Hermione Wrote:
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> If the article is to be believed,....
[
api.research-repository.uwa.edu.au]
Reynen (2018) Page 147:
"A hole in the roof of the western side of this chamber [...] deposits disturbed."
A hole in the roof before the blast and disturbed deposits? Not exactly UNESCO nomination material
or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel equivalent lost there.
Did the media mention that or did they cover up science reporting with their usual brand of
pseudoscience and contextual fallacy in order to provoke controversy to sell copy?
Take a look at the hole in the floor where the salvage squares were dug (Reynen Figure 7.9).
Pretty hard to accuse Rio of damage with an after-the-fact blasting of backfill where archaeologists
have already destroyed 15 squares with their excavation to bedrock. Where Dr. Slack dug the initial
test square (A) in 2008 and the rest of the salvage squares in 2014 wasn't a lucky guess, it was
determined to be the most scientifically promising from the start. Nothing was lost there because
scientists are still analyzing the data found in that pit for future publications. So blowing up
backfill dirt by Rio is not UNESCO nomination material either. Also, the so-called fantastic finds are
being curated by Rio Tinto at their expense.
At this point almost two thirds of the cave had been destroyed already (before Rio blasted) and most
(but not all) of what was left was rejected by Slack not to be of the best potential or he would have dug
there first.
Any sacred graves found? No. Any fantastic UNESCO ceiling paintings destroyed? One look at Figure 7.9
and one can see that Juukan-2 was never conducive for ceiling/wall paintings, so no heritage loss there.
The rest of the cave did have soil, disturbed soil, bedrock, and roof fall left to excavate, but all
together Juukan-2 has gotten better quality excavation and number of peer-reviewed publications than
many other sites in the world....thanks to Rio Tintro.
Was a potential women's slave camp destroyed at Juukan-2 (of what was left and not yet excavated)? YES.
If there is anything left of that horror camp for women... I'd vote to send Rio back to blast it again for being
nothing more than a monument to male chauvinism. Of course that is just a hypothesis, but the more I look at
the stone tools excavated by Slack and Annette Hamilton's comments, it's safe say the idea can't be
rejected at this point in time.
The media seems to be having trouble honestly reporting what's actually in the peer-reviewed science
papers by Reynen, Slack, Morse, and others.