Tweets by realDonaldTrump

Online:
Visits:
Stories:

By Wake Up World
Contributor profile | More stories

Story Views
Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

45,000 Year Old Artefact Overlooked as Mining Approved at Sacred Ganga Maya Cave

Sunday, May 25, 2014 22:30

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

By Steven & Evan Strong

Contributing Writers for Wake Up World

Over 45,700 Years Old – and Who Cares?

We received a phone call from Owen Torres regarding what seemed to be a terrible state of affairs that was causing a great deal of stress for some Original Elders and Custodians of the Old Ways. Owen was ringing on behalf of himself and Elder Eddie McPhee; their shared concern was as tragic as it was endemic in a country where governments of both persuasions would sell the nation’s soul for another hole in the ground and the mining revenues they feel make any excess excusable.

We then spoke to Eddie, who gave us a blow by blow account of how Atlas mining company and representative body Yamatji Marlta Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) had divided the community and were about to destroy sacred sites and the accompanying Dreaming Tracks. It was an appalling story, but of itself, this was so much par for the course I was able to predict in advance the tactics and subterfuge employed. His plea was simple – the mining companies, authorities and government officials were conspiring against them when the mine was approved, and they needed help – and quickly.

mining

Dollars and Sense

There was no choice to be made. We asked Eddy how quickly he wanted us there. His reply of “yesterday” left us in no doubt time was short. We promised to come immediately, but within minutes of hanging up the practicalities set in and a pressing financial imperative began to loom on the horizon. We live in the hills near Byron Bay, the cave and surrounds in peril are situated at close to the furthest point from this location in Australia. The cave was at least 3,000 kilometres away and as it turned out, we needed three separate flights to get within 150 kilometres of the site. What made the costing close to diabolical was the closest airport is Port Hedland, a mining town renowned for the prohibitive cost in rent, food and travel.

My oath of immediacy was unraveling, especially when the cost of a return flight between Perth and Port Hedland required more than half our entire budget. All up we had the choice of ringing our main financial backer and asking for twice what he normally donates, or redefine what ‘immediate’ means. Fortunately, although far less desirable, there was a Plan B. It starts off poorly and a long way off from “yesterday,” especially since the miners have begun constructing the road leading into the site – but four weeks from now it is just, just affordable.

In the meantime we can do exactly what we am doing now; informing people of this travesty and its underlying Original truth.

One Hole, Plenty Pictures and So Few Words

To that end, this article is solely about the so-called report the two archaeologists from overseas cobbled together, detailing the fleeting visit they made inside the cave. It is a totally underwhelming piece of archaeology where less than 1% of the cave floor was examined, one pit was completed and another abandoned due to their self-imposed time constraints. The one page ‘paper’ has more space devoted to photographs (11) and diagrams than actual words. At around 520 words in length and needing less than three minutes to casually read, this is insult to any scholarly standards and to the local Original people and custodians.

The paper opens as it should. As brief as it is, the introduction resembles a serious archaeological treatise in providing a date, location, site description and nominating the parties involved in investigating the cave. In the only reference to any Original meaning, Dreaming story or person, the author made note the Ganga Maya Cave is interpreted as “house on the hill”. Claimed to be a joint-investigation between “Njamal Traditional Owners” and “Big Island Research”/“Atlas Irons Limited”, it was also conceded that this is “the largest cave in the Abydos Region”. But that would appear to be an understatement, a pattern that is repeated throughout this report; in fact the cave is over 10 metres high, 12 metres in width and reaches back 40 metres.

You can view the report pamphlet here: Excavations at Ganga Maya Cave.

The Descent Past Mediocrity Begins

Beyond the opening description, the paper serves no further function except to raise questions the archaeologists were either unwilling to address or too ignorant to comprehend. In their defense. we think it is just pure ignorance as they are foreign to this land and possibly unable to grasp the many-fold implications.

Whatever the excuse, one pit of 139 cms was successfully dug, a second abandoned at 70 cms, and third pit “located immediately adjacent to Square 1 was only able to be excavated to a depth of 33 cms below the floor surface in the time available”. The crucial indicators to the real motivations and long-term financial aspirations are predicated around two phrases: “only able” and “time available”. The immediate question that comes to mind is – how much time was allocated?

This is not rocket science; digging one hole just over a metre in depth, another much less than that and a third about the depth of a school ruler could be done in a few days without raising a sweat. No wonder they were “only able” to do virtually nothing, as in total, the author concedes that amounted to less than 1% of the cave floor. Many sites take months to complete, some years, very, very few can be measured in minutes. But at Ganga Maya Cave, it seems the archaeology that preceded the approval of the mining operation was funded to barely scratch the surface.

The reason why this dig was funded to fail and staffed with academics from another country becomes obvious when examining the precious little that was recovered and analysed. In the only complete pit, they found stone artefacts, charcoal and bone and at a depth of 127 cms (12cms above the base rock platform) and recorded a date of 45,704 years through Carbon 14 with 95.4% probability.

Now it gets difficult, the entries supplied under the heading “So what does this tell us?” show a complete lack of awareness of the big picture. They correctly concede this may well be evidence of the longest continuous presence at one site in Australia as it spans from over 45,000 years to 1,700 years ago, but from that point on, they were clearly ‘asleep at the wheel’.

The Big Picture

CONTINUE READING

Sign Our Petition

We are petitioning, Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia to CEASE mining activity at the Sacred Aboriginal Ganga Maya Cave in Western Australia.

Please take a moment to SIGN our petition, and SHARE this article on social media.

Previous articles by Steven & Evan Strong: