Archaeological Investigations at Pine Gap (Kuyunba), Northern Territory

Two rockshelters at Pine Gap on the southern flank of the MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs were investigated by test excavations conducted during January 1980. The excavations at Pine Gap are part of a long-term program of archaeological research which has been conducted by the writers and their associates in central Australia during the past several years. The excavations are not the most recent of our endeavours, but are reported at this time because radiocarbon dates are now available for both rockshelters, and an adjacent site, Kuyunba 6, has recently been tested, radiocarbon dated, and reported upon by Smith (1983). While the radiocarbon dates of the two sites which we excavated are not of a high order of antiquity, the dates and specimens obtained during the course of the limited test excavations, combined with the data from Kuyunba 6, augment the growing fund of information pertaining to the prehistory of central Australia.