> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thehistoriesfiles.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Juukan Gorge excavation has collected 50,000 artefacts, the ABC reports - URL: https://thehistoriesfiles.com/juukan-gorge-excavation-50000-artefacts/ - Published: 2026-10-25T20:27:18.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T20:27:18.000Z - Description: Archaeologists digging at the Juukan Gorge rock shelter in WA's Pilbara have collected 50,000 artefacts, the ABC reports, after traditional owners invited it on site. - Author: J E Cowie - Tags: News Archaeologists excavating what remains of the Juukan Gorge rock shelter in Western Australia's Pilbara have collected 50,000 artefacts, the ABC reported on 25 October 2026\. The shelter was destroyed in an authorised Rio Tinto mining blast in 2020, a loss that prompted international condemnation. The ABC says it is the first media outlet the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people have invited to the site. ![Map showing where Juukan Gorge is](https://thehistoriesfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/map_juukan-gorge.jpg) Juukan Gorge, Western Australia ## What the dig is finding The excavation is led by Michael Slack of Scarp Archaeology, commissioned by the PKKP to excavate the shelter in full. The ABC says 50,000 artefacts is far more than excavations usually produce. ![the Hammersley Range landscape in the Pilbara, Western Australia](https://thehistoriesfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/shot2_the-hammersley-range-landscape-in-the-pi.jpg) The Hammersley Range, Pilbara. Slack told the ABC: "This is one of the most important sites in Australian archaeology." He said Aboriginal occupation can be traced there consistently for over 50,000 years, unlike at most Australian sites. Some of the artefacts date back 50,000 years, when archaeologists believe Aboriginal people first arrived this far inland. Slack said the site is important for understanding how fast Aboriginal people might have moved into arid-zone Australia after arriving in the north of the continent. The objects described include: - **A cutting stone**: a large stone artefact, captioned by the ABC as dating back 40,000 to 50,000 years. - **A handled blade**: a bladed tool with a handle, about 3,000 years old. "It's kangaroo poo and spinifex resin as a handle. This is incredibly rare to find them like this," Slack said. - **A coastal shell**: a piece of baler shell. The ABC says it points to long-distance trading routes from the coast 350 kilometres away. - **Fires and bedding**: the remains of some 200 fires, and possible remnants of paperbark bedding at the back of the cave. - **Animal bone**: tens of thousands of bone fragments. Among them, the ABC says, archaeologists found proof that Tasmanian devils lived in arid inland Australia before becoming extinct on the mainland about 3,200 years ago. Working from labs on site, specialist Zoe Mavrogenes analyses the geochemistry of artefacts, the ABC reports. She hopes to learn where the raw material originally came from and where it was brought to at Juukan. Archaeobotanist Elise Matheson sluices raw material so that carbonised organic matter floats to the top. "It's one of the few sites in the arid zone of Australia where we actually have a really intact plant record for what people were eating," she told the ABC. A large domed tent has been erected over the remains to protect the site, the ABC reports. ## The 2020 blast The ABC places Juukan Gorge on the lands of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, within Rio Tinto's Brockman mine site, 60 kilometres north-west of Tom Price in the Hammersley Range. News of Bahrain gives the date of the blast as 24 May 2020 and says Rio Tinto destroyed two rock shelters. The dig is at one of them, the Juukan-2 shelter the PKKP plans to rebuild; one wall of it remains. ## A healing project, and a planned replica The traditional owners the ABC spoke to tied the dig to recovery. "While it was certainly a devastating event for us, we want to see some good come out of such a devastating event," Burchell Hayes said. Terry Hayes said: "You'll always feel that pain or what happened here." He also said the process had helped people to heal together, though it could never take back what happened. The PKKP is also planning to rebuild the shelter. The ABC says the project takes inspiration from the Lascaux and Chauvet caves in France, which have been recreated to scale for visitors. ![the Lascaux replica cave in France](https://thehistoriesfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/shot3_the-lascaux-replica-cave-in-france.jpg) A full-scale replica of a prehistoric cave in France. In a post dated 12 March 2026, the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation described a delegation's visit to the replica caves at Chauvet and Lascaux "last year". It said the visit was part of early planning and concept development for the proposed reconstruction of the Juukan-2 rock shelter. The delegation included traditional owners Burchell Hayes and Gavin Ashburton. Representatives from CDM and Rio Tinto were also on the visit, the corporation said, and the group met engineers, designers and other experts behind the French replicas. Denis Coutant, Director Land and Heritage at the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation, said: "The interest that Juukan generated in France was extraordinary." The ABC says Juukan Gorge is unlikely to become a tourist attraction. Terry Hayes told the ABC that even once a replica is up, "we still want to always come back here and bring our young people back here as well". ## What the dig can show Burchell Hayes visited the newly exposed bedrock of the shelter for the first time during the ABC's visit, and described being amazed by the project. Slack says the dig is reaching levels "amongst the oldest sites in Australia". The ABC's report describes the excavation as under way. ## Sources Perpitch, N. (2026) 'How archaeologists are uncovering the ancient secrets of WA's Juukan Gorge', ABC News, 25 October 2026, available at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-25/juukan-gorge-archaeological-dig-uncovering-ancient-secrets/107298466](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-25/juukan-gorge-archaeological-dig-uncovering-ancient-secrets/107298466?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 25 October 2026). Quadir, A. (2026) '50,000 Artefacts Uncover Juukan Gorge's Ancient Past', News of Bahrain, 25 October 2026, available at: [https://www.newsofbahrain.com/en/article/50000-artefacts-uncover-juukan-gorges-ancient-past](https://www.newsofbahrain.com/en/article/50000-artefacts-uncover-juukan-gorges-ancient-past?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 25 October 2026). PKKP Aboriginal Corporation (2026) 'Global interest in Juukan Rehabilitation Project highlighted during France delegation', PKKP Aboriginal Corporation, 12 March 2026, available at: [https://pkkp.org.au/global-interest-in-juukan-rehabilitation-project/](https://pkkp.org.au/global-interest-in-juukan-rehabilitation-project/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 25 October 2026). ## Picture credits - Top picture: Dales Gorge in Karijini National Park, elsewhere in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Photo: Gypsy Denise, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karijini%5FNational%5FPark,%5FPilbara%5FRegion,%5FWestern%5FAustralia,%5FDales%5FGorge%5F02.jpg?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com)) - The Hammersley Range, Pilbara. Photo: Barry T Coles, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamersley%5FRange,%5FPilbara%5FRegion,%5FWestern%5FAustralia.JPG?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (public domain) - A full-scale replica of a prehistoric cave in France. Photo: HTO, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux,%5FMegaloceros.jpg?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (public domain) - Map: drawn from [Natural Earth](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (public domain) and [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102115281?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com).