Author: Jerem Leach
Leach, Jerem, 2021 Ngurra Nyunjunggamu. Submerged landscape identification and interpretation: Cape Bruguieres Island and North Gidley Island , Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Between 2017 and 2019, the Deep History of Sea Country project (DHSC) executed a survey strategy designed to identify submerged landscapes preserving archaeological features in Murujuga Sea Country (MSC). The strategy proved successful and two submerged sites were identified; a large artefact assemblage on a Pleistocene aeolianite base in the Cape Bruguieres Channel and a lithic artefact identified in association with an underwater spring in the Flying Foam Passage. This study focused on the landscape of the Cape Bruguieres Channel. No peer reviewed studies have been conducted in the Cape Bruguieres area. As such, this study conducted landscape surveys in the area encompassing the CBC to gather data on the integrated onshore and offshore archaeological record of Cape Bruguieres and North Gidley Islands to determine if these materials are related. The landscape data can then be reintegrated into the DHSC survey methodology to determine the potential for further submerged archaeological material to be preserved in the study area that can be targeted with future archaeological study. Pedestrian and drone surveys conducted on Cape Bruguieres Island and North Gidley Island revealed that seed species were targeted by past Aboriginal communities and that a change in focus from terrestrial to marine resources, linked to marine transgression, is represented in the landscape. Large intertidal artefact scatters and quarry sites were identified on Cape Bruguieres Island with high potential for the preservation of submerged archaeological landscapes.
Keywords: Submerged landscape archaeology, Australian Aboriginal archaeology, underwater archaeology
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2021
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Jonathan Benjamin