Museum Metadata Exchange

Names

Name PrimaryBotany Bay BB4 Archaeological Site, New South Wales: NP1059

Name AlternateBotany Bay BB4 Archaeological Site

Name AbbreviatedBB4

IDs

ID LocalAM0009

ID Urihttp://www.australianmuseum.net.au/Botany-Bay-BB4-Archaeological-Site-New-South-Wales-NP1059

Descriptions

Brief DescriptionIn the late 1960s Vincent Megaw, now Emeritus Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, excavated the Aboriginal site at Captain Cook’s Landing Place. The site includes an extensive midden, containing large amounts of shell and fish-bone. Sydney cockle, turban shells, mussels and oysters, as well as bones of snapper and bream indicate the meals of the Gweagal and their ancestors. There are also remnants, in smaller quantities, of seals, dolphins, whales, sea-birds, and some mammals. The site is prominent for the large quantity of complete and partially-finished fish hooks made from various sea shells as well as numerous bone spear barbs that were used for the prongs of fishing spears.

SignificanceCaptain Cook’s Landing Place in Kurnell, now the Sydney suburb located on the southern headland of Botany Bay, has special historical symbolism. On 29 April 1770 Captain James Cook and his companions, botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander stepped on the Australian soil, right into the land of the Gweagal People. Over eight days the Europeans explored the area, eventually naming it Botany Bay because of the rich harvest of botanical specimens they collected. The Gweagal People generally avoided direct interaction with the Europeans, but this short encounter left a significant mark on history. For Indigenous Australians it became a symbol of invasion; for others the landing place is often considered ‘the birthplace of modern Australia’, even though Cook symbolically annexed the east coast of Australia for Britain a few months later, on 22 August, in far north Torres Strait.

In the late 1960s Vincent Megaw, now Emeritus Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, excavated the Aboriginal site at Captain Cook’s Landing Place. The site includes an extensive midden, containing large amounts of shell and fish-bone. Sydney cockle, turban shells, mussels and oysters, as well as bones of snapper and bream indicate the meals of the Gweagal and their ancestors. There are also remnants, in smaller quantities, of seals, dolphins, whales, sea-birds, and some mammals. Remnants of fire places indicate that people were camping and cooking their meals there.

The site is prominent for the large quantity of complete and partially-finished fish hooks made from various sea shells as well as numerous bone spear barbs that were used for the prongs of fishing spears. Some stone artefacts include edge-ground axes used for various woodwork, among which making bark canoes was an important task for this nation of consummate fishermen and women. The archaeological evidence from this site neatly complements the Aboriginal mode of life at Botany Bay as recorded by Cook, Banks and subsequent European diarists of the First Fleet 18 years later.

AccessAustralian Museum

Subjects

localEthnography; Field work; Indigenous artefacts

pontFishhooks; Stone tools

Coverage Spatial

TextCaptain Cook's Landing Place, New South Wales, Australia; Kurnell, New South Wales, Australia

Coverage Temporal

From1770

Dates

Date Record Updated2012-05-30 23:40