Carpenter's Gap Rockshelter 1: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal Occupation in the Napier Ranges, Kimberley, WA

Carpenter's Gap Shelter I is a large north facing rockshelter in the Napier Ranges of the Kimberley region, Western Australia.  It is located in Windjana Gorge National Park, famous for its spectacular vertical walled canyon between 50 and l00 m high, geological formations and fossils (Playford n.d.). This impressive shelter has a floor area in .excess of 50 m 2 . Today much of the floor area of the shelter is inaccessible as there is less than 0.50 m clearance between the surface of the deposit and the shelter roof. The deposit is held in place by massive limestone boulders, which are covered with pictographs of animal tracks. The low overhanging roof and walls are painted in red, yellow, brown and white ochre motifs and charcoal drawings in what is thought to be the most recent Kimberley art style (Crawford 1977). This shelter is in Bunuba country and Bunuba people still use it on significant occasions. Over two fieldseasons in 1993 and 1994, 4 m squares were excavated in the central front area of the shelter immediately behind the large boulder with pictographs. A l m square to the northwest of the main excavation confirmed that the area behind boulders had the greatest depth of deposit.