Romancing the Stones. The cultural construction of an archaeological in the Western District of Victoria

Abstract

A recent re‐survey of the archaeological sites at Lake Condah and adjoining properties has called into question the way in which this landscape has been archaeologically interpreted. There are two components to the discussion. The first concerns the language of the archaeology of the stony rises and the meanings embedded in archaeological texts by the use of particular sets of terms to describe the cultural features of the landscape. The second is that of site formation and landscape processes. Because earlier surveys did not take into account the complexity of landscape processes which make it difficult to clearly distinguish between cultural and natural features, the process of archaeological interpretation has created a mythical cultural landscape not supported by the available evidence. The sites of Lake Condah and the surrounding properties have become mythologised within two domains — in the archaeological literature, and as a consequence, in the realm of public knowledge and awareness. The resultant romancing of the stones neither provides an explanation of the regional prehistory based on clearly demonstrated archaeological associations nor does it encourage the implementation of sound management strategies based on well‐founded archaeological data.