create access. Thank you to Andy Herries and Alex Blackwood (La Trobe University) for assistance with the pXRF instrument used in this study. Study of optical residue traces was undertaken in the TraceoLab at the University of Liege, Belgium. Usewear and Raman spectroscopy studies were undertaken in the MicroTrace Laboratory at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Thank you to the Neville community, Blayney Shire Council, and Neville and Region Landcare for their support during the fieldwork. The authors wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Central Tablelands Local Lands Services [Protecting Aboriginal Places Grant CT00785] and the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife [Great Eastern Ranges K2W Grant 1602/10)] with assistance from Greg Ingram and Michelle Hines (Central Tablelands Local Lands Services), Jennie Morgan and Kylie Piper (Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife), and Mary Bonet (Upper Lachlan Landcare).