Clean install of Mavericks, now cannot access Time Machine backups

I just performed a clean install of Mavericks (10.9.1), but now I cannot access my previous backups under Mountain Lion (10.8.5). The new installation recognizes the TM disk just fine, and I can enter TM, but all of my old backups are blacked out. In Finder, I can easily explore the TM disk and see that all of my old backups are intact there. I've got a few large folders (100+ GB) I'd like to restore, but I can't seem to figure out how to get them back correctly. What am I missing?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer...

Things just got worse. After manually copying over some files via Finder, and then performing a full backup of the new system, even the NEW backup is blacked out; e.g., NO backups, past or present, are accessible from within Time Machine.
Help!

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