Joe Crouch
Biographic Data
| ID | 330761 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joe Crouch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joe |
| FAMILY NAME | Crouch |
| SIGNATURE | CROUCH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2825-0370 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 179 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Millukmungee 1
Recent excavations at Millukmungee 1, a limestone rock shelter along the upper bank of the Buchan River in GunaiKurnai Country (southeastern Australia), uncovered archaeological evidence of Mid-to Late Holocene occupation spanning c. 5000 years. Here we report on the stone artefacts and faunal remains, especially in light of a paucity of published details on artefact types and technologies for this part of southeast Australia. Results indicate th…
Garden Range 2
This paper provides new insights into the long-term history of Aboriginal use of mountainous Victoria over the past 25,000 years. It presents results of excavations at Garden Range 2 rock art site located on the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges in central Victoria. The excavations were a research collaboration between the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) and Monash University. Results indicate possible ephemeral visitation by the Old Peop…
Archaeological evidence of an ethnographically documented Australian Aboriginal ritual dated to the last ice age
In societies without writing, ethnographically known rituals have rarely been tracked back archaeologically more than a few hundred years. At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, we undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Australian Alps. In GunaiKurnai Country, caves were not used as residential places during the early colonial period (mid-nineteenth century CE), but as secluded retreats for the pe…
The mulla-mullung ’s Bulk
Recent archaeological mapping of, and excavations at, Cloggs Cave, in GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country in Southeastern Australia, have revealed a rich underground landscape of stone arrangements, broken stalactites, and what appear to be crushed crystalline minerals and ritual ash layers. Here we examine the stone artifacts to determine how they can shed further light on how the cave was used, and what a GunaiKurnai perspective can tell us about ho…
Frontier Archaeology
Archaeological investigations have documented an ideological and occupied frontier in the Lower Tagali Valley along the southern margins of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Open-area excavations document two types of house structure associated with Huli occupation of the Lower Tagali Valley landscape, a women's house (wandia) and a lodge and ceremonial complex associated with a bachelor cult (ibagiyaanda). Excavation revealed the complete floor…
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave ( SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community‐led partnership research
Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new…
Paradigm shifts and ontological turns at Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai Country, Australia
In recent years, a number of authors have theorized an “ontological turn” that is reorienting research in the human and social sciences. In this setting, we have witnessed an increasing number of anthropological and archaeological works seeking to recognize ontological difference among a variety of human groups, from Indigenous societies to Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. While ontological approaches have been restricted to anatomically modern huma…
Years and Worlds Apart
In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country), in the southern foothills of SE Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Detailed chronometric dating, combined with high-resolution 3D mapping, geomorphological studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. …
Geomorphological context and formation history of Cloggs Cave
New research undertaken at Cloggs Cave, in the foothills of the Australian Alps, employed an integrated geological-geomorphological-archaeological approach with manifold dating methods and fine resolution LiDAR 3D mapping. Long-standing questions about the site’s chronostratigraphy (e.g. the exact relationship between basal megafaunal deposits and archaeological layers), sedimentation processes and geomorphic changes were resolved. The cave’s for…
Kurtonitj stone house
This paper provides the first detailed excavation report published for an Aboriginal stone house from south‐west Victoria. Stone house sites have generated considerable debate in Australian archaeology in terms of late Holocene intensification and claims for village‐scale settlements and sedentism. Fine‐grained excavation of KSH‐1 within the Budj Bim (stony rises) cultural landscape revealed house construction directly on to lava bedrock. Shallow…
Small island, ‘big swamp’, Kuiku Pad Reef
Phased redevelopment of an ancient Gunditjmara fish trap over the past 800 years
Critics point out that a weakness of Lourandos’ ‘intensification’ paradigm for southwestern Victoria is a lack of dates for iconic fish traps of the Lake Condah region. McNiven et al. (2012) detailed excavations at Muldoons Trap Complex at Lake Condah in Gunditjmara Country, where charcoal recovered from channel infill sediments indicated initial construction at least 6600 cal. BP, making the site one of the world’s oldest known fish traps. Chann…
Dating Aboriginal stone-walled fishtraps at Lake Condah, southeast Australia
Koey Ngurtai
Koey Ngurtai is a small, uninhabited island located midway between the residential islands of Badu and Mabuyag in western Torres Strait. In 2003 and 2004, 100% surveys of the islet revealed 166 cultural sites. Fifty archaeological excavations were undertaken, revealing a rich history of islet use culminating with the emergence of Koey Ngurtai as a ritual centre after 550–700 cal BP, and a proliferation of ritual structures focused on dugong hunti…
Tigershark Rockshelter (Baidamau Mudh)
Tigershark Rockshelter, a small midden site on the sacred islet of Pulu in central western Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait), was visited intermittently by small groups of marine specialists between 500 and 1300 years ago. The diverse faunal assemblage demonstrates procurement of turtle, dugong, shellfish, fish, shark and ray from mangrove, reef and open water environments. Apart from a characteristic flaked quartz technology, the site contains shell bo…
Berberass
Excavations at Badu 19 midden on the islet of Berberass in western Torres Strait have revealed a 4000 year antiquity for dugong hunting and finfishing, with major increases in intensities of site and regional land use and marine exploitation after 2600 years ago. We model the nature of late Holocene coastal resource specialisation and intensification in relation to changing demography and marine resource availability
Historicizing the Spiritual
Bu (Syrinx aruanus) shell arrangements are often found in ritual sites across Torres Strait. The position of such sites within Indigenous cosmologies has been ethnographically documented for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article historicizes Indigenous spiritscapes by tracking back in time the history of this particular material expression of spiritual belief in Western Torres Strait. We argue that the last c. 400 years saw major s…
The Argan stone arrangement complex, Badu
AbstarctThe Argan stone arrangement complex of the island of Badu is a series of mainly geometrically shaped stone formations that together extend for 1km along an isolated ridge-top in Western Torres Strait. Here we report on archaeological excavations at this ritual site in a first attempt to historicise Badulgal spiritscapes
Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait
Archaeological excavations on the island of Badu have for the first time revealed evidence of people in Torres Strait before 2500 years BP. We interpret this evidence as representing three phases of island use and occupation. Phase 1 (8000-6000 years BP), when the high islands of Torres Strait were part of terminal Greater Australia, saw permanent occupation of the region. During Phase 2 (6000-c.3500/3000 years BP), the Western Islands of Torres …
Goba of Mua
A team of Elders and community officials from the island of Mua in the Torres Straits got together with archaeologists from Australia to study an episode which occurred on the island before the coming of Christianity in 1871. Oral tradition located the burial place of the father of an ancestral islander named Goba, and the investigation of a rock shelter nearby gave a dated sequence of occupation and a fresh sighting of rock paintings, all relati…
Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait
Archaeological excavations on the island of Badu have for the first time revealed evidence of people in Torres Strait before 2500 years BP. We interpret this evidence as representing three phases of island use and occupation. Phase 1 (8000-6000 years BP), when the high islands of Torres Strait were part of terminal Greater Australia, saw permanent occupation of the region. During Phase 2 (6000-c.3500/3000 years BP), the Western Islands of Torres …
Berberass
Excavations at Badu 19 midden on the islet of Berberass in western Torres Strait have revealed a 4000 year antiquity for dugong hunting and finfishing, with major increases in intensities of site and regional land use and marine exploitation after 2600 years ago. We model the nature of late Holocene coastal resource specialisation and intensification in relation to changing demography and marine resource availability
Koey Ngurtai
Koey Ngurtai is a small, uninhabited island located midway between the residential islands of Badu and Mabuyag in western Torres Strait. In 2003 and 2004, 100% surveys of the islet revealed 166 cultural sites. Fifty archaeological excavations were undertaken, revealing a rich history of islet use culminating with the emergence of Koey Ngurtai as a ritual centre after 550–700 cal BP, and a proliferation of ritual structures focused on dugong hunti…
Dating Aboriginal stone-walled fishtraps at Lake Condah, southeast Australia
Historicizing the Spiritual
Bu (Syrinx aruanus) shell arrangements are often found in ritual sites across Torres Strait. The position of such sites within Indigenous cosmologies has been ethnographically documented for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article historicizes Indigenous spiritscapes by tracking back in time the history of this particular material expression of spiritual belief in Western Torres Strait. We argue that the last c. 400 years saw major s…
Kurtonitj stone house
This paper provides the first detailed excavation report published for an Aboriginal stone house from south‐west Victoria. Stone house sites have generated considerable debate in Australian archaeology in terms of late Holocene intensification and claims for village‐scale settlements and sedentism. Fine‐grained excavation of KSH‐1 within the Budj Bim (stony rises) cultural landscape revealed house construction directly on to lava bedrock. Shallow…
Goba of Mua
A team of Elders and community officials from the island of Mua in the Torres Straits got together with archaeologists from Australia to study an episode which occurred on the island before the coming of Christianity in 1871. Oral tradition located the burial place of the father of an ancestral islander named Goba, and the investigation of a rock shelter nearby gave a dated sequence of occupation and a fresh sighting of rock paintings, all relati…
Phased redevelopment of an ancient Gunditjmara fish trap over the past 800 years
Critics point out that a weakness of Lourandos’ ‘intensification’ paradigm for southwestern Victoria is a lack of dates for iconic fish traps of the Lake Condah region. McNiven et al. (2012) detailed excavations at Muldoons Trap Complex at Lake Condah in Gunditjmara Country, where charcoal recovered from channel infill sediments indicated initial construction at least 6600 cal. BP, making the site one of the world’s oldest known fish traps. Chann…
The Argan stone arrangement complex, Badu
AbstarctThe Argan stone arrangement complex of the island of Badu is a series of mainly geometrically shaped stone formations that together extend for 1km along an isolated ridge-top in Western Torres Strait. Here we report on archaeological excavations at this ritual site in a first attempt to historicise Badulgal spiritscapes
Years and Worlds Apart
In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country), in the southern foothills of SE Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Detailed chronometric dating, combined with high-resolution 3D mapping, geomorphological studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. …
Tigershark Rockshelter (Baidamau Mudh)
Tigershark Rockshelter, a small midden site on the sacred islet of Pulu in central western Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait), was visited intermittently by small groups of marine specialists between 500 and 1300 years ago. The diverse faunal assemblage demonstrates procurement of turtle, dugong, shellfish, fish, shark and ray from mangrove, reef and open water environments. Apart from a characteristic flaked quartz technology, the site contains shell bo…
Archaeological evidence of an ethnographically documented Australian Aboriginal ritual dated to the last ice age
In societies without writing, ethnographically known rituals have rarely been tracked back archaeologically more than a few hundred years. At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, we undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Australian Alps. In GunaiKurnai Country, caves were not used as residential places during the early colonial period (mid-nineteenth century CE), but as secluded retreats for the pe…
Geomorphological context and formation history of Cloggs Cave
New research undertaken at Cloggs Cave, in the foothills of the Australian Alps, employed an integrated geological-geomorphological-archaeological approach with manifold dating methods and fine resolution LiDAR 3D mapping. Long-standing questions about the site’s chronostratigraphy (e.g. the exact relationship between basal megafaunal deposits and archaeological layers), sedimentation processes and geomorphic changes were resolved. The cave’s for…
Garden Range 2
This paper provides new insights into the long-term history of Aboriginal use of mountainous Victoria over the past 25,000 years. It presents results of excavations at Garden Range 2 rock art site located on the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges in central Victoria. The excavations were a research collaboration between the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) and Monash University. Results indicate possible ephemeral visitation by the Old Peop…
Frontier Archaeology
Archaeological investigations have documented an ideological and occupied frontier in the Lower Tagali Valley along the southern margins of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Open-area excavations document two types of house structure associated with Huli occupation of the Lower Tagali Valley landscape, a women's house (wandia) and a lodge and ceremonial complex associated with a bachelor cult (ibagiyaanda). Excavation revealed the complete floor…
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave ( SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community‐led partnership research
Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new…
The Argan stone arrangement complex, Badu
AbstarctThe Argan stone arrangement complex of the island of Badu is a series of mainly geometrically shaped stone formations that together extend for 1km along an isolated ridge-top in Western Torres Strait. Here we report on archaeological excavations at this ritual site in a first attempt to historicise Badulgal spiritscapes
Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait
Archaeological excavations on the island of Badu have for the first time revealed evidence of people in Torres Strait before 2500 years BP. We interpret this evidence as representing three phases of island use and occupation. Phase 1 (8000-6000 years BP), when the high islands of Torres Strait were part of terminal Greater Australia, saw permanent occupation of the region. During Phase 2 (6000-c.3500/3000 years BP), the Western Islands of Torres …
Goba of Mua
A team of Elders and community officials from the island of Mua in the Torres Straits got together with archaeologists from Australia to study an episode which occurred on the island before the coming of Christianity in 1871. Oral tradition located the burial place of the father of an ancestral islander named Goba, and the investigation of a rock shelter nearby gave a dated sequence of occupation and a fresh sighting of rock paintings, all relati…
Historicizing the Spiritual
Bu (Syrinx aruanus) shell arrangements are often found in ritual sites across Torres Strait. The position of such sites within Indigenous cosmologies has been ethnographically documented for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article historicizes Indigenous spiritscapes by tracking back in time the history of this particular material expression of spiritual belief in Western Torres Strait. We argue that the last c. 400 years saw major s…
Berberass
Excavations at Badu 19 midden on the islet of Berberass in western Torres Strait have revealed a 4000 year antiquity for dugong hunting and finfishing, with major increases in intensities of site and regional land use and marine exploitation after 2600 years ago. We model the nature of late Holocene coastal resource specialisation and intensification in relation to changing demography and marine resource availability
Tigershark Rockshelter (Baidamau Mudh)
Tigershark Rockshelter, a small midden site on the sacred islet of Pulu in central western Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait), was visited intermittently by small groups of marine specialists between 500 and 1300 years ago. The diverse faunal assemblage demonstrates procurement of turtle, dugong, shellfish, fish, shark and ray from mangrove, reef and open water environments. Apart from a characteristic flaked quartz technology, the site contains shell bo…
Koey Ngurtai
Koey Ngurtai is a small, uninhabited island located midway between the residential islands of Badu and Mabuyag in western Torres Strait. In 2003 and 2004, 100% surveys of the islet revealed 166 cultural sites. Fifty archaeological excavations were undertaken, revealing a rich history of islet use culminating with the emergence of Koey Ngurtai as a ritual centre after 550–700 cal BP, and a proliferation of ritual structures focused on dugong hunti…
Dating Aboriginal stone-walled fishtraps at Lake Condah, southeast Australia
Small island, ‘big swamp’, Kuiku Pad Reef
Phased redevelopment of an ancient Gunditjmara fish trap over the past 800 years
Critics point out that a weakness of Lourandos’ ‘intensification’ paradigm for southwestern Victoria is a lack of dates for iconic fish traps of the Lake Condah region. McNiven et al. (2012) detailed excavations at Muldoons Trap Complex at Lake Condah in Gunditjmara Country, where charcoal recovered from channel infill sediments indicated initial construction at least 6600 cal. BP, making the site one of the world’s oldest known fish traps. Chann…
Kurtonitj stone house
This paper provides the first detailed excavation report published for an Aboriginal stone house from south‐west Victoria. Stone house sites have generated considerable debate in Australian archaeology in terms of late Holocene intensification and claims for village‐scale settlements and sedentism. Fine‐grained excavation of KSH‐1 within the Budj Bim (stony rises) cultural landscape revealed house construction directly on to lava bedrock. Shallow…
Geomorphological context and formation history of Cloggs Cave
New research undertaken at Cloggs Cave, in the foothills of the Australian Alps, employed an integrated geological-geomorphological-archaeological approach with manifold dating methods and fine resolution LiDAR 3D mapping. Long-standing questions about the site’s chronostratigraphy (e.g. the exact relationship between basal megafaunal deposits and archaeological layers), sedimentation processes and geomorphic changes were resolved. The cave’s for…
Paradigm shifts and ontological turns at Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai Country, Australia
In recent years, a number of authors have theorized an “ontological turn” that is reorienting research in the human and social sciences. In this setting, we have witnessed an increasing number of anthropological and archaeological works seeking to recognize ontological difference among a variety of human groups, from Indigenous societies to Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. While ontological approaches have been restricted to anatomically modern huma…
Years and Worlds Apart
In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country), in the southern foothills of SE Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Detailed chronometric dating, combined with high-resolution 3D mapping, geomorphological studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. …
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave ( SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community‐led partnership research
Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new…
The mulla-mullung ’s Bulk
Recent archaeological mapping of, and excavations at, Cloggs Cave, in GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country in Southeastern Australia, have revealed a rich underground landscape of stone arrangements, broken stalactites, and what appear to be crushed crystalline minerals and ritual ash layers. Here we examine the stone artifacts to determine how they can shed further light on how the cave was used, and what a GunaiKurnai perspective can tell us about ho…
Frontier Archaeology
Archaeological investigations have documented an ideological and occupied frontier in the Lower Tagali Valley along the southern margins of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Open-area excavations document two types of house structure associated with Huli occupation of the Lower Tagali Valley landscape, a women's house (wandia) and a lodge and ceremonial complex associated with a bachelor cult (ibagiyaanda). Excavation revealed the complete floor…
Millukmungee 1
Recent excavations at Millukmungee 1, a limestone rock shelter along the upper bank of the Buchan River in GunaiKurnai Country (southeastern Australia), uncovered archaeological evidence of Mid-to Late Holocene occupation spanning c. 5000 years. Here we report on the stone artefacts and faunal remains, especially in light of a paucity of published details on artefact types and technologies for this part of southeast Australia. Results indicate th…
Garden Range 2
This paper provides new insights into the long-term history of Aboriginal use of mountainous Victoria over the past 25,000 years. It presents results of excavations at Garden Range 2 rock art site located on the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges in central Victoria. The excavations were a research collaboration between the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) and Monash University. Results indicate possible ephemeral visitation by the Old Peop…
Archaeological evidence of an ethnographically documented Australian Aboriginal ritual dated to the last ice age
In societies without writing, ethnographically known rituals have rarely been tracked back archaeologically more than a few hundred years. At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, we undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Australian Alps. In GunaiKurnai Country, caves were not used as residential places during the early colonial period (mid-nineteenth century CE), but as secluded retreats for the pe…
Geography (19 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (12 works) · History (10 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (10 works) · Excavation (8 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (7 works) · Cave (6 works) · Ecology (6 works)