Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference — Programme and Abstracts Noosa — 3 to 6 December 2008
Edited by Geraldine Mate, Karen Murphy and Natalie Franklin
Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference — Programme and Abstracts Noosa — 3 to 6 December 2008
Edited by Geraldine Mate, Karen Murphy and Natalie Franklin © Australian Archaeological Association Published by Queensland Museum
Citation Details: G. Mate, K. Murphy and N. Franklin (eds) 2008 Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference: Programme and Abstracts. Brisbane: Queensland Museum. Design: Queensland Museum Graphic Design Contents
Sponsors ...... 6
Introduction and Acknowledgments ...... 7
Conference Organising Committee ...... 8
General Information ...... 10
Venue ...... 10
Accommodation ...... 10
Getting There ...... 10
Getting Around ...... 11
Name Tags ...... 12
Paper Presenters ...... 12
Poster Presenters ...... 12
Awards ...... 12
Social Events ...... 13
Field Trip ...... 13
Conference at a Glance ...... 14
Meetings ...... 15
Keynote Address ...... 16
Detailed Program ...... 17
Session and Paper Abstracts ...... 23
Engaging the Future ...... 23
Land and Sea: Natural Resource Management versus Cultural Heritage Management ...... 25
Current Research and Future Directions for Historical Archaeology in Australia ...... 31
New Rock Art Research in Australia, the Pacific and Southeast Asia...... 33 Lithic Technology in Focus:
Technological and Microscopic Analyses of Lithic Assemblages ...... 35
The Archaeology of the Recent Past ...... 38
The Uses of Technology in Contemporary Archaeological Practice ...... 42
Archaeobotanical Studies in China, Southeast Asia and Australia ...... 45
Current Issues in Archaeology: Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) ...... 48
The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management ...... 51
Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Research Projects Beyond Sahul ...... 56 Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas:
A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon ...... 61
Poster Abstracts ...... 66
List of Presenters ...... 75
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 Sponsors
The conference organisers would like to thank the following businesses and organisations for their generous assistance with sponsorship, planning and organising the conference.
The University of Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water Queensland Museum Environmental Protection Agency Archae-aus Godden Mackay Logan Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Incorporated Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Introduction and Acknowledgments
The 2008 Australian Archaeological Association Always successful at recent AAA conferences are sessions conference organising committee warmly welcomes showcasing the research of Australian archaeologists participants to sunny Queensland for another fantastic working overseas. As more and more archaeologists apply exchange of ideas within the diverse and fascinating arena their Australian-grown talent, training and understanding to of Australian Archaeology. We are also very pleased to international problems and contexts, we see sessions that welcome our international delegates who have travelled apply an often unique antipodean perspective to global great distances to take part in this forum. issues. The ‘Beyond Borders and Barriers’ session offers a chance to view such Australian research in global context. The Australian Archaeological Association Inc is the profession’s principal national body, representing a We hope that through participation in forums and activities membership of professionals, students and others with an such as the Association’s annual conference and National interest in archaeology and heritage management. Archaeology Week we will continue to maintain and The aims of the Association are to promote the increase AAA membership. This will ensure both the advancement of archaeology, to provide a forum for the continued growth of Australian archaeology in all its forms, discussion and dissemination of archaeological information and help support our recently revamped and greatly and ideas, and to publicise the need for the study and improved Australian Archaeology journal. conservation of archaeological sites and collections. Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank It is pleasing that this year’s conference program maintains our sponsors for their generous contributions to making this broad canvas, representing archaeology in all its forms this year’s conference a success. The University of within Australia. Indeed, our decision not to propose a Queensland, through both the School of Social Science specific conference theme this year was intended to attract and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, the maximum diversity of interests and themes within the has kindly provided administrative assistance and profession and current research. The conference has financial support. The Queensland Department of Natural attracted presenters and delegates from the spectrum of Resources and Water is our Diamond Sponsor and the association’s membership, including those involved in has kindly sponsored our keynote speaker and various academic teaching and research, professional archaeology other activities. We are also very pleased that successful and cultural heritage management from across Australia, consulting firms Archae-aus and Godden Mackay Logan including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and have generously extended their support as Gold and of course, international representatives. Silver sponsors respectively. The Queensland Museum made the production of this program possible, providing Although we have not combined our annual conference design layout and assistance in printing. In addition, with other associations, the range of sub-disciplines as we have received in-kind support from the Queensland well as specialist interests is well-represented. Sessions Environmental Protection Agency. dealing with historical archaeology, cultural heritage management, and pre-colonial-period and Palaeolithic We hope you have a rewarding and enjoyable experience archaeology represent the breadth of sub-fields that exist at the 2008 AAA conference, and we hope you also have within the discipline, while sessions on specialist areas the opportunity to explore Noosa and surrounds. cover lithic technology and microscopy, faunal analysis, Chris Clarkson, Pat Faulkner and Andy Fairbairn archaeobotany, rockart and taphonomy. Several sessions also cut across traditional divides within archaeological 2008 Conference Convenors practice, as seen for example in the sessions ‘Engaging the Future’, ‘The Uses of Technology in Contemporary Archaeological Practice’ and the ‘Archaeology of the Recent Past’.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 Conference Convenors
Conference Convenors
Dr Chris Clarkson, University of Queensland Dr Andy Fairbairn, University of Queensland Dr Pat Faulkner, University of Queensland
Program Convenors
Ms Joann Bowman, University of Queensland Dr Andy Fairbairn, University of Queensland Dr Natalie Franklin, Department of Main Roads Mrs Geraldine Mate, Queensland Museum Ms Karen Murphy, Environmental Protection Agency
Poster Session Convenor
Mr Dan Rosendahl, University of Queensland
Committee Members
Chris Clarkson, Andy Fairbairn, Pat Faulkner, Joann Bowman, Kate Connell, Bettyann Doyle, Natalie Franklin, Phillip Habgood, Clair Harris, Michelle Langley, Ian Lilley, Geraldine Mate, Karen Murphy, Gail Robertson, Dan Rosendahl, Mike Rowland, Birgitta Stephenson, Helene Tomkins, Cassandra Venn.
Protecting and conserving Indigenous cultural heritage
The Department of Natural Resources and Water (NRW) administers the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act 2003, which recognise, protect and conserve Indigenous cultural heritage.
• Duty-of-care guidelines are available to help people manage cultural heritage while undertaking land-based activities. • Funding is available to assist cultural heritage bodies undertake their responsibilities and to manage cultural heritage places.
NRW is NRW can also assist with: currently reviewing • native title and Indigenous the Aboriginal Cultural Land Use Agreements Heritage Act 2003 and • land tenure issues Torres Strait Islander • place names research Cultural Heritage Act 2003. Visit the NRW • historical and contemporary website to make a maps and aerial photography. submission.
www.nrw.qld.gov.au
#28730 General Information
Venue All conference sessions, meetings and events will be held in the Lagos Room and Terrace on the ground level. at Australis Noosa Lakes Convention and Exhibition Centre, The poster session will be held in the foyer outside the 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. The venue can be contacted by Cooroibah Room on the upper level. The registration desk telephone on (07) 5447 1400. will be open from 2.00pm on Wednesday 3 December in the foyer of the Cooroibah Room on the upper level of the All sessions will be held in either the Cooroibah Room or conference centre. the Doonella Room on the upper level of the conference centre. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be held
Australis Noosa Lakes
Hilton Terrace Gympie Terrace
Weyba Road
Eumundi – Noosa Road
Conference facilities Accommodation
Accommodation is available at the conference venue at Australis Noosa Lakes Resort, 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. Foyer Pre-booking is recommended. Delegates are advised that glass is not to be taken into the pool area. Please be Lagos Room considerate of other guests and keep noise to a minimum after 10pm. Terrace Other accommodation is available within easily accessible distance of the venue to suit a wide range of budgets. Ground Level
Doonella Room Getting There
Foyer Coorooibah Room By car Noosa is situated in Queensland 160km north of Brisbane and 1100 km north of Sydney. It is a 90 minute drive from central Brisbane or Brisbane airport along the Bruce
Upper Level Highway (M1). Follow the signs to the Sunshine Coast.
10 Take the Eumundi exit off the Bruce (Note: for university students Highway (M1) which is signposted Queensland cards only are valid for to Noosa Heads. Follow the signs to concession) Tewantin. The venue is on the left just Check the Translink website for all Noosa Heads before reaching Tewantin. details of bus and train services in Cooroy Southeast Queensland By air http://www.translink.com.au. From Brisbane Airport For bus connection details check Sunair runs a shuttle bus service from Sunbus direct at the Brisbane Airport to Noosa with http://www.sunbus.com.au Maroochydore either a door-to-door or transit stop and follow the Sunshine Coast link. Buderim service on a regular schedule. Fares For train service details check range between $33 and $45 one way. Caloundra Queensland Rail http://www.qr.com.au. Pre-booking is essential. For further information: http://www.sunair.com.au. From Sunshine Coast (Maroochy) Airport Getting Around
Sunshine Coast Airport is located Bus at Marcoola which is just north of Caboolture Maroochydore and about 25 minutes Sunshine Coast Sunbus runs services drive along the coast to Noosa. in and around Noosa and Tewantin. Henry’s Airport Shuttle runs a shuttle For details http://www.translink.com. au or call 13 12 30. bus service from Sunshine Coast Redcliffe Airport to Noosa with a door-to-door service, meeting all flights. Fares are Taxi about $20 one way. Pre-booking Suncoast Cabs Ltd. Call 13 10 08 for is essential. For further information: details or check the website http://www.henrys.com.au. http://www.suncoastcabs.com.au. Suncoast Cabs Ltd also runs from the Brisbane Airport. Telephone 13 10 08 or visit Ferry http://www.suncoastcabs.com.au. A regular ferry service runs between Tewantin and Noosa Heads. For By bus information Greyhound Buses run regular http://www.noosaferry.com.au. services from Brisbane city and airport stopping at Noosa and Tewantin. On foot Fares range from $18 to $52 one The venue is conveniently located to way and take approximately 3.5 a range of drinking and dining options hours. Check the Brisbane – Cairns, and shopping facilities at Tewantin Brisbane – Sunshine Coast and and Noosaville. Brisbane – Noosa services at the website http://www.greyhound.com. au. Greyhound also runs interstate services via Brisbane.
By train Queensland Rail operates several daily services from Brisbane to Nambour, with connection by Sunbus to Noosa (route 630) and Tewantin (route 631). Fares are approximately $11 (concession) to $22 (adult).
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 11 Name Tags Awards It was created to acknowledge the significant contribution of individual or Delegates must wear their conference The following awards will be co-authored publications to Australian name tags at all times to indicate presented at the Conference Dinner, archaeology, either as general payment for access to sessions, Saturday 6 December 2008. knowledge or as specialist publications. conference events, meals and Nominations are considered annually refreshments. Your conference name Rhys Jones Medal for Outstanding for books that cover both academic tag will also entitle you to discounts at Contribution to Australian pursuits and public interest reflecting the food outlets at the Noosa Marina across Archaeology philosophy of John Mulvaney’s life work. the road from the venue. The Rhys Jones Medal is the highest Annual Conference Paper Prizes award offered by the Australian Archaeological Association. It was Best Overall Paper Prize Paper Presenters established in honour of Rhys Jones Best Student Paper Prize (1941-2001) to mark his enormous To assist with the smooth running of contribution to the development The Laila Haglund Prize for Excellence the conference, presenters must bring and promotion of archaeology in in Consultancy (Sponsored by AACAI) their Powerpoint presentations on a Australia. The Medal is presented The University of Waikato memory key or CD to the room in which annually to an individual who has Radiocarbon Dating Prize they are presenting at the beginning made an outstanding and sustained (One conventional or AMS date) of the break immediately prior to their contribution to the field. session. Presenters in the first session Annual Conference Poster Prizes of each day must bring their Powerpoint Life Membership for Outstanding presentations to the room at least Contribution to the Australian Best Overall Poster Prize 15 minutes prior to commencement of Archaeological Association Best Student Poster Prize the session. A support person will be This award was established to present to load your presentation file on Runner-up Student Poster prize recognise significant and sustained to the laptop computer. Presentations contribution to the objects and should be in the 2003 version of purposes of the Australian Powerpoint or previous. Presenters Archaeological Association. using Powerpoint 2007 must save their presentations as an earlier version using The Bruce Veitch Award for the ‘Save As’ function. Excellence in Indigenous Engagement
Poster Presenters The award celebrates the important contribution of Bruce Veitch, who Poster presenters must bring their passed away in 2005, to the practice posters to the registration desk from and ethics of archaeology in Australia. commencement of registration on In particular, the award honours Wednesday 3 December. Posters Bruce’s close collaboration with must be submitted to the registration traditional owners on whose country desk by no later than lunchtime Friday he worked. It is awarded annually 5 December. Posters should be to any individual or group who has collected from the registration desk undertaken an archaeological or before the close of the conference cultural heritage project which has on Saturday 6 December. Posters produced a significant outcome for not collected cannot be mailed to Indigenous interests. presenters. The John Mulvaney Book Award The award was established in honour of John Mulvaney and his contribution and commitment to Australian archaeology over a lifetime of professional service.
12 Social Events
Throughout the conference Noosa Lakes Convention and When: 7.30 pm – midnight Exhibition Centre, 3 Hilton Terrace, Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, Over the three conference days, Tewantin. Australis Noosa Lakes Convention Thursday 4 December, Friday Cost: Free of charge for conference and Exhibition Centre, 5 December and Saturday 6 delegates. Drinks available for 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. December morning tea, lunch and purchase. afternoon tea will be supplied to Cost: $65 – pre-booking required with conference delegates. registration Digging up Indiana Jones – Talk The bar at the venue will be open for and Movie drink purchases during lunch and from In this presentation Peter Hiscock 5.30 pm-7.00 pm on conference days. will discuss the cinematic image and Sunday 7 December origin of the Indiana Jones character. He will trace the emergence of Field trip Wednesday 3 December characters and plots with the same elements, and demonstrate that the Noosa Everglades Discovery Cruise Welcome Reception Indy character has a long film history. The post-conference field trip is an This examination of the construction of all-day cruise of the Noosa Everglades From 5.00pm drinks and savouries the Indiana Jones character and films and the beautiful Cooloola region. will be served in the Lagos Room may surprise some archaeologists. Departing from the Noosa Marina and Terrace at the conference venue, (across the road from the venue) Australis Noosa Lakes Convention Following his talk there will be a the cruise will navigate the waters of and Exhibition Centre. Registration screening of The Mummy’s Shroud the Noosa River, upstream through will be open from 2.00 pm – 7.00 pm (1967) starring Andre Morell, Lakes Cooroibah and Cootharaba at the venue. John Phillips and David Buck. and into the Noosa Everglades and During the Welcome Reception, When: 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm approx the Great Sandy National Park. The Wally E. Roth, the grandson of Walter Where: Coorooibah Room, first floor, cruise will include a guided boardwalk E. Roth, will speak at the launch of Australis Noosa Lakes Convention at Kinaba Interpretive Centre, coffee the newly published book The Roth and Exhibition Centre, and pastries on board, and BBQ Family, Anthropology and Colonial 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. lunch (including wine and cold drinks) Administration edited by Russell at historic Harry’s Hut, with a leisurely McDougall and Iain Davidson. Cost: Free of charge for conference return cruise in the afternoon. The delegates. No booking required. boat is equipped with a fully licensed When: 5.00 pm – 7.00 pm, bar with additional drinks and coffee Venue: Lagos Room, ground floor, available for purchase. There will Australis Noosa Lakes Convention also be on board commentary and Exhibition Centre, Saturday 6 December on the history and archaeology of 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. the early timber industry on Lake Conference Dinner Cost: Free of charge for conference Cootharaba (from Steve Nichols and delegates The conference dinner will be held Karen Murphy), and the Indigenous upstairs in the Cooroibah Room archaeology and history of the at the conference venue, Australis Cooloola region (from Ian McNiven). Noosa Lakes Convention and Friday 5 December When: 8.30 am – 4.30 pm Exhibition Centre. The annual AAA and AACAI Awards, as well as the Venue: Departing from Noosa Marina, Poster Session conference Big Man and Small Boy 2 Parkyn Court, Tewantin (just across Enjoy an informative and social awards, will be presented during the bridge from the conference venue) the evening. The launch of Judy poster session, with drinks available Cost: $89 – pre-booking required with Birmingham’s Festschrift will also for purchase from the bar during the registration session. The launch of the Sandra be held. The evening will include a Bowdler AA Volume will also be held. 3-course dinner, some beverages What to bring: Swimwear, towel, and live entertainment. A full bar will camera, hat, sunglasses and When: 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm be available for the purchase of drinks sunscreen. Venue: Foyer, first floor, Australis throughout the evening.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 13 The Conference at a Glance
Wednesday 3 December
2.00-7.00 pm Registration 5.00-7.00 pm Welcome Reception
Thursday 4 December Coorooibah Room Doonella Room
8.30-10.30 am Welcome to Country Welcome address Engaging the Future (p 23) 10.30-11.00 am Morning tea 11.00am-12.30 pm Land and Sea: Natural Resource Current Research and Future Directions Management versus Cultural Heritage for Historical Archaeology in Australia Management (p 25) (p 31) 12.30-1.30 pm ANCATL Meeting 1.30-3.00pm Land and Sea: Natural Resource New Rock Art Research in Australia, Management versus Cultural Heritage the Pacific and Southeast Asia(p33) Management (p 28) 3.00-3.30pm Afternoon tea 3.30-5.30pm Lithic Technology in Focus: Archaeology of the Recent Past (p 38) Technological and Microscopic Analyses of Lithic Assemblages (p 35) 5.30-7.30pm AAA Annual General Meeting
Friday 5 December Coorooibah Room Doonella Room
8.30-10.30am The Uses of Technology in Archaeobotanical Studies in China, Contemporary Archaeological Practice Southeast Asia and Australia (p 45) (p 42) 10.30-11.00am Morning tea 11.00am-12.30pm Current Issues in Archaeology: Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) (p 48) 12.30-1.30pm AA Editorial Committee and Advisory Board Meeting 1.30-3.00pm The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management (p 51) 3.00-3.30pm Afternoon tea 3.30-5.30pm The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management (p 53) 5.30-6.30pm Poster Session (foyer) (p 66) 6.30-7.30pm AACAI Annual General Meeting 7.30-9.30pm Movie Night
14 Saturday 6 December Cooroibah Room Doonella Room
8.30-10.30am Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Research Projects Beyond Sahul (p 56) 10.30-11.00am Morning tea 11.00am-12.00pm Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Research Projects Beyond Sahul (p 59) 12.00-1.00pm Keynote Address (p 16) 1.00-2.00pm NAW General Meeting 2.00-3.30pm Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon (p 61) 3.30-4.00pm Afternoon tea 4.00-5.30pm Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon (p 63) 7.30 pm-12.00am Conference Dinner
Sunday 7 December
8.30am-4.30pm approx Field trip
Meetings The following meetings will be held during the conference.
Thursday 4 December Friday 5 December Saturday 6 December
ANCATL Meeting AA Editorial Committee NAW General Meeting and Advisory Board Meeting When: 12.30pm – 1.30pm When: 1.00pm – 2.00pm When: 12.30pm – 1.30pm Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, Australis Noosa Lakes Convention Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, Australis Noosa Lakes Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australis Noosa Lakes Convention and Exhibition Centre, 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. and Exhibition Centre, 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. AAA Annual General Meeting AACAI Annual General Meeting When: 5.30pm – 7.30pm When: 6.30pm – 7.30pm Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, Australis Noosa Lakes Convention Venue: Coorooibah Room, first floor, and Exhibition Centre, Australis Noosa Lakes Convention 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin. and Exhibition Centre, 3 Hilton Terrace, Tewantin.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 15 Keynote address
What Happened on Rapa Nui? Among his written or co-written books are Pyrenean Prehistory (1984); Ancient Places (with Glyn Daniel, 1986); Images of the Ice Age (1988, with Jean Vertut); Saturday 6 December 12:00 – 1:00pm The Bluffer’s Guide to Archaeology (1989, 2nd ed. 1999, The keynote address will be presented by Dr Paul Bahn 3rd ed. 2004); Archaeology: Theories, Methods and at 12.00pm on Saturday 5 December. The lecture, ‘What Practice (1991, with Colin Renfrew - 2nd ed. 1996, happened on Rapa Nui?’, will focus on the developments 3rd ed. 2000, 4th ed. 2004; 5th ed, 2008); Easter in the study of Easter Island over the past few years - Island, Earth Island (with John Flenley, 1992); Mammoths including an account of the conflicting views of those who (with Adrian Lister, 1995; 2nd ed. 2000; 3rd ed. 2007); see the island’s environmental destruction as a salutary Archaeology: a very short introduction (1997); Journey warning about our current abuse of the planet, and those Through the Ice Age (with Jean Vertut, 1997); The who prefer to see the island’s downfall as having been Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art (1998); brought about by nature or by Europeans, rather than by Disgraceful Archaeology (with Bill Tidy, 1999), The Enigmas the islanders themselves. of Easter Island (with John Flenley, 2003); and Cave Art: Paul G. Bahn M.A., Ph.D., F.S.A., was born and raised in A Guide to the Ice Age Decorated Caves of Europe (2007). Hull, studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Among his edited books are The Collins Dictionary of and did his Ph.D. thesis (1979) on the prehistory of the Archaeology (1992); The Cambridge Illustrated History of French Pyrenees. Following that, he held post-doctoral Archaeology (1996); The Story of Archaeology (1996); fellowships, at Liverpool and London, and a J. Paul Tombs, Graves and Mummies (1996); Lost Cities (1997); Getty postdoctoral fellowship in the History of Art and Wonderful Things (1999); Atlas of World Archaeology the Humanities. He went freelance in the mid-1980s, (2000); The Archaeology Detectives (2001); The Penguin and since then has devoted himself to writing, editing Guide to Archaeology (2001), Archaeology, the Definitive and translating books on archaeology, plus occasional Guide (2002), Written in Bones (2002), and Archaeology: journalism and as much travel as possible. His main The Key Concepts (with Colin Renfrew, 2005). research interest is prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art, as well as Easter Island. He led the team which, at his instigation, searched for and discovered the first Ice Age cave art in Britain in 2003 and 2004.
16 Detailed program
Thursday 4 December Of Town and Country: The Wellesley Islands Rangers Managing the Land and Seascapes of the Wellesley 8.30-10.30am Cooroibah Room Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria Cameo Dalley, Tanya Willlis Welcome to country and Wellesley Islands Rangers 26 Dr Eve Fesl A foot in the door: Mining, cultural heritage and Indigenous cultural and social values around land management Michael Morrison and Darlene McNaughton 27 Welcome address Archaeological geoarchives as baselines for NRM Dr Chris Clarkson, Conference Organising Committee and CHM management: case examples from tropical Dr Ian McNiven, President, Australian Archaeological Australian shorelines Association Anthony J. Barham 27 Craig Wallace MP, Minister for Natural Resources Cultural Indicators for the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and Water and Minister assisting the Premier Leanne Cullen, Rosemary Hill and James Butler 28 in North Queensland TBC
Thursday 4 December Engaging the Future 11.00am-12.30pm Doonella Room Mike Rowland and Ian McNiven Will the sky fall in? Global warming - an archaeological/ Current Research and Future Directions archaeologists perspective for Historical Archaeology in Australia Mike Rowland 23 Natalie Franklin and Karen Murphy Has agriculture been unsustainable since its origins? Raising the profile: the role of archaeology in today’s Chris Lovell 23 heritage advocacy Archaeology Under Siege: A Case Study Stewart Armstrong 31 from the Maldive Islands Rights and Wrongs: Legislation and the construction Mike Adamson 24 of social landscape at Mount Shamrock Future hunters: how the archaeology of dugong bone ritual Geraldine Mate 31 sites can inform current debates on dugong sustainability Architecture of Fear: Civilian-Built Defensive Structures and in Torres Strait their Usefulness for Frontier Relations Studies in Colonial Ian McNiven 24 Australia Nicolas K. Grguric 32 Beyond the Mill: Community, Practice and Social Thursday 4 December Interaction at Cootharaba Mill Settlement 11.00am-12.30pm Cooroibah Room Karen Murphy 32 Burke and Wills ‘Plant Camp’ Land and Sea: Natural Resource Anthony Simmons and Carl Porter 32 Management versus Cultural Heritage Ritual and magic in old Australian houses and buildings: Management I mundane artefacts reveal an ancient secret Michael Morrison, Daryl Guse and Cameo Dalley Ian Evans 32 Responses at the Frontier: Problems and prospects for managing Indigenous cultural heritage in the Northern Territory Daryl Guse, Patricia Bourke and Lorraine Williams 25 Managing living Yolngu heritage into the future Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation 26
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 17 Rock-art conservation and termite management Thursday 4 December at Kabadul Kula, Dauan, Torres Strait 1.30-3.00pm Coorooibah Room Liam Brady, Andrew Thorn, Ian McNiven and Theo Evans 34 Land and Sea: Natural Resource Macropod Anatomical Design Elements: A study of the Management versus Cultural Heritage macropod motif from the Hawkesbury Sandstone Management II Alandra Tasire 34 New insight into rock art recording methods Bringing Land Management and Cultural Heritage Ines Domingo Sanz 34 Together through Indigenous-driven Heritage Nomination Ro Hill, Michael Wood and Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy 28 Aboriginal knowledge and community values in NRM: A major project undertaken by the DECC to assist Thursday 4 December Aboriginal communities in NSW to become better 3.30-5.30pm Coorooibah Room engaged in Natural Resource Management Mal Ridges, Joedie Davis, John Beattie, Paul Donnelly, Lithic Technology in Focus: Technological Mick Kelly and Carlos Torres 29 and Microscopic Analyses of Lithic Not Just Stones and Bones: Cultural Heritage Assemblages Management in Western Gippsland from Chris Clarkson and Kate Connell a Regional NRM Perspective Tom Sizer 29 The macro- and micro-trace worlds of stone tipped hunting technologies: the Middle Stone Age of South Africa Ngarrindjerin Nation Yarluwar-Ruwe (Sea Country) planning: as a case study Integrated regional planning and self-determination Marlize Lombard 35 Steve Hemming and Chris Wilson 29 Technological economics and scraper form in the late NRM and CHM in Yued Noongar Boodja South West WA Pleistocene of southern Africa – not remote not remarkable Alex Mackay 35 Brendan James Moore 30 The multiplicity of uses of Australian backed artefacts Applied archaeology and Natural Resource Management Gail Robertson, Val Attenbrow and Peter Hiscock 36 case studies from Western Australia David Guilfoyle, Doc Reynolds and Wayne Webb 30 Scraper reduction continuums and efficient tool use: A functional analysis of scrapers at different stages of reduction Kate Connell 36 Thursday 4 December Procurement costs and tool functional requirements: 1.30-3.00pm Doonella Room determining constraints on lithic toolstone selection on Espíritu Santo Island, Baja California Sur New Rock Art Research in Australia, Jennifer M. Ferris 36 the Pacific and Southeast Asia When to retouch, when to haft? Experimental examinations Paul S.C. Taçon, Sally K. May and Liam Brady of tool efficiency factoring in manufacturing and maintenance costs Chasing the Tjurrkupa: Rock Art and Dreaming stories Chris Clarkson 37 on the Canning Stock Route, Western Desert Jo McDonald and Peter Veth 33 Kutikina Cave lithics: an examination of temporal and spatial variability in the archaeological system Associated Rock Art Traditions: Marking Practices Found of southwest Tasmania at Rock Art Complexes in the Central Australia Desert. Jennifer Burch 37 June Ross 33 A technological approach to the problem of measuring Exploring the relationships between Indigenous Australian lithic pre-processing in unretouched flake stone artefact communities and visitors to the north Australian coastline assemblages through painted depictions on rock Ben Marwick 37 Daryl Guse, Sally K. May and Paul S.C. Taçon 33
18 Detailed program
Thursday 4 December Mobile Geographic Information Systems for Large-scale Intensive Archaeological Survey of Stone Artefact Scatters 3.30-5.30pm Doonella Room in Arid Australia Ben Marwick, Philip Hughes and Peter Hiscock 43 The Archaeology of the Recent Past Landscape modelling of Aboriginal site features Annie Ross, Luke Godwin and Scott L’Oste Brown and their application in regional heritage planning Documenting Gummingurru - an evolving site Mal Ridges 43 on the Darling Downs, southern Queensland Assessing the ‘Fizz’ in ‘Geophys’ Annie Ross and Sean Ulm 38 Andrew Sneddon 43 Walking between two paradigms An inductive, predictive model for an archaeological Bettyann Doyle 38 survey in the WA Goldfields ‘they covet not Magnificent Houses’: Spatial politics, Emlyn Collins 44 material culture and missionisation The application of GPR and digital scanning to conserve Jane Lydon 39 and interpret the Willandra fossil trackway Documenting Pastoral Landscapes: Warren Clark, Leanne Mitchell, Cliff Ogleby, Michael Connecting archaeology, history and communities Westaway and Harvey Johnston 44 Steve Brown 39 The Kokatha and the Cold War: Indigenous and technological heritage at Woomera, South Australia Friday 5 December Andrew Starkey and Alice Gorman 40 8.30-10.30am – Doonella Room Land management in the past and today: A case study from the Pallinup catchment, south-western Australia Archaeobotanical Studies in China, Joe Dortch, David Guilfoyle, Ken Hayward, Jane Balme Southeast Asia and Australia and Fiona Dyason 40 Judith Field Ngarrindjeri Mortuary Landscapes in the Last 500 Years: Subsistence and environmental history in central an Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspective on the New Britain, Papua New Guinea: Combining phytoliths, Cultural Meaning of Place on the Lower Murray River Lakes macrofossils and use-wear/residue studies Roger Luebbers 41 Carol Lentfer, Richard Fullagar, Christina Pavlides Application of archaeological techniques to testing oral and Jim Specht 44 testimony: Native title implications Mid-late Holocene inter-regional variability in toxic Luke Godwin and Scott L’Oste-Brown 41 Macrozamia seed exploitation: climatic variability, changing landscape use or increasing populations? Brit Asmussen 45 Friday 5 December Use-wear and Residue Analysis of Aboriginal Ethnographic 8.30-10.30am – Cooroibah Room Wooden Spears – Preliminary Comparative Results of a Work in Progress The Uses of Technology in Contemporary Sue Nugent 46 Archaeological Practice Shifting cultivation in West New Britain? Cameron Harvey and Jon Prangnell Rethinking accepted models. Robin Torrence 46 A novice’s foray in spatial modelling: an introduction to the uses and (potential) misuses of technology The archaeobotany of Taora, a mid-Holocene coastal Cameron Harvey 42 rockshelter, Sandaun Province, PNG Andrew Fairbairn, Sue O’Connor, Tony Barham Entering Another Dimension: Applications and Evaluation and Ken Aplin 46 of 3D Scanning in Lithic Analysis Chris Clarkson 42 Sago (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) in New Guinea: an appraisal of the archaeobotanical and palaeoecological evidence Matthew Prebble, Simon Haberle and Geoff Hope 47
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 19 Archaeobotanical evidence of dietary indicators from Adelaide Region Mound Sites – the emerging view residues on teeth of mid Holocene fauna from the site from consultancy research of Kangiia, central China Neale Draper, David Mott and Tom Gara 51 Sheahan Bestel and Li Liu 47 A Bus Driver’s Holiday: Some observations of cultural Grinding stone use in early Holocene China: exploitation heritage management in Turkey of acorn and rice in the Lower Yangzi River, China Luke Godwin 52 Judith Field, Li Liu, Alison Weisskopf, John Webb, The Rio Tinto Coal Australia Cultural Heritage Management Leping Jiang, Haiming Wang and Xingcan Chen 47 Process: New Directions in Cultural Heritage Management in the Coal Mining Industry David Cameron, Joel Deacon, Elspeth Mackenzie, Friday 5 December Luke Godwin and Scott L’Oste-Brown 52 11.00am-12.30pm– Coorooibah Room Under Regulation – Victoria’s new Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, why you should be working in Victoria, and the allure Current Issues in Archaeology: of regulation Harry Webber and Jamin Moon 52 Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) Ken Mulvaney and Sue Smalldon The Antiquity Of Murujuga Rock Art Ken Mulvaney 48 Friday 5 December 3.30-5.30pm Cooroibah Room Dividing up heritage: Maintaining archaeological integrity in the Dampier Archipelago Sarah Lewis and Donald Lantzke 49 The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management II The Dampier Archipelago and the Burrup Peninsula: The Values of Indigenous Heritage, a Community Organisation View Background lithic distribution: Uninspiring, Robin Chapple 49 uninspected and unloved The Significance of Murujuga to Traditional Owners and Colin Pardoe 53 Traditional Owners Views on the Protection of Our Heritage Issues concerning the identification of flaked stone Wilfred Hicks and Robyne Churnside 50 artefacts in a material-rich context Falsification of (‘pre’)history at Dampier O. Macgregor, A. Mackay, P. Hughes and M. Sullivan 53 Robert G. Bednarik 50 Musings from the Field: Reassessing Lithics in the West Industry and Heritage can Co-exist, just not on the Same Linda E. Villiers 53 Land: The Story of Cultural Heritage Protection ‘After the Land Hardened’: Aboriginal Prehistoric Settlement on Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) Patterns at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia Sue Smalldon 50 Michael Slack, Richard Fullagar, Harold Ashburton and R.J. McKay 54 The Impact of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 Friday 5 December on Consulting Projects: a Case Study 1.30-3.00pm Cooroibah Room Oona Nicolson and Thomas Richards 54 Brimbank Park: Recent Discoveries in the Keilor Terraces The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research of the Maribyrnong River and Heritage Management I Shaun Canning, Darren Griffin, Vanessa Flynn and Jaclyn Ward 54 Oona Nicholson and Oliver Brown GIS Applications in Consulting: A case study Cultural heritage of Queensland’s stock routes at Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, Northwest Victoria Noelene Cole 51 Robyn Jenkins, Joseph Brooke, Andrew Costello, The Dirt on Sugarloaf: Findings of the Cultural Heritage Vanessa Edmonds, Jeff Hill, Chris Kaskadanis Assessment for the Sugarloaf Pipeline and Siobhan Paterson 55 Andrew Costello, Robyn Jenkins, Joseph Brooke, Archaeological sensitivity and the distribution Vanessa Edmonds and Jeff Hill 51 of archaeological sites in the Macquarie Marshes, NSW Jamie Reeves 55 20 Detailed program
Saturday 6 December Optical dating of Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania 8.30-10.30am Cooroibah Room Luke Gliganic, Zenobia Jacobs and Richard Roberts and Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo 60 Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Following the Ring of Fire: The Use and Distribution Research Projects Beyond Sahul I of Volcanic Glass Artefacts in Far East Russia Phil Habgood and Michelle Langley Trudy Doelman, Robin Torrence, Nikolay Kluyev, Igor Sleptsov and Vladimir Popov 60 Prehistoric Forts and Walled Settlements in Timor Leste Sue O’Connor, Sally Brockwell and Andrew McWilliam 56 Vanuatu Archaeology: An update on Lapita pots and burials, giant tortoises and other matters Saturday 6 December Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford 56 12.00-1.00pm Coorooibah Room Toba and Beyond: Preliminary results of recent excavations at Toba ash sites, rockshelters and limestone caves in the Keynote Address: Kurnool and Middle Son Districts, India. What Happened on Rapa Nui? Chris Clarkson and Tam Smith 56 Paul Bahn 16 The Late Pleistocene Peopling of East Asia and Associated Climate-Environment History: Preliminary results of a new field project in Yunnan Province, SW China Paul S.C. Taçon, Ji Xueping, Darren Curnoe, Saturday 6 December Yang Decong, Andy Herries, Li Gang, Scott Mooney, 2.00-3.30pm Cooroibah Room Maxime Aubert and Sally May 57 The largest Bronze Age cemeteries in Cyprus Australian Studies in Taphonomy David Frankel 57 and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour Politiko Kokkinorotsos. of the Late Su Solomon I A Chalcolithic hunting station in Cyprus Judith Field and Jillian Garvey Jennifer Webb 57 About Su Arqueología en al-Andalus: Jane Balme 61 Islamic landscapes in southern Spain Investigating marrow processing in the Rebecca Parkes 58 Central Queensland Highlands, Australia The Neanderthals of Sima de los Palomas, Spain Brit Asmussen 61 Phil Habgood and Michael Walker 58 Quality vs Quantity: Understanding human prey selection in late Pleistocene southwest Tasmania Jillian Garvey 62 Saturday 6 December Taphonomy and forensic anthropology Denise Donlon 62 11.00am-12.00pm – Cooroibah Room Can cortical bone thickness help distinguish human from Beyond Borders and Boundaries: non-human bone fragments? A study using the tibia Research Projects Beyond Sahul II Sarah Croker, Warren Reed and Denise Donlon 62 Towards a clearer understanding of the importance Optical dating of Australia’s earliest human of crocodiles as taphonomic agents in the early hominin occupation sites: A fresh look at an old question fossil record Nathan Jankowski, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts Michael Westaway, Jackson Njau and Wally Wood 63 and Jacqui Fenwick 59 Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating of Pottery from the Galapagos Islands Iona Flett, Atholl Anderson and Ed Rhodes 59
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 21 Saturday 6 December 4.00-5.30pm – Cooroibah Room
Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon II
Culture vs Nature: The taphonomy of a faunal assemblage from Cuddie Springs Melanie Fillios, Judith Field and Bethan Charles 63 ESR-U Series dating at Cuddie Springs deposits and the problems of perspectives in site interpretation Judith Field, Stephen Eggins, Nigel Spooner, Alistair W.G. Pike, Wolfgang Müller, Clive Trueman and Richard Fullagar 64 Megafauna and Humans in Tasmania Richard Cosgrove, Judith Field, Joan Brenner-Coltrain, Jillian Garvey, Bethan Charles, Jim O’Connell, Steve Wroe, Albert Goede and Wendy Lees 64 Palaeoenvironmental and Cultural Change across the Wellesley Archipelago: Preliminary Results from the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria Sean Ulm, Nicholas Evans, Paul, Daniel Rosendahl, Richard Robins, Ian Lilley and Errol Stock 65 Anticipating the antecedent antics of ants: Observations on the capacity of ants to contribute to site formation processes in archaeological contexts Richard Robins 65 Patterns of predation: Human exploitation of Anadara granosa, Blue Mud Bay, north Australia Pat Faulkner 65
22 Session and Paper abstracts
Will the sky fall in? Global warming - Engaging the Future an archaeological/archaeologists perspective Thursday 4 December Mike Rowland 8.30-10.30am – Cooroibah Room Department of Natural Resources and Water, [email protected] Mike Rowland Department of Natural Resources and Water, Climates have changed in the past and will do so in the [email protected] future. In fact if a significant period of past global climatic stasis were identified this would be a unique event. Debate Ian McNiven currently focuses on the extent of human impacts on recent Monash University, [email protected] climates but it is argued that the evidence for this has been Around the world all societies currently face a number of over-stated and sensationalised. In the past climates were environmentally-based societal stresses. Among the most at times benign, at other times gradual or abrupt and human significant issues are population growth and increased economic responses to these changes were variable. The greatest inequalities, declining energy sources, environmental and climatic risk to the stability of many past societies was not resource degradation, climate change, sea level rise and loss global warming but global cooling and while many past of biodiversity. Archaeologists with their unique time perspective societies declined in response to climate change many also and substantial cross-cultural views have an under-utilised emerged more robust and dynamic. contribution to make to these debates. In the past humans have Population growth, declining returns on energy extraction, faced a range of environmental changes on a variety of scales. environmental degradation, and economic instability Societal responses have varied from apparent systems failures and disparity are arguably among a group of currently to bursts of creativity, reorganisation and renewal. Humans have more immediate concerns than climate change. The also impacted on environments over a long period of time though archaeological record reveals that for 2 million years these impacts have increased by several orders of magnitude humans have enlarged human carrying capacity by in recent times. Papers in this session touch on these critical technological breakthroughs but there are now serious issues. Papers range across issues as diverse as biodiversity concerns that such breakthroughs are possible. The and sustainability, global warming, resource management and world’s population is set to increase by 50% (6 billion) economic development. Engaging the Future seeks to open by 2030. Population growth and carrying capacity have up discussion on how to get archaeological messages into the always been difficult issues for societies to discuss for broader scientific and public debates on the above issues. moral, religious and political reasons. But a more balanced debate which includes population/carrying capacity and related issues not dominated by climate change is now required. he archaeological/historical record supports such a perspective.
Has agriculture been unsustainable since its origins?
Chris Lovell School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected] Many of today’s environmentally-based societal stresses appear to have precursors among the Neolithic cultures of SW Asia and Europe. Evidence exists linking these cultures to rapid population growth, increased social inequality, declining energy sources, environmental and resource degradation, loss of biodiversity, and collapse. In addition, a number of other social stressors appear to have exacerbated in the Neolithic, such as: warfare, political instability and declining health. This raises the question: Has agriculture been unsustainable since its origins? By combining evolutionary theories of culture
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 23 with ecological theory I aim to develop a model for the Future hunters: How the archaeology evolution of maladaptive agricultural behaviours, the of dugong bone ritual sites can inform formation of unsustainable agricultural ‘styles’, and their current debates on dugong sustainability dispersal. Even at this precursory stage, the model yields a number of predictions. Where numerous models have in Torres Strait failed to adequately explain much of the data on agricultural Ian McNiven origins and dispersals, the data from SW Asia and Europe Monash University, [email protected] (archaeological, environmental, linguistic and genetic) appear to support these predictions. Dugongs (Dugong dugon) are a key food item and a totemic animal with major spiritual significance for Torres If the style of agriculture that evolved in SW Asia and Strait ISaldners of northeastern Australia. Over the past dispersed into Europe has indeed been unsustainable five years, considerable archaeological insights have since its origins, this has broad implications for been made into the ritual significance and antiqutity of understanding human societies of the past. If successful, large mounds of dugong bones in Torres Strait. Yet these this approach could substantially revise existing views on mounds also provide a unique window into the numbers the origins and dispersals of agriculture. In addition, the of dugongs hunted by Torres Strait Islanders prior to findings of this thesis may have important implications for European contact. Given current dugong hunting rates in human societies of the present and future. In particular, Torres Strait are unsustainable, did Torres Strait Islanders these findings might be practically applied to the modern hunt fewer dugongs in the past? Analysis of ritual bone world, informing strategies for achieving sustainability, and mounds reveals surprising results that have important pathways for development. implications for future dugong management in Australia.
Archaeology Under Siege: A Case Study from the Maldive Islands
Mike Adamson Archaeology Department, Flinders University, [email protected] Rising sea level is expected to render the Republic of the Maldives uninhabitable before 2040. The entire cultural identity of the nation is under threat, including the archaeological record of its 2000-year period of colonisation. Initiatives to address the crisis have naturally focussed on the immediate needs of the extant population, with as yet minimal emphasis placed on recovery of historic and proto-historic materials. Little is known of the Buddhist period of the nation’s history, and virtually nothing of the likely earlier phases. A program of rescue archaeology is urgently required.
24 Session and Paper abstracts | Land and Sea: Natural Resource Management versus Cultural Heritage Management
• the changing role of archaeologists and cultural heritage Land and Sea: practitioners working in Indigenous communities; • case studies on holistic land and sea management Natural Resource programs or community-managed cultural maintenance or heritage programs; Management versus • successful partnerships between NRM and CHM bodies Cultural Heritage (including Indigenous Rangers). Management Responses at the Frontier: Problems and prospects for managing Indigenous Session 1 Thursday 4 December 11.00am-12.30pm cultural heritage in the Northern Territory – Cooroibah Room Daryl Guse Michael Morrison RSPAS, Australian National University, Northern Cultural Heritage, [email protected] [email protected] Daryl Guse Patricia Bourke RSPAS, Australian National University, [email protected] Heritage Conservation Branch, NRETA Cameo Dalley Lorraine Williams Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland, [email protected] Economic development imperatives combined with economic rationalism has made the management of In this session we seek papers which explore the interaction Indigenous archaeology particularly challenging in the of NRM and CHM in the context of Indigenous land and Northern Territory. The conservation of Indigenous sea management programs across Australia. In recent archaeology in the NT is closely related to the conservation years, these grass roots organisations have come to the of landscapes and natural resources. Natural resource fore as lead agencies in the management of what are management has particularly been successful in conventionally understood as natural and cultural heritage developing networks and programs to attempt to manage values and resources within many remote areas. Within this the impacts of the economic boom in the NT and arrest context, Natural Resource Management (NRM) has gained many other environmental problems. Conservation a particularly high profile due to the imprimatur of many of Indigenous archaeology has not been particularly Government agencies to encourage ‘Natural Resource successful in replicating the same success. Therefore it Management’ programs, i.e. fire regimes, weeds and feral is necessary to develop an approach outside of standard animals. Funding arrangements such as the Natural Heritage legislative frameworks and start to incorporate links with Trust and even some environmental lobby groups explicitly these NRM networks. This paper discusses several case favour such programs. This is despite the fact that managing studies from the Northern Territory where engagement cultural heritage (e.g. recording language, cultural heritage with local Indigenous communities has led to conservation places and Traditional Knowledge) is of utmost importance to outcomes for Indigenous archaeology. A particular case Traditional Owners and is often the framework within which in point is the management of a complex of over 200 NRM activities are understood and carried out locally. In large mound sites and stone artefact scatters at Hope particular, we seek papers discussing: Inlet; these hold special significance to Larrakia Traditional • successful approaches to developing cultural heritage Owners of the Darwin region who have fought with management programs and projects in the context of limited success over the past decade for their recognition Indigenous land and sea management; and conservation. Management requires innovative strategies to find solutions to managing the cultural and • ways in which natural resource management are natural landscape. This paper looks at the problems and conceptualised or practiced as ‘cultural maintenance’ prospects of managing this type of Indigenous Heritage or ‘cultural heritage management’ within Indigenous on Australia’s coast, through the lens of the case study of communities; Hope Inlet. • how Indigenous modes of natural resource management effectively address cultural heritage management outcomes (or vice versa);
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 25 Managing living Yolngu heritage Of Town and Country: The Wellesley into the future Islands Rangers Managing the Land and Seascapes of the Wellesley Islands, Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, [email protected] Gulf of Carpentaria The perceived split between cultural and natural heritage in contemporary management approaches has lead to the Cameo Dalley development of separate institutions and policies informing Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation. Such approaches need Queensland, [email protected] to be reconciled with Yolngu cultural values which are at Tanya Willlis the basis of Dhimurru’s governance structure, management Southern Gulf Catchments NRM, cultural@southerngulf. and conservation strategies. com.au When Yolngu established Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation in Wellesley Islands Rangers 1992, their concerns over resource control and conservation Mornington Island CDEP, Gununa PO, Mornington Island, were driven by the notion that the land is the foundation QLD 4871 of Yolngu knowledge. Yolngu have a cultural responsibility to manage the land in accordance with obligations to their Unlike many parts of remote Australia, Mornington Island in ancestors and future generations. The ancestors created the the Gulf of Carpentaria has remained largely unburdened land and everything in it, they laid down the Rom (culture or by development pressures brought about by mining and law). Yolngu culture and knowledge is embedded in Wänga tourism. This has meant that historically, land and sea (the land) and cultural and natural values are inextricably management issues have largely taken a backseat to more linked. These values are expressed through Gurrutu (kinship), pressing concerns in the areas of health, education and Manikay (clan songs), Miny’tji (sacred art), and dhäwu (stories) housing. However, a native title sea claim determination all of which have been passed from one generation to the in 2004 and the recent reinvigoration of the Wellesley next since time immemorial. Islands Ranger program on Mornington in 2007, has provided a new impetus to formally manage land and This article contributes to understanding the role of not only seascapes. Under this new regime, in early 2008 Southern tangible, but also intangible cultural values in developing Gulf Catchments NRM together with Mornington Island appropriate “natural resource” and “cultural heritage” CDEP funded the Rangers to undertake a four week management strategies. We explain the “both-ways” cultural heritage recording project in and around Gununa, approach – the integration of Rom with western science- the main township on Mornington. The recording project that guide and inform Dhimurru’s activities. We refer to two provided the Rangers with training in the areas of GPS, site major management frameworks –the establishment of the recording and site management assessment. Importantly, Dhimurru Indigenous protected Area and the creation of the project also provided the Rangers with a cache of the Dhimurru Heritage Database. We then illustrate how recorded knowledge and management objectives to living cultural heritage informs the development of innovative utilise for future funding applications. The success of the management strategies for guiding recreational fishing, sacred project demonstrates the potential for important cultural sites conservation (e.g. Wurrwurrwuy Stone Pictures), visitors’ heritage work to be undertaken within a natural resource management and feral animal control. The examples will management funding framework. In this paper we discuss bring out the inextricable connections between environmental the recording project, particularly in the context of other management and heritage conservation. work already being undertaken by the Rangers, as well We focus on describing the environmental outcomes of as the unique challenges of conducting such work in this cultural preservation, as well the cultural implications of natural remote region of Australia. resource protection and investigate ways for integrating and reconciling the two within Dhimurru’s management approaches. Under this framework, environmental conservation is also preservation of knowledge, cultural and heritage values, communication between Yolngu and non- Yolngu, educational and awareness-raising among visitors and non-Indigenous people.
26 Session and Paper abstracts | Land and Sea: Natural Resource Management versus Cultural Heritage Management
A foot in the door: Mining, cultural heritage Archaeological geoarchives as baselines and Indigenous cultural and social values for NRM and CHM management: around land management Case examples from tropical Australian shorelines Michael Morrison Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Anthony J. Barham [email protected] Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Darlene McNaughton Sciences; and Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and School of Pacific and Asian Studies, College of Asia Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University, Pacific, Australian National University, [email protected] [email protected] This paper explores the issue of managing indigenous Management programs for NRM and CHM commonly cultural and social values around land and sea seek outcomes which mediate adverse outcomes of management in the context of large-scale mining related environmental processes at local community scales. development in western Cape York Peninsula. There is little The coastal zone of tropical shorelines in northern Australia question of the important role that Land and Sea Centres represent locales where natural processes, indigenous play in managing these values: an emerging problem use of country and sustainable development of local however is how to ensure these values are identified economies (eg through ecotourism) should logically and managed in contexts where viable Indigenous land build on robust understandings of past trajectories of and sea management programs do not exist. This is a environmental change. Such understanding should particular concern in the context of large scale mining inform and guide strategies for mediating unwelcome related developments where existing Indigenous land environmental shifts. management regimes may not be able to effectively deal This paper argues that institutional separation of with the scale and extent of land management issues management roles acts to partition environmental bought on by mining. Without early identification it arguably understandings of past landscapes from cultural becomes more difficult for Traditional Owners to have understandings of the same evidence in landscapes. cultural and social values around a range of land and Archaeologists are commonly able to provide this sea management issues incorporated into environmental integration, but only where adequate understanding of management strategies of mining companies. Here we present ecosystems are calibrated by radiocarbon-dated argue that cultural heritage management frameworks stratigraphic sequences (geoarchives). The planned can support Indigenous land management regimes in management strategies require direct involvement of TOs such contexts by providing an opportunity for the early and Indigenous Rangers for data monitoring and robust identification of social and cultural values around land and development of responses tuned to seasonal monsoonal sea management. processes at the local scale. Examples are presented from Torres Strait, and the Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, WA which show how heritage management may benefit from geoarchaeological approaches. These employ sedimentary geoarchives as guides to consequences of future environmental shifts in sea level, storminess and dune instability, and address community-defined objectives and initiatives.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 27 Cultural Indicators for the Session 2 Thursday 4 December 1.30-3.00pm Wet Tropics World Heritage Area – Cooroibah Room
Leanne Cullen, Rosemary Hill and James Butler CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australian Tropical Forest Bringing Land Management Institute, James Cook University, [email protected] and Cultural Heritage Together through The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA) in Indigenous-driven Heritage Nomination Far North Queensland is one of the world’s hotspots of rainforest biodiversity and is an area rich in cultural Rosemary Hill heritage, with surrounding landscapes important nationally CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, [email protected] for agriculture and tourism. Like many globally important Michael Wood and Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy UNESCO sites, the area is currently experiencing James Cook University unprecedented rates of population growth and urbanisation hence efficient and effective management action is Rainforest Aboriginal People, Traditional Owners of the required to maintain the area’s ecological, cultural and Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (WTWHA), successfully economic values. One of the aims of the Commonwealth negotiated a Regional Agreement (RA) with the Australian Government funded Marine and Tropical Sciences and Queensland Governments in 2005. Central to this Research Facility, is to develop a monitoring programme RA was recognition of the WTWHA as a living cultural for biodiversity which will include critical indicators of landscape with potential for listing on the National Heritage ecosystem health and thresholds of concern to trigger List and the World Heritage List. During 2006 and 2007, management action. However, a major scientific challenge the Aboriginal Rainforest Council, with funding and remains to identify critical indicators and thresholds of technical support from a number of agencies, researchers, concern for the cultural wellbeing of local people. An and cultural heritage experts, drove a process to compile additional challenge lies in linking these cultural indicators a nomination of the Indigenous values of WTWHA onto to ecosystem health. This paper discusses a framework the National Heritage list. This nomination has now been of cooperative research that is being used to develop added to the Priority Assessment List of the Australian community and regional scale cultural indicators for the Government reflecting a highly successful outcome for the Wet Tropics World heritage area. The framework will ARC endeavours. be used to identify critical indicators and thresholds of Nevertheless, some aspects of the heritage discourse concern for the cultural status of Indigenous communities are highly dissonant with how Aboriginal people in the wet within the Wet Tropics; identify links between these cultural tropics view their culture. Cultural heritage can iconise indicators, and ecosystem health; and improve the benefits “traditions” and the pre-European Aboriginal culture over of scientific research for Traditional Owners and increase the contemporary lived reality of connections to country, Traditional Owner capacity for World Heritage management and contemporary manifestations of that through (for and monitoring through collaborative research. example) Community Rangers roles. The requirement to consider “significance” through systematic comparative evaluation with other Aboriginal cultures sits oddly with the extensive kin connections between Aboriginal peoples across the north. The Intellectual Property Sub-Committee of the Aboriginal Rainforest Council, who took charge of the process of finalising the nomination document during 2007 on behalf of Traditional Owners, developed some highly innovative solutions to these challenges, utilising both expert processes and Senior Traditional Owner governance. Their Indigenist research approach grounded the nomination in both oral history and an Indigenous World View that links traditional and contemporary values and understandings about the nature of reality. The resulting nomination document views the Aboriginal natural resource management practices themselves as of outstanding cultural heritage significance for the Australian nation.
28 Session and Paper abstracts | Land and Sea: Natural Resource Management versus Cultural Heritage Management
Aboriginal knowledge and community the potential to damage cultural heritage, relationships and values in NRM: A major project undertaken environmental outcomes. by the DECC to assist Aboriginal This paper argues that NRM agencies can embrace communities in NSW to become better Cultural Heritage – both artefactual and intellectual - as an engaged in Natural Resource Management environmental asset in any particular project site, in the same way that water quality and biodiversity are integrated. Mal Ridges, Joedie Davis, John Beattie, Paul Donnelly, Procedures for Indigenous liaison and Cultural Heritage Mick Kelly and Carlos Torres protection can thus be mainstreamed rather than being NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, an addendum to the main NRM activity. Examples are [email protected] presented from the Western Gippsland area to show how investment in Indigenous engagement, staff training and This paper describes a major project being conducted the development of strong policy and procedure has the to assist Aboriginal communities in NSW become better potential to contribute to sustainable outcomes in on- engaged in natural resource management (NRM). The ground works, cultural heritage protection and aboriginal project is being coordinated with the assistance of 5 of livelihoods. the catchment management authorities operating in NSW (representing 37% of NSW). Significant in the project’s objectives is to assist Aboriginal communities understand NRM processes, and undertake assessments of their Ngarrindjerin Nation Yarluwar-Ruwe own values and interests within the landscape, and (Sea Country) planning: Integrated regional identify synergies between these and NRM opportunities. planning and self-determination This is being implemented through regional coordinators and community facilitators who are assisting Aboriginal Steve Hemming and Chris Wilson communities’ record their values and interests in Flinders University, [email protected] the landscape using personal digital assistant (PDA) The Ngarrindjeri nation in southern South Australia has been technology. The communities are then guided through a developing plans and agreements that set the basis for a process of identifying priorities in the landscape that can new way of doing business with government and other non- be implemented through NRM processes coordinated by Indigenous interests. At the centre of this new strategy has the CMAs and other government bodies. The objective been an integrated approach to cultural heritage management is to educate Aboriginal communities about how to think (CHM), natural resource management (NRM) and economic strategically about managing country, and to make the development. Archaeology is playing a new role in this most of NRM opportunities as they arise. strategy and has been shifted from the centre of interactions between non-Indigenous interests in lands and waters and Ngarrindjeri rights and responsibilities. Archaeological research Not Just Stones and Bones: now assists Ngarrindjeri leaders to make decisions about Cultural Heritage Management in management issues and is incorporated into the broader Western Gippsland from a Regional NRM Ngarrindjeri Caring for Country Program. In the last few years Perspective the Ngarrindejri Heritage Committee has developed a long- term cultural heritage research program aimed at informing Tom Sizer Ngarrindjeri management of Yarulwar-Ruwe (Sea Country). West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, The development of the Ngarrindjeri Nation Yarluwar-Ruwe [email protected] Plan (2006) brings CRM, NRM and economic management together and attempts to begin the process of transforming The Victorian Cultural Heritage Act 2006 brings a lot the continuing colonial power relations in southern South of uncertainty to the Natural Resource Management Australia into a context in which Ngarrindjeri responsibilities, Industry. Designed primarily to protect sites in the course rights and ambitions are respected and supported of intensive residential and industrial development, the legislation raises Cultural Heritage Management issues in the often under-resourced, extensive land management industry. Mainstay Natural Resource Management activities such as willow removal, streamside fencing and revegetation are now risky propositions for agencies and volunteer groups. Conflicts and power shifts between stakeholders and lack of certainty about legal liability have
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 29 NRM and CHM in Yued Noongar Boodja Applied archaeology and South West WA – not remote not Natural Resource Management remarkable case studies from Western Australia
Brendan James Moore David Guilfoyle South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, South Coast Natural Resource Management, Albany, [email protected] [email protected] For some time Government has sought to manage Doc Reynolds Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage. 56 regions Project Director and Traditional Owner, Esperance Region have been identified by the Australian, State and Territory Wayne Webb Governments to facilitate delivery of Natural Resource Project Director and Traditional Owner, South-West Region Management (NRM). The Soil and Land Conservation Act (1945) and Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972) are instruments This paper explores the developing field of ‘applied used to manage natural resources and cultural heritage archaeology’ as the operational context for delivering in the South West of WA. NRM regions work closely Indigenous natural resource management, using case with Land Conservation District Committees, statutory studies of several cultural heritage management projects bodies established under Section 23 of the Soil and in southern Western Australia. In this region, a number Land Conservation Act (1945), to implement regional of cultural heritage management projects have been plans on key priority issues. Under the Aboriginal Heritage developed and implemented by local communities. The Act (1972) the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee is projects are based on a philosophy of customary practice, established as an advisory body which meets on the first focused on achieving direct outcomes relating to cultural Wednesday of each month, except January, to evaluate place conservation and environmental rehabilitation, the importance of Aboriginal sites and make decisions on while contributing to community-development. This behalf of the community. A more recent set of legislation paper explores several heritage management projects provides for the unalienable right of Traditional Owners to in this context, and examines the underlying processes manage land and sea. The South West Aboriginal Land influencing not only the delivery of NRM, but also the and Sea Council (SWALSC) exists as both a Native Title way heritage is managed and protected, with Traditional Representative Body with functions under Part 11, Division Owners clearly prescribing what they require from 3 of the Native Title Act (1993) and an association under archaeologists and archaeology. the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act (1976) for Noongar people. As a council SWALSC aims to protect the spiritual and physical connection to land of members and their extended families in accordance with their traditions, laws and customs. A new approach to NRM and indigenous land and sea management has been piloted with the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC) and SWALSC in Yued country, north of Perth. Two Caring for Country projects are run from SWALSC with guidance from NACC and community endorsed Yued Traditional Owners (YTO), they are; The Yued Heritage Sites Environmental and Cultural Audit Project and Mogumber Community Project http://www.noongar.org.au/ nrmprojects.php. This paper explores the approach used by NACC and SWALSC to develop programs and projects in the context of Indigenous land and sea management.
30 Session and Paper abstracts | Current Research and Future Directions for Historical Archaeology in Australia
The paper will examine some case studies of National Current Research Trusts in Australia working to promote archaeological issues and projects in the broader community. It will then suggest a framework for partnerships between the and Future Directions National Trust and Queensland’s archaeological profession to promote archaeology in the community through joint for Historical projects and advocacy. Archaeology in Rights and Wrongs: Australia Legislation and the construction of social Thursday 4 December 11.00am-12.30pm – Doonella landscape at Mount Shamrock Room Geraldine Mate Natalie Franklin Queensland Museum and School of Social Science, Environment & Heritage, Design, Environment & University of Queensland, [email protected] Stewardship, Queensland Department of Main Roads, Legislation was a key influence on the development of [email protected] mining townships in the late nineteenth century. For people Karen Murphy moving to a mining area, access to land and income was Queensland Cultural Heritage Branch, Environmental facilitated by the provision of Miners’ Rights. Particular Protection Agency, [email protected] types of land tenure were conditional on holding a miners’ right: the right to work in businesses, market gardens This session will explore how current historical and mines and the ability to select a land claim to do archaeological research in Australia addresses the broader the same were dependent on holding the miner’s right. questions and issues facing the discipline today. Papers Examination of archaeological and historical evidence of will cover site-based and theoretical approaches with a the landscape of Mount Shamrock, a nineteenth century view to determining some future directions for historical mining town in Queensland, demonstrates that people had archaeology in Australia. an understanding of, and operated within, this structure of legislation. Together with personal, social and geographical influences, legislation had an effect on the laying down of Raising the profile: The role of archaeology the town and the construction of a social landscape within in today’s heritage advocacy the mining town.
Stewart Armstrong National Trust of Queensland, [email protected] While television programs about Britain’s archaeology continue to appear, the profile of historical archaeology in Australia, particularly in Queensland, continues to be rather subdued. By contrast, the National Trusts of Australia have recently had some successful advocacy campaigns, raising the profile of heritage issues in the media and the community. For example, the National Trust of Queensland’s recent campaign opposing Brisbane’s North Bank development received substantial media attention and resulted in the Queensland Government putting the project on hold for review. The ensuing Enquiry by Design 3-day workshop included a raft of different professionals, but no archaeologists. While the support of the archaeological fraternity in this campaign was recognised and appreciated, it the archaeological issues did not gain much attention.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 31 Architecture of Fear: Burke and Wills ‘Plant Camp’ Civilian-Built Defensive Structures and their Anthony Simmons Usefulness for Frontier Relations Studies in Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, Colonial Australia [email protected] Nicolas K. Grguric Carl Porter Archae-Aus, [email protected] Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, [email protected] Historical archaeological investigations into Australian frontier conditions, and in particular, Aboriginal/settler The recent “discovery” of the Burke and Wills ‘plant camp’ relations, often have to struggle with the issue of a lack provides a rare opportunity to investigate an artefact of a large body of hard evidence, both physical and assemblage from a specific event linked to a discrete documentary. However, recent research has shown the location. The Burke and Wills expedition is arguably the existence and usefulness of a largely un-utilised body of best known expedition in Australia’s short European material evidence in the form of structures built by civilian history. The following paper provides an overview of the settlers to provide defence against attack. These structures ‘plant camp’ and the archaeological record evident at this exist throughout Australia and are extremely useful to place. The second half of this paper looks at the need for historical archaeologists investigating frontier conditions. future archaeological investigation, the direction of that This is because they effectively represent historical investigation and the challenges to undertaking this work. ‘beacons’ in the landscape that alert us to the existence of significant fear felt by the builder at the time of construction. Furthermore, because these structures ‘speak for Ritual and magic in old Australian houses themselves’, they can provide evidence of the existence of fear in a geographical area which may not be available and buildings: Mundane artefacts reveal in the documentary evidence. The recent research into an ancient secret this subject suggests that they represent localised and Ian Evans immediate frontier conditions, and therefore hold great University of Newcastle, [email protected] potential to contribute information to regional studies. Old houses and buildings throughout Australia contain concealed objects used in the belief that they would Beyond the Mill: protect their occupants from harm. The objects which have been found concealed in numerous old houses and Community, Practice and Social Interaction other buildings in Australia include: old shoes; dried cats; at Cootharaba Mill Settlement items of clothing, including hats, jackets, gloves and lace collars; domestic artefacts, often including childrens’ toys, Karen Murphy ornaments and books. The practice of concealing objects School of Social Science, University of Queensland, as protective talismans is well known in the UK where [email protected] many hundreds of old shoes, dead cats and other objects The concept of ‘community’ as a static, closed, have been found in buildings in recent years. The custom homogenous social unit has been commonly used by came to Australia during the 18th and 19th centuries as archaeologists, allowing them to neatly equate ‘community’ part of the cultural baggage of convicts and emigrants. with ‘archaeological site’. Moving away from this paradigm, Evans believes that it was the last manifestation of ancient an approach based in practice theory recognises the British folk magic beliefs, carried out in the hope that it community as a much more social institution which would protect the occupants of houses from evil. Ritual structures and is structured by the internal practices of its objects in old buildings are usually identified by the fact that members as well as by external forces. This paper uses they are in sealed voids and in locations where accidental an interactional, practice-oriented approach to examine loss or placement is most unlikely. They are commonly the archaeological and historical evidence of the 19th found during building renovations. The practice was highly century sawmilling community of Cootharaba, southeast secret. Although it was widespread in Australia it appears Queensland. never to have been recorded in historical documents and was thus overlooked by historians. The only evidence is the artefacts themselves, everyday objects of domestic life distinguished only by their position in the buildings in which they are found.
32 Session and Paper abstracts | New Rock Art Research in Australia, the Pacific and Southeast Asia
Associated Rock Art Traditions: New Rock Art Marking Practices Found at Rock Art Research Complexes in the Central Australia Desert June Ross in Australia, University of New England, [email protected] New research in central Australia shows that there are a variety of common marking practices associated with the the Pacific and production of rock art throughout the desert. Practices include the production of pecked pits, abraded grooves, Southeast Asia abraded areas, battered edges, drawn lines and random Thursday 4 December 1.30-3.00pm – Doonella Room pecking. This paper discusses the distribution and chronological relationship of each of these practices with Paul S.C. Taçon aspects of the rock art assemblage. Significantly, most Griffith University, [email protected] of these practices are only found in association with rock Sally K. May art. Some practices such as the production of pecked Griffith University pits date to the earliest phase of rock art production and continue to be produced into the recent past while Liam Brady other practices relate only to the most recent rock art University of Western Australia assemblages. Although diverse in form, formal analyses This session will introduce new archaeological rock art and ethnographic evidence support the contention that research within Australia and the wider Pacific and Southeast these practices are likely to have been produced in a ritual Asian region. Papers may include new techniques being used context rather than for material purposes. in the archaeological investigation of rock art, new research projects and/or the presentation of new findings from ongoing rock art projects. Contributors are encouraged to Exploring the relationships between use case studies to address the broader issues faced in the Indigenous Australian communities and archaeological study of rock art today. visitors to the north Australian coastline through painted depictions on rock
Chasing the Tjurrkupa: Daryl Guse Rock Art and Dreaming stories on the Australian National University, [email protected] Canning Stock Route, Western Desert Sally K. May Griffith University Jo McDonald and Peter Veth Australian National University, [email protected] Paul S.C. Taçon Griffith University Distinct painted and engraved art from the Western Desert can be identified as a distinct style graphic across the This paper presents findings from recent archaeological sandy deserts of Western Australia. We are interested fieldwork to record rock paintings near to Waminari Bay in the social dynamics that produce both unique style in Arnhem Land, Australia. Waminari Bay is located provinces as well as shared graphic vocabularies, approximately 90 kilometres north of the township of particularly in the recent past, where Western Desert Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) in northern Australia and sits on the groups can speak for the art and its possible intent. We main coastline opposite Goulburn Island. Its geographic report on the year’s fieldwork results from an ARC Linkage position as a sheltered bay, and its natural environment Project which aims to record rock art and dreaming stories with an abundance of trepang, made it an ideal location for along the Canning Stock Route. Mythological narratives trade and exchange with foreign visitors. Rock paintings incorporating pigment and engraved art provide insights and other evidence located in close proximity to the into how the rock art is used both in interpreting Dreaming shelters provide unique evidence of these relationships stories and tracking these across the landscape. By including the nature of watercraft used by the visitors, tracing mythological sagas across this arid landscape - we weaponry, and buildings erected as part of their visits. explore the way that rock art has been used by the people of the Western Desert to define themselves, their social connections and their Tjurrkupa.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 33 Rock-art conservation and termite Macropod Anatomical Design Elements: management at Kabadul Kula, Dauan, A study of the macropod motif from the Torres Strait Hawkesbury Sandstone
Liam Brady Alandra Tasire University of Western Australia, University of New England, [email protected] [email protected] In the Sydney Basin of NSW Australia, rock art occurs in Andrew Thorn two distinct media in two types of locations: petroglyphs in ARTCARE Australia open locations and pictographs within sandstone shelters and overhangs. There is a large record of sites (over five Ian McNiven thousand) for the region, however, due to the swift loss Monash University of Aboriginal life following contact in 1788, there are few Theo Evans ethnographic or historical studies explaining the reasons for CSIRO Entomology the art or meaning of the motifs. Consequently, research has focused on the art using a coarse-grain quantitative A familiar feature in condition reports for rock-art sites approach, in which importance has focused on the across Australia is the damage caused by mud-daubing quantity of images, or on a fine-grain qualitative approach, insects (e.g. termites, mudwasps). Yet effective strategies where the focus has concentrated on design elements and for dealing with the removal of termite and mudwasp nests the variability of forms. A coarse-grain analysis currently from decorated rock faces has remained largely on the provides the foundation for the application of the theory of periphery of research into rock-art conservation. Early Information Exchange to the interpretation of the art of the attempts at creating methodologies aimed at removing Sydney region. Furthering previous research, this paper nests from painted panels have been coarse-grained and presents a detailed analysis of the macropod images from almost always involved damage to the paintings through the Sydney region to demonstrate what can be interpreted removal of paint. This paper presents the results of a from a motif at the coarse-grain and fine-grain levels. It conservation project – a direct intervention – aimed at the addresses the importance of collecting data at the fine- removal of a large termite nest attached to a decorated grain level for any rock art region if we are to understand rock face at the Kabadul Kula rock-art site on island of the underlying active conventions that operate in any social Dauan in far northeastern Queensland. The nest was first interaction strategy. In conclusion, a fine-grain analysis will observed at the site in the late 1960s where it was only be shown as the way to access the active details that carry just touching the rock face. A slow growth was observed the requirements for Information Exchange. over the next three decades and it was not until 2000 that an intensive period of growth began. Over a four- year period, the nest grew to cover the lower third of one of the two main decorated panels. In attaching itself to New insight into rock art the rock face, the nest obscured a substantial number recording methods of culturally-significant paintings, as well as threatening other images. As rock-art sites continue to be impacted Ines Domingo Sanz with damage caused by mud-daubing insects, this paper Flinders University, [email protected] provides a fine-grained removal methodology, incorporating This paper examines technical developments and a professional rock-art conservator and a termite standardizations for rock art research recording. Rock specialist, for rock-art researchers, heritage managers, and art is a fragile form of heritage under threat worldwide by Indigenous communities to consider when dealing with development and environmental change. Thus rock art issues of termite damage at rock-art sites. recording is essential for the preservation and study of this heritage resource but currently there is little standardization. In this paper the advantages of various techniques are discussed, including digital rock art recording, in relation to the need to avoid physically disturbing rock art and the need to reduce subjectivity in recording. Examples from recent research in Australia and Spain are used to explore these issues.
34 Session and Paper abstracts | Lithic Technology in Focus: Technological and Microscopic Analyses of Lithic Assemblages
sequences and good organic preservation, and use-trace Lithic Technology in analyses on stone tools have contributed to an increasing body of work that shows the contrary is probably true for hunting behaviour during the later part of the Middle Stone Focus: Technological Age. In this contribution I focus on presenting macro and micro use-trace evidence for change and variability in and Microscopic hunting technologies between about 100 000 and 50 000 years ago in South Africa. The results are based on work Analyses of Lithic conducted on samples from Blombos Cave, Sibudu Cave, Klasies River Cave 2 and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter. Assemblages Thursday 4 December 3.30-5.30pm – Coorooibah Technological economics Room and scraper form in the late Pleistocene Chris Clarkson of southern Africa School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected] Alex Mackay School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian Kate Connell National University, [email protected] School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected] This paper explores the relationship between changing blank form and changing tool form through the late Macroscopic technological and microscopic functional Pleistocene in southern African. Scrapers are shown analysis of lithic assemblages are commonly employed to have been prevalent at times when large flakes were techniques for examining past human behaviour in a range common. However, during a cold interval associated of archaeological settings. This session will present new with late OIS4, flake size became heavily constrained, research that explores these methods, either on their own and typical scrapers largely disappeared. Experimental or in combination, to better understand the functional and analysis suggests that wood-working tasks in this interval organisational role of lithic technology in past societies. may have been undertaken using small blades, which One of the session aims is therefore to investigate the became notched as a result of use. Many of these pieces potential of combining multiple forms of analysis (macro appear to have been broken prior to selection for use. The and microscopic) with a view to expanding the information observed relationship between blank form and tool form potential of lithic assemblages. is inconsistent with the prevalent notion that the desire to make certain implements was the primary determinant of flake/blade production systems. Changes in implement The macro- and micro-trace worlds of form appear to have been a response to, rather than a stone tipped hunting technologies: cause of, changes in blank form. The possible causes The Middle Stone Age of South Africa of these changes are considered, with economic factors as a case study highlighted.
Marlize Lombard Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, [email protected] Less than a decade ago it was still generally believed that the people living in South Africa during the Middle Stone Age were unable to hunt effectively. Hunting technologies were perceived as simple, stagnant, or at best slow-changing over a period of about 200 000 years. This perception was mostly based on faunal analyses conducted on material from Klasies River and the comparison of results with Later Stone Age faunal samples. New approaches to faunal analysis, work at newly excavated Middle Stone Age sites with long
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 35 The multiplicity of uses examine whether tool function changes for a population of Australian backed artefacts of scrapers from northern Australia as reduction intensity increases, measured using Kuhn’s (1990) Geometric Index Gail Robertson of Unifacial Reduction (GIUR). Functional analysis was School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian performed on 50 scrapers forming a reduction continuum National University; and School of Social Science, using a combined residue and use-wear approach. The University of Queensland, [email protected] analysis determined how reduction intensity affected tool use in 22 cases. The results have important implications Val Attenbrow for understanding optimality in prehistoric tool use as well Anthropology Unit, Research Branch, Australian Museum as past patterns of implement design, artefact curation, Peter Hiscock tool multifunctionality, transport and discard. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University Australian backed artefacts have been employed by Procurement costs and tool functional archaeologists to demonstrate culture change in many requirements: Determining constraints on studies. We know they appeared in the north Queensland lithic toolstone selection on Espíritu Santo archaeological record in the late Pleistocene, were Island, Baja California Sur intensively produced in southeastern Australia from about 3500 BP to 1500 BP, and had seemingly disappeared Jennifer M. Ferris by the time of British colonization. As there are no Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, ethnographic observations of backed artefacts use Pullman, USA, [email protected] many speculations about their purpose have reflected expectations that prehistoric use of backed artefacts in Understanding the economic decisions behind toolstone Australia would be similar to uses inferred for microliths selection directly links to the variation we see in lithic elsewhere in the world or the ethnographic use of other technological systems. Archaeologists often assume stone artefacts in composite tools. In this paper we present that toolstone selection is simply a matter of geography; results of a new integrated residue and use-wear analysis, however, stone tool users actively sought lithic materials employing both low and high magnification, which studied by evaluating and weighing procurement costs, including large samples of backed artefacts from three excavated acquisition and transport, and tool functional requirements rockshelters in Upper Mangrove Creek in the NSW central based on raw material qualities and task completion. coast. Our results emphasize the multi-functional and The constraints imposed on toolstone selection shaped multi-purpose nature of this category of tool. In addition, the way people made and used stone tools. In an effort a high level of inter-site variation was found in backed to understand the interplay between these constraints, I artefact use, even within this small region. These findings focus on the lithic assemblages from different toolstone remind us that we cannot expect investigations of any types at site J69E on Espíritu Santo Island in Baja California single specimen or site to characterize the nature of this Sur to determine if toolstone selection was predicated on tool’s complex use. source distance and transport costs or tool function and raw material qualities. I incorporate concepts from central place foraging theory to predict toolstone source distances based on characteristics of debitage that are sensitive Scraper reduction continuums and efficient to field processing and source proximity. To determine tool use: A functional analysis of scrapers if tool function constrained toolstone selection, diversity at different stages of reduction measures of tool assemblages from different toolstone types are assessed in conjunction with flake tool edge Kate Connell damage patterns. Results suggest all lithic materials were School of Social Science, University of Queensland, located close to site and transport costs did not play a [email protected] large role in toolstone selection. Rather, the functional Hiscock and Attenbrow (2005) recently presented an demands of tools largely influenced the selection of lithic argument that increasing reduction and resharpening materials. should have important consequences for the efficiency of tools in performing certain tasks as edge characteristics undergo modification. In this paper we examine three of their hypotheses concerning the possible relationship between reduction intensity and stone tool function. We
36 Session and Paper abstracts | Lithic Technology in Focus: Technological and Microscopic Analyses of Lithic Assemblages
When to retouch, when to haft? were used, the way cores were reduced and in the Experimental examinations of tool types of tools produced. Stone assemblages dating to efficiency factoring in manufacturing between c.17,000 BP and c.15,000 BP at Kutikina Cave are compared to those excavated from chronologically and maintenance costs commensurate deposits at Bone Cave to examine regional variability within the southwest system. It is concluded Chris Clarkson that the differences between the Kutikina Cave and Bone School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Cave stone assemblages are likely to be a result of the [email protected] restrictive nature of the ‘telephone box’ style excavations Utilised and retouched stone flakes are found in varying necessitated by the extreme richness of archaeological proportions in Australian archaeological assemblages, deposits in southwest Tasmanian cave sites. The analysis which some artefacts exhibiting signs of hafting and of the Kutikina Cave stone assemblage indicates that the extensive resharpening. Various theories offer explanations archaeological record of southwest Tasmania is highly for patterns in lithic reduction, hafting, curation and discard, variable. including (most commonly) the abundance, proximity and opportunities to acquire replacement raw material, and past tool-users’ attemptes to increase functional efficiency. This paper asks whether differences in tool efficiency A technological approach to the problem occur for unretouched, retouched and hafted artefacts for of measuring lithic pre-processing scraping wood after manufacture and maintenance costs in unretouched flake stone artefact are factored in. The efficiency of scrapers is modelled for assemblages a population of 7 unretouched, 5 retouched and 5 hafted tools each used to scrape hard wood 10,000 times using Ben Marwick stroke lengths of 30cm each. The results suggest that Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, retouching and hafting may not always be the best solution USA, [email protected] to the problem of maintaining a supply of efficient stone Optimal foraging models have increased in popularity as a tools. This might explain why retouching and hafting were robust and versatile source of hypotheses to test on stone uncommon technological practices in certain contexts in artefact assemblages made by human forager groups. the past. One of the most prominent models is the Central Place Model which predicts that as travel and transports costs increase then so should the amount of pre-processing Kutikina Cave lithics: of resources to optimise the delivery of useful material at An examination of temporal and spatial the central place. This has been successfully employed variability in the archaeological system of in studies of prehistoric subsistence, where nut husks, oyster shells and low-yield bones are discarded for the southwest Tasmania journey. The testing of this hypothesis is more challenging for assemblages of unretouched lithics where is it less Jennifer Burch clear about what can be considered low-utility or no-utility La Trobe University and Environmental Resources components. A suite of metric and technological variables Management Australia, [email protected] from two assemblages excavated from rockshelters in It has long been argued that the late Pleistocene NW Thailand are examined to identify the attributes most archaeological records of southwest Tasmanian sites are sensitive to pre-processing. It is concluded that pre- highly patterned and reflect a long-lasting and regionally processing can be identified limited interference from restricted behavioural ‘system’. In a recent analysis of compounding factors, although in this case the difference flaked stone artefacts at Bone Cave, Holdaway (2004) in pre-processing is found to be minor compared to other concluded that there was little evidence for technological dimensions of assemblage variation. or typological change over a period of almost 20,000 years during the late Pleistocene. However, the impact of scale, resolution, and sampling on the behavioural information that can be generated from these assemblages has received little attention. To examine these issues, this project investigated late Pleistocene flaked stone artefacts from Kutikina Cave and compared these with the assemblages from Bone Cave. Results indicate that there were changes over time in the way that raw materials
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 37 the ‘original’ motifs with the ‘new’ arrangements. In this The Archaeology paper we describe the recording process and discuss the archaeological and cultural heritage implications of the of the Recent Past recent resurrection activity on the site. Thursday 4 December 3.30-5.30pm – Doonella Room Ross, A. 2008 Managing meaning at an ancient Aboriginal site in the 21st century: the Gummingurru Aboriginal stone arrangement on the Darling Annie Ross Downs, southern Queensland. Oceania 78: 91-108. University of Queensland, [email protected] Luke Godwin Central Queensland CHM, [email protected] Walking between two paradigms Scott L’Oste-Brown Bettyann Doyle Central Queensland CHM, [email protected] School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Over recent years, cultural heritage activity and associated [email protected] archaeological research have increasingly focused on In this paper I examine Barada people’s dilemma of understanding the recent past, especially of Indigenous ‘walking between two paradigms’ when recording peoples. The need for ‘proof’ of connection to country and documenting their cultural landscapes. Owing to since first European settlement, and the interplay of legislative requirements, Barada are forced to identify with archaeology/CHM with native title agreement negotiations, and embrace Western processes of recording cultural has encouraged this interest in the archaeology of the landscapes (rigid lines marking individual ownership) as post-contact era. As a consequence, much CHM now opposed to their Indigenous concepts of boundaries combines archaeological and anthropological approaches (fluid and identified by Dreaming tracks). Barada Barna to understanding the recent past. In this session we Kabalbara Yetimarla (BBKY) is a Geographical Information investigate case studies and broad theoretical issues System tool used by Barada in Central Queensland. I associated with developing a discourse on the archaeology examine whether the BBKY GIS software differs from of the recent past. generic Western-designed and operated GIS software and whether BBKY meets the needs of its Indigenous users and, if so, who holds control and power over Documenting Gummingurru - an evolving these mapping processes. I demonstrate that although site on the Darling Downs, southern archaeologists and researchers from other disciplines Queensland use GIS for recording landscape boundaries, there are problems in this approach for Barada owing to the fact that Annie Ross it is difficult to digitise narrative and the fact that Indigenous School of NRSM and School of Social Science, University landscapes do not exhibit rigid boundaries. I discuss of Queensland, [email protected] the continuum of control that Barada have in mapping their cultural landscape and argue that BBKY sits at the Sean Ulm intersection between two knowledge systems. Finally, I Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University argue that BBKY as a tool enhances Barada’s control and of Queensland, [email protected] power over their cultural heritage. The Gummingurru Aboriginal stone arrangement site on the Darling Downs was once a secret, sacred men’s initiation site. With the removal of traditional owners to Palm Island in the 1940s and 1950s, much knowledge about the site was lost and it is only now being resurrected (Ross 2008). During 2008 we have been undertaking a detailed recording of the site, mapping every stone. One of the aims of this exercise is to identify cultural motifs from amongst the natural stone and outcrops on the site using a detailed 1960 map as a benchmark. The exercise is made complex by the ongoing work on the site by the traditional custodians, who find buried stones and then ‘lift’ the buried stones onto the surface. This is part of the resurrection activity on the site, but it does tend to confuse
38 Session and Paper abstracts | The Archaeology of the Recent Past
‘they covet not Magnificent Houses’: Documenting Pastoral Landscapes: Spatial politics, material culture and Connecting archaeology, history and missionisation communities
Jane Lydon Steve Brown Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash Culture & Heritage Division, NSW Department of University, [email protected] Environment and Climate Change, [email protected] In 1770, Captain Cook ‘discovered’ Australia’s east coast, and encountered Aboriginal people for the first time. In a Australia has a rich pastoral heritage extending across famous and uncharacteristically romantic diary entry that much of the continent, in parts for over 200 years. has caused much subsequent debate, he mused: ‘The However, Conservation Management Plans prepared Earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with by heritage management agencies for pastoral heritage all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent items are not capturing the full range of past activities Houses, Houshold-stuff, &ca’. One hundred years later, or material traces of the histories of these landscapes. I an engraving appeared in the Illustrated Australian News argue that this is because heritage professionals, including showing the residents of an Aboriginal reserve in the archaeologists, adopt a narrow view of what constitutes colony of Victoria engaged in shopping. Their desire ‘material traces’ in the context of the cultural heritage for European commodities was regarded as ‘evidence management of pastoral landscapes. I am particularly to some extent of the progress of civilization’, and was interested in examining the archaeological expressions of contrasted with the condition of the ‘two specimens the recent or ‘memoried’ past, the visibility of Aboriginal of aboriginal barbarism to be seen squatting in the people in recent history and ephemeral places. foreground, content with a covering of kangaroo skins, and Using the example of Culgoa National Park in New South turning up their nose with scorn at the incomprehensible Wales, material remains evidencing the history of this nature of the wants felt by the rising generation’ (‘Hawkers landscape can be described within a cultural landscape at the Aboriginal Station, Coranderrk’ Illustrated Australian framework. The paper will outline the range of material News, 10/7/1876, p. 107). For whites, the link between traces identified from historical sources, community progress and consumption was self-evident, and the knowledge and archaeological survey. I conclude that the success of the missions was measurable through spatial process of interrogating documentary and other historical order, cultivation, housing and domesticity, personal data is in many cases insufficient to identify the full range of comportment, cleanliness, use of European material material traces occurring within pastoral landscapes. This culture, and other visual and material practices. This paper can be addressed in part when historians write physically- explores the role of spatial politics and material culture in located social and environmental histories and where the process of missionization, and traces the continuing archaeologists adopt a holistic view of what constitutes salience of housing and domesticity to white judgments material traces of history and evidence of human- about Aboriginal people. Focusing on Victorian missions environmental interaction. over the second half of the nineteenth century, I examine a range of material and spatial techniques intended to transform Aboriginal people, and evaluate their effects.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 39 The Kokatha and the Cold War: Land management in the past and today: Indigenous and technological heritage A case study from the Pallinup catchment, at Woomera, South Australia south-western Australia
Andrew Starkey Joe Dortch Kokatha representative Archaeology, University of Western Australia, [email protected] Alice Gorman Archaeology Department, Flinders University, David Guilfoyle [email protected] The Restoring Connections Program, South Coast Natural Resource Management & South-West Catchments In 1947, the Woomera rocket range was established in the Council supposedly “empty” desert north of Port Augusta in South Australia. Over the next 60 years, Woomera was Australia’s Ken Hayward primary Cold War site, developing missiles and launch Bush Heritage Australia vehicles, and participating in US and European military and Jane Balme space programmes. It is still an active launch site. More Archaeology, University of Western Australia recently the Woomera Prohibited Area has been opened to mineral exploration, leading to an increase in cultural Fiona Dyason heritage surveys. Archaeology, University of Western Australia The desert around the Woomera village is the traditional In the Pallinup catchment on the south coast of Western country of the Kokatha. The Woomera Heritage Centre, Australia, Noongar people are connected to the land recently redesigned, separates the history of space through their past and present use of that land. By technology from both Indigenous and pastoral occupation. economic necessity, their immediate ancestors of the In this paper, we examine the intersection of military and 1800s and 1900s continued land use practices pre-dating space technology with Kokatha heritage in the Prohibited European arrival, and so maintained traditional knowledge. Area. We argue that in order to understand its significance, Our three-way collaboration between traditional owners, Woomera must be contextualised as part of early Cold researchers and land managers draws on this knowledge War space enterprises, where launch sites were located and archaeological, palaeo-environmental and historical in colonised lands heavily impacted by the introduction of data to assess past land management and its impact disease, dispossession from country, and development. on the environment. Traditional knowledge and historical Woomera can be regarded as a cultural landscape created sources that document recent settlement patterns and by the establishment of a technological enclave within land use can be compared with archaeological site Indigenous country, with the underlying theme, from 1947 distributions and palaeo-environmental sequences to infer to the present, of nuclear arms development. aspects of pre-European land use. Using the results of several property surveys in the Pallinup catchment, we discuss how far our findings take us in the assessment of past land management and its impacts, and how this information is useful to the project partners.
40 Session and Paper abstracts | The Archaeology of the Recent Past
Ngarrindjeri Mortuary Landscapes in the Application of archaeological techniques Last 500 Years: an Archaeological and to testing oral testimony: Native title Ethnohistoric Perspective on the Cultural implications Meaning of Place on the Lower Murray Luke Godwin River Lakes Central Queensland CHM, [email protected] Roger Luebbers Scott L’Oste-Brown Luebbers & Associates, [email protected] Central Queensland CHM, [email protected] The afterlife is a feature of most belief systems in Aboriginal There is an excellent and wide ranging body of studies Australia and it is a truism that its obtainment is a matter that have explored the application of archaeology to native for both the spirit of the departed and for members of title. These have however, often been largely focused, and the society that are left behind. Ngarrindjeri treatment appropriately so, on providing detailed case studies for of the deceased signifies a struggle to guarantee the use in arguments tendered usually in support of native title safe departure of the spirit and maintain legal and applications that are the often the subject of protracted and social alliances that continue after the loss of a loved at times highly adversarial litigation. one. Elements of this interaction include prolongation of In this paper we will examine various examples where the physical identity by mummification and retention of the use of archaeological techniques may be directed to elements of those remains as markers in the landscape assist in a more limited, but highly focused, fashion. We occupied by the living to show connection. Features of provide a number of case studies where archaeological this ritualised behaviour include the training of morticians, investigations were used to test specific pieces of oral protracted periods of mourning, display of the deceased in testimony. In one, the archaeological investigations elevated platforms and placation of malevolent spirits. provided data that were central to the settlement of an This paper combines field observations, dated agreement that otherwise might have foundered on the archaeological and osteological remains, and ethno- basis of suggestions made about certain landscape historical evidence to show that the late prehistoric features. In others, use of Ground Penetrating Radar and Ngarrindjeri beliefs highlighting significant of country radiocarbon dating directly demonstrated the veracity of continued nearly into the 21st century and has relevance the oral testimony given about various places. While not to current quests for Native title. The emergence of yet used in native title cases these latter examples serve stabile resource exploitation patterns in the form of mound to identify other means in which techniques regularly used building commencing 2400-2800 BP and the development within archaeology can provide an independent means of of resource exchange systems are described as corroborating (or not) other forms of data and testimony manifestations of Ngarrindjeri connections to country that tendered in the course of determining native title cases. are significant influences to contemporary society.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 41 A novice’s foray in spatial modelling: The Uses of an introduction to the uses and (potential) Technology in misuses of technology Cameron Harvey Cultural Heritage Branch, Queensland Environmental Contemporary Protection Agency, [email protected] The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency has Archaeological established a project with the aim of identifying as many historical archaeological places as possible that meet the Practice threshold for entry in the Queensland heritage register. Friday 5 December 8.30-10.30am – Cooroibah Room A number of strategies have been explorers to meet this aim in a climate of limited resources, time pressures and Cameron Harvey ever expanding development around the state. One of Cultural Heritage Branch, Queensland Environmental these strategies was an ambitious attempt to develop a Protection Agency, [email protected] spatial model of high threat areas, also called ‘development Jon Prangnell hotspots’, using the spatial analysis capabilities of ArcGIS. School of Social Science, University of Queensland, This paper introduces the session through a case study on [email protected] highs and lows experienced by the presenter after deciding to adopt a new and unfamiliar technology In recent years modern archaeological practice has embraced a variety of new technologies, particularly in the areas of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The use of GIS continues to develop Entering Another Dimension: with applications ranging from simple map visualisation Applications and Evaluation of for reporting and display purposes through to predictive 3D Scanning in Lithic Analysis modelling for archaeological places and interpretation of archaeological landscapes. Remote sensing and Chris Clarkson archaeological geophysics is also developing through School of Social Science, University of Queensland, ongoing research projects in Indigenous, historical, [email protected] maritime and forensic archaeologies, and also through The appearance of low-cost, portable 3D scanning its use in archaeological consulting projects. Papers in technology heralds a new era of lithic analysis. While many this session should examine, from the perspective of the of the questions we ask of lithic assemblages may remain practitioner and non-practitioner alike, the usefulness and much the same (e.g. similarity/difference across space limitations of new technologies in modern archaeological and time, effects of reduction intensity on size and form, and cultural heritage management contexts. relationships between classes, etc), new technologies enable completely new and more sophisticated ways of addressing these questions. This paper reviews some recent applications of 3D analysis of stone artefacts, and showcases the results and applications of several recently released portable 3D scanners.
42 Session and Paper abstracts | The Uses of Technology in Contemporary Archaeological Practice
Mobile Geographic Information Systems produce predictive models of Aboriginal site features for Large-scale Intensive Archaeological in NSW. It also describes innovative spatial variables Survey of Stone Artefact Scatters in Arid that attempt to capture key landscape characteristics influencing site distribution and also address problems Australia with spatial bias in site recording intensity. The models are then complemented by the application of a survey gap Ben Marwick analysis tool that is used to derive a model reliability layer. Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, The models and gap analysis products are then used to USA, [email protected] produce spatial products describing survey priority and Philip Hughes archaeological regions. It is argued that this collection of Huonbrook Environment and Heritage spatial products provides a powerful tool for interpreting Peter Hiscock the distribution of archaeological features in the landscape Department of Archaeology and Anthropology Australian given current knowledge. The paper concludes that National University cultural heritage management can benefit greatly from spatial analytical techniques, and in particular how they A mobile geographic information system usually consists can be used to explore accumulated impacts and status of three components: (1) a global positioning system assessment in regional scale planning. connected to (2) a handheld computer running (3) GIS software. Mobile GIS has been praised for its capacity to dramatically increase the amount of data collected during survey fieldwork. However it does not always justify the Assessing the ‘Fizz’ in ‘Geophys’ investment in equipment and set-up time. We review the Andrew Sneddon specific conditions when mobile GIS is advantageous for Godden Mackay Logan Heritage Consultants, archaeological survey. We describe the custom mobile GIS [email protected] technology we have designed and implemented for two large-scale archaeological survey projects. Brief results Any viewer of Time Team will know that there comes a point of the surveys are presented to highlight the kinds of in every program when something called ‘geophys’ comes analyses and reporting that mobile GIS has made possible into play. A variety of expensive and technologically impressive or much easier. In our implementations, the main benefit techniques are used to generate plans and sections that of the mobile GIS is substantial time savings in the field are subsequently tested by field archaeology – with often and during post-fieldwork analysis. The main challenge we mixed results. The same technologies are being used more have encountered is getting archaeologists familiar with commonly by heritage consultancies in Australia as a first step GIS and software programming. We describe how we in the assessment of the archaeological potential of sites. This have overcome this and other challenges and outline the paper assesses the value of these techniques in the context broader applicability of our technology in cultural heritage of Australian historical archaeology and by looking at a range management contexts. of site types including an early settler homestead site (1812), a convict kitchen garden from the 1830s, and the site of the former Carlton and United Breweries in inner-city Melbourne. The paper will identify the circumstances where remote Landscape modelling of Aboriginal site sensing has proved to be an efficient means of investigation, features and their application in regional and those circumstances where the taphonomy of the site heritage planning has contributed to results of dubious value.
Mal Ridges NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, [email protected] Despite it being 20 years since the ‘Quantifying the present and predicting the past’ volume, there have been surprisingly few advancements in the application of archaeological predictive modelling. Along with illustrating improvements in techniques of model derivation, this talk argues for a more creative look at way predictive modelling is applied in cultural heritage management. The talk describes the application of generalised additive modelling (GAM), as implemented in the GRASP S-Plus tool, to
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 43 An inductive, predictive model for an The application of GPR and digital archaeological survey in the WA Goldfields scanning to conserve and interpret the Willandra fossil trackway Emlyn Collins Consulting Archaeologist, [email protected] Warren Clark While directing a recent survey of over 400 km2 in an area NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, of the WA goldfields it became apparent that a standard [email protected] model for predicting where sites are likely to be located Leanne Mitchell would be beneficial. Given the large survey area and long NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, duration of the survey an inductive statistical analysis of the [email protected] number and types of sites found in various clearly defined GIS land units, seemed the best model. This is because Cliff Ogleby as the survey progressed and more data was collected on [email protected] the location and site types, the model’s accuracy would Michael Westaway correspondingly improve, thus more precisely informing the Queensland Museum, [email protected] direction of later survey stages. Harvey Johnston The inductive, GIS, statistical approach enabled the model NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, to be updated rapidly, occasionally in real time, as more of [email protected] the project area was surveyed and more sites recorded. The Willandra fossil trackway posed a considerable This speed improved efficiency, since rather than waiting management issue to heritage staff and traditional days or weeks for the most recently updated model it custodians working to conserve the site in the Willandra could be available in minutes. Lakes World Heritage Area. New technologies were The model provided a number of benefits for both crucial to both determining the extent of the site and the archaeologists and client. Firstly it enables the documenting its details in high resolution without having archaeologist to anticipate where and even the type of significant impacts on its clay surface. Ground Penetrating sites that would be found. Secondly the client can be Radar effectively determined the extent of the magnesite informed which areas will take more time to survey and rich clay pavement that had preserved the footprints for which areas were likely to have more sites, aiding forward 20,000 years, establishing that the exposed trackway planning. Finally, should certain high archaeological perhaps represented only 15% of the sites entire surface. potential areas be selected for easily relocatable works, High resolution digital scanning provided a means of such works can be relocated to low potential areas saving documenting the site for future research and management time and money. purposes. It has also provided the data required to replicate the entire surface of the site. The application of these techniques has demonstrated their importance in managing complicated archaeological sites, although it is important to note that such projects do not come cheaply.
44 Session and Paper abstracts | Archaeobotanical Studies in China, Southeast Asia and Australia
macrofossils from Misisil cave, and phytolith analyses and Archaeobotanical use-wear/residue studies here and at several open sites provide an outline picture of Holocene vegetation history and subsistence practices. These combined different lines Studies in China, of approach, together with lithic analyses, provide a fuller picture of Holocene history and subsistence practices than Southeast Asia could be obtained from one line only. and Australia Friday 5 December 8.30-10.30am – Doonella Room Mid-late Holocene inter-regional variability in toxic Macrozamia seed exploitation: Judith Field University of Sydney, [email protected] Climatic variability, changing landscape use or increasing populations? Archaeobotany is an integral part of archaeological studies in Australia and around the world. Macro- and micro- Brit Asmussen botanical remains are routinely recovered from contexts School of Archaeology, Australian National University, ranging from the arid zone to the tropics. These studies [email protected] provide important insights into subsistence strategies and The antiquity of, and explanations for toxic Macrozamia changing resource use through time. As the focus on the seed processing in mid-late Holocene Australia has long origins of agriculture, sedentism and early manipulation been a topic of considerable interest. In contrast to high of plant resources has turned to this area of the world, level models arguing for large-scale ceremonial use of it seems an appropriate time to showcase the range of Macrozamia seeds, recent quantitative, taphonomic and research questions and methodological approaches to ecological re-analysis of well-preserved Macrozamia seed investigating this important facet of the archaeological assemblages from the Central Queensland Highland record. (CQH) region suggested subsistence use by small groups of foragers, and temporal and spatial variability in the exploitation of seeds within the highlands which may be Subsistence and environmental history in related to changing climatic conditions. Was this the case central New Britain, Papua New Guinea: elsewhere in Australia? How does the CQH Macrozamia Combining phytoliths, macrofossils and record compare with that from other regions? This paper use-wear/residue studies presents the re-analysis of Macrozamia seed assemblages from multiple archaeological sites from NSW to explore Carol Lentfer the reasons for temporal and spatial variations in the use School of Social Science, University of Queensland, of toxic Macrozamia seeds in mid-late Holocene Australia: [email protected] climatic variability, changing landscape use or increasing populations? Richard Fullagar Scarp Archaeology, [email protected] Christina Pavlides Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, [email protected] Jim Specht Anthropology, Australian Museum, [email protected] People have occupied the Bismarck Archipelago area of Papua New Guinea for around 40,000 years, but little is yet known about the history of its vegetation and plant food production practices. On the north coast of New Britain, subsistence information is extremely limited at open sites because the highly acidic soils are not conducive to the survival of macrofossils, but phytolith analyses document burning and forest disturbance apparently coinciding with the earliest signs of occupation. In central New Britain
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 45 Use-wear and Residue Analysis of Shifting cultivation in West New Britain? Aboriginal Ethnographic Wooden Spears Rethinking accepted models – Preliminary Comparative Results of a Robin Torrence Work in Progress Division of Anthropology, Australian Museum Sue Nugent The history of agriculture in the lowland regions of School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Melanesia has been poorly researched and so many [email protected] scholars have resorted to ethnography for models of what Although many wooden artefacts have been recovered might have been. As Matthew Spriggs once put it so well, from sites overseas, they rarely survive in the Australian it is very hard for archaeologists to imagine a Melanesian archaeological record. Little research has been undertaken world different from current village life. Recently, William to date into the actual uses to which such wooden Denevan has raised serious criticisms of ethnographically artefacts were put. In my research, ethnographic and inspired models for shifting agriculture as the primary archaeological Aboriginal Australian wooden spears are mode for the tropical forests of Amazonia. His ideas being examined using residue and use-wear analysis to about the role of stone vs metal tools and the amount of determine if they retain traces of their use, for example as energy needed to clear forest provide a useful stimulus for hunting or fighting implements. rethinking models for Melanesia. In a pilot study, spears from Mornington Island were found to have very few microfossils and no animal tissues, indicating they had not been used as hunting or fighting implements. The archaeobotany of Taora, These artefacts had been collected in the mid-Twentieth a mid-Holocene coastal rockshelter, Century when the Lardil people were under missionary Sandaun Province, PNG influence. Spears collected in an earlier period were next examined: seven from Bentinck Island, home to the Kaiadilt Andrew Fairbairn people, collected in 1903 by Dr Walter E Roth. Microscopic School of Social Science, University of Queensland, examination of these artefacts revealed the presence of [email protected] mineral material and many microfossils. Pennaceous feather Sue O’Connor barbule fragments were observed on three spears, but Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian only one had a scrap of possible smooth muscle tissue. National University, [email protected] Hemastix™ presumptive colourimetric tests for the presence of blood were negative for the entire sample. The evidence Tony Barham for use of the Bentinck Island spears in hunting or fighting School of Anthropology and Archaeology, Australian was not conclusive, but the results suggest that, at some National University stage, they were stored upright with their points in the soil, a Ken Aplin common practice by Aborigines. Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Plant macrofossil analysis of a 6.3-6.5 cal BP occupation deposit at Taora Rockshelter, PNG demonstrates the exploitation of highly ranked, oil rich fruits and nuts from coastal littoral and rainforest tree species. Archaebotanical data was derived from highly fragmented charred plant remains, identified through high-powered microscopy and securely tied to the site chronology through stratigraphical analysis and direct AMS dating. The project demonstrates the potential analytical value of an initially unpromising, often overlooked yet commonly preserved data source, made available by implementation of a simple field method. Yet the project also raises some difficult questions regarding sample size and the limits of archaeobotanical inference in lowland tropical contexts.
46 Session and Paper abstracts | Archaeobotanical Studies in China, Southeast Asia and Australia
Sago (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) the presence of starch and the possible range of plants in New Guinea: An appraisal of the represented in these samples. Preliminary results have archaeobotanical and palaeoecological shown good preservation of starch and in some cases identification to genus and specie have been possible. evidence This avenue of archaeobotanical research has good potential for investigating questions of sedentism and Matthew Prebble agriculture in Holocene contexts from China. Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asian and Pacific, Australian National University Simon Haberle Resource Management of Asia and the Pacific, College of Grinding stone use in early Holocene Asian and Pacific, Australian National University China: Exploitation of acorn and rice in the Lower Yangzi River, China Geoff Hope Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Judith Field Asian and Pacific, Australian National University Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis The true sago palm Metroxylon sagu Rottb. has been and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, described as one the oldest foods of modern humans, University of Sydney, [email protected] but little evidence is available to support this claim. In Li Liu this presentation we review the archaeobotanical and Archaeology Program, La Trobe University palaeoecological evidence for the antiquity of sago production in New Guinea. We focus on evidence for Alison Weisskopf sago translocation from its lowland freshwater habit Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK to areas outside its ecological range as the primary John Webb means for differentiating wild harvest from arboriculture. Department of Environmental Geoscience, La Trobe Palynological evidence from two upland sites (Kutubu in University Southern Highlands Province and Yeni, Western Highlands Province) and a site from Manus (Lahakai) suggests that Leping Jiang, Haiming Wang, Xingcan Chen translocation has occurred only within the late Holocene. Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Pollen and phytolith records from a number of lowland Archaeology, China; and Institute of Archaeology, Chinese (<800 m) sites indicate that swamp forests (e.g. Wanum Academy of Social Sciences, China. in Morobe Province, Terabut, East Sepik Province and Recent excavations at Shangshan and Xiaohuangshan (c. Touku, Oro Province may have been modified for sago 10,000-8000 cal. BP) in southern China have revealed the arboriculture. earliest evidence for the emergence of sedentary villages in the Lower Yangzi River region. Both sites are near rivers, flood plains and mountains, where food resources were Archaeobotanical evidence of dietary diverse and easily accessible. Abundant grinding stones have been recovered from both locations. Eight tools indicators from residues on teeth of mid were analyzed for starch, phytolith and mineral analyses. Holocene fauna from the site of Kangiia, The mineral analysis confirms that these are residues central China from tool use. The starch residues show that a number of plants were processed including acorns, tubers, Job’s Sheahan Bestel tears and possibly water caltrop, among others. Phytolith School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash densities for rice leaves and stems are high, but are low for University; and Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University rice husks, and no rice starch is present. These grinding Li Liu stones were used to process various starch-rich plants School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash for food and fibre additives for making fibre-tempered University pottery vessels, but not normally used to dehusk rice. The intensive exploitation of plants rich in starch and suitable The mid Holocene deposits from Kangjia, in central China for long term storage, particularly acorns, allowed and has yielded the faunal remains of a range of animals encouraged the development of a sedentary lifestyle. associated with sedentism occupation. A range of animals are represented here including pig, goat, sheep and buffalo. The aim of this pilot study, was to examine the calculus from the teeth of these animals to investigate
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 47 This session presents current research and heritage Current Issues management issues involving the rock art and other archaeological features of Murujuga, including: in Archaeology: • what is so important about Murujuga; • the potential antiquity and significance of the rock art; Murujuga (the Burrup • understanding the cultural and natural formation Peninsula) processes of the stone features; • the conflict between industry and heritage Friday 5 December 11.00am-12.30pm – Coorooibah Room • and the tangled web of native title and what affect that has on the cultural heritage management of the place. Ken Mulvaney University of New England, [email protected] Sue Smalldon The Antiquity of Murujuga Rock Art Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dampier, WA, [email protected] Ken Mulvaney University of New England, [email protected] One of the significant factors about Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) is the quantity and diversity of archaeology The relatively stable rugged rock-pile landscape of found there, especially rock art and stone features. It is Murujuga, geologists tell us, is some 2.5million years often touted as having the greatest concentration of rock old. These dark orange to brown rock surfaces provide art in one place in the world, yet industry interests have superb, long lasting canvases on which Aboriginal people placed pressure on the Peninsula since the 1960’s. produced a diverse range of petroglyphs. We know from other archaeological and paleoenvironmental data that Major industry includes a gas processing plant; iron ore significant changes in the ecological conditions associated port facilities; a fertiliser plant; a government managed with the LGM and subsequent rising sea levels culminating port facility and associated marine and construction with the creation of the area as islands some 9-6,000 industries. Currently construction of a second gas years ago. Contained in the many hundreds of thousands processing plant is underway and the State Government of images are subjects that clearly reflect these changing is promoting additional industry to be established in the ecological and biodiversity patterns. Spanning some Archipelago. Traditional Owners seek to prevent any further 25-30,000yrs, the petroglyphs display a complexity of development. subjects and styles especially evident in the form of human The National Trust of Australia (WA) and the Hon. Robin representation. The earliest are variations on the human Chapple MLC nominated the Burrup Peninsula to the face, and small stylised human forms with disarticulated National Trust Endangered Places List in 2002. In 2003 heads. Elaborate anthropomorphs with intricate body the World Monuments Fund added it to its list of Most designs that are mirrored in the complexity of design in the Endangered Places. The first time an Australian place geometric art. Later design elements include items and had been included. In 2004, the National Trust, the compositions that likely depict ritual associations. Of the Native Title Claimants and Robert Bednarik, President of fauna depictions, there is a shift from terrestrial to marine the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations, subjects, images of kangaroo and emu that give way to nominated the Dampier Archipelago to the National fish, turtle, crustacean and other marine fauna. Hunting Heritage list, under the new Commonwealth heritage scenes of boomerang and spear are replaced by spear legislation. Finally, on the 3rd of July 2007, the Dampier and nets. Archipelago in Western Australia, which includes Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula), was included on the National Heritage List under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
48 Session and Paper abstracts | Current Issues in Archaeology: Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula)
Dividing up heritage: The Dampier Archipelago and the Burrup Maintaining archaeological integrity Peninsula: The Values of Indigenous in the Dampier Archipelago Heritage, a Community Organisation View
Sarah Lewis and Donald Lantzke Robin Chapple Australian Interaction Consultants Friends of Australian Rock Art Inc. (FARA), [email protected] Industrial development has been steadily occurring in the Dampier Archipelago since the 1960s. The majority of this See web sites: industrial development has been restricted to the Burrup http://www.burrup.org.au/ Peninsula/Murujuga, but with ongoing expanding industry, http://www.standupfortheburrup.com/ other islands in the Dampier Archipelago are now being Friends of Australian Rock Art Inc (FARA) was established viewed for development. West Intercourse Island has been on 23 November 2006. It is a community group of like an area of interest for the development of a port facility for minded people who value Indigenous heritage. It has the over ten years with the introduction of the Maitland Heavy objective of raising ‘public awareness in Australia and Industrial Estate and now the Burrup Maitland Industrial internationally of the significance of Australian Aboriginal Estates Agreement. and Torres Strait Islander heritage as manifest in rock An archaeological survey conducted on the northern art and in other material of cultural significance’. We see portion of West Intercourse Island indicates that this area the potential or rock art to reveal complex associations has one of the highest site densities surveyed to date in between different cultural elements and yield insights into the Dampier Archipelago. The area has been registered the relationships between sacred and secular aspects of under National Heritage Listing and the archaeological life over a huge time span. results complement the island’s nomination. The The association between different cultural elements archaeological record on West Intercourse Island is and the natural environment means that the Dampier intact and currently undisturbed by industry, tourism and Archipelago and Burrup Peninsula forms a unique pastoralism. Instead of dividing up individual portions for and effectively continuous cultural landscape. The industrial/commercial development, which has occurred archaeological evidence documents the adaptation of on the Burrup Peninsula, the entire West Intercourse Island Aboriginal people to this changing environment. There should remain undisturbed. West Intercourse Island should are hundreds of thousands of petroglyphs in the Dampier remain intact as it is a complete archaeological record of Archipelago, only a fraction of which have been recorded, Aboriginal occupation in the Dampier Archipelago. but the total number has been estimated at a million (McDonald, J., 2005). Some complexes (sites) contain tens of thousands of images. Yet as Bird and Hallam reveal, the Western Australian Government’s management of Aboriginal heritage in the Dampier Archipelago and Burrup Peninsula is locked in crisis mode as it responds, ad hoc, to individual applications for the destruction of Aboriginal sites under the Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972- 1980). This paper introduces FARA and talks about how we value Murujuga (Burrup) rock art and what we are doing to protect it.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 49 The Significance of Murujuga to Traditional Industry and Heritage can Co-exist, just Owners and Traditional Owners Views on not on the Same Land: The Story of the Protection of Our Heritage Cultural Heritage Protection on Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) Wilfred Hicks Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo Native Title Claimant group, PO Box Sue Smalldon 268, Roebourne, WA, 6718 Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dampier, WA, Robyne Churnside [email protected] Member of the Ngarluma Native Title Holder group, c-/ This paper summarises the past and current cultural Ngarluma Resource Centre, Roeburne, WA, 6718 heritage protection regimes over Murujuga and the These two speakers will talk about the significance of conflict between industry and heritage on the peninsula. Murujuga to their groups and about the difficulties they It examines the Native Title agreement, ‘The Burrup have had regarding seeking protection for the rock art. and Maitland Industrial Estate Agreement’ (the BMIE Agreement) and the affect that has on the cultural heritage management of the place. It also examines the National Heritage Listing in which the Commonwealth government Falsification of (‘pre’)history at Dampier decided to exclude a portion of the area from protection so that industry could proceed there. It will summarise Robert G. Bednarik the issues raised in this session, hopefully inspiring more [email protected] research and hopefully providing some insight so that See web site: other highly significant archaeological precincts are better http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/dampier/web/index.html managed and protected in the future. While falsification of propositions is rightly the linchpin of science, the falsification of history, History and pre-History is quite a different matter. As a practice of misinformation it occurs frequently. For instance the pre-History of the cultural precinct of the Dampier Archipelago, particularly the main island, Murujuga, has been subjected to a good deal of falsification. This includes particularly its Indigenous (‘pre’)history, but also that of its study, or of information concerning its relevance to the country’s economy, its protection and preservation, its size, or the size of the part of the monument that has been destroyed in the course of industrial development. Even aspects of Murujuga’s geography have been distorted. Indeed, the amount of misinformation about the Murujuga cultural precinct appears to exceed the amount of correct and valid information publicly available. This presentation will examine these numerous factors and attempt an analysis of the underlying reasons.
50 Session and Paper abstracts | The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management
The Dirt on Sugarloaf: The AACAI Session: Findings of the Cultural Heritage Consulting, Research Assessment for the Sugarloaf Pipeline Andrew Costello, Robyn Jenkins, Joseph Brooke, Vanessa Edmonds and Jeff Hill and Heritage Sinclair Knight Merz, [email protected] Since late 2007, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) archaeologists Management have conducted a large scale archaeological assessment, Session 1 Friday 5 December 1.30-3.00pm – in order to prepare a cultural heritage management plan for Cooroibah Room the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project, Victoria. A significant amount of assessment has been undertaken along the activity area Oona Nicholson including large-scale survey and several different types of ERM, [email protected] sub-surface testing and salvage, including manually dug test Oliver Brown pits and bore holes, and mechanical excavation. The linear Total Earth Care Pty Ltd, [email protected] nature of the pipeline alignment meant that a large number of This session is open to anyone who works in or with the landforms were assessed. From this assessment, a total of consulting industry. It is focused on recent and current 62 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Places were recorded along research arising from consulting projects, current heritage the 70km pipeline easement from the initial survey and early management practice, the impact of new legislation and is excavation phases. an opportunity to share the results of consulting work.
Adelaide Region Mound Sites – Cultural heritage of the emerging view from consultancy Queensland’s stock routes research
Noelene Cole Neale Draper, David Mott and Tom Gara [email protected] ACHM, [email protected] Queensland’s stock routes network covers an area of When European colonisation of South Australia commenced nearly 3 million hectares and a wide range of infrastructure. in 1836, Kaurna settlements on the Adelaide plains near The network has evolved over some 160 years and coastal streams and wetlands featured numerous large, continues to change. In a recent consulting project I semi-permanent habitation sites. Through the accumulation studied cultural heritage values associated with this vast of occupation debris and the incorporation of burials, these stock routes network. The study indicated the remarkable sites became distinctive, artificial mounds on the landscape. extent, richness and multi-layered nature of stock routes Rapid expansion of European settlement and accompanying heritage (both tangible and intangible) which has been landscape changes progressively displaced traditional Kaurna formed by the dual involvement of Indigenous and non- settlement and subsistence practices, although some of these Indigenous peoples in the history of Queensland and the locations on the fringes of the growing city of Adelaide continued pastoral industry. This paper outlines some of the aims in use as Aboriginal fringe camps well into the Twentieth century. and conclusions of this research, and its relevance to the Through a combination of urban and agricultural development practice of cultural heritage management in Queensland. which destroyed many of these sites and hid other sites from view, the existence of mound sites faded from view for many years. Newspaper reports of burials in ashy mounds appeared occasionally, and Museum researchers including Tindale visited mound sites. However, the mound sites were only the subject of brief field notes, and their significance as spatially-concentrated archaeological records of a sophisticated and settled hunter- gather society was not recognised. Over the last 20 years, the cumulative results of consultancy research – archaeological, historical and ethnographic - are at last beginning to provide some understanding of these sites, as well as the identification and protection of remaining mound sites on the margins of the expanding city.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 51 A Bus Driver’s Holiday: Some observations in collaboration with our Aboriginal communities, and will of cultural heritage management in Turkey highlight some of the challenges that have been met by RTCA’s Aboriginal Relations team, Aboriginal communities, Luke Godwin site personnel, and external cultural heritage professionals Central Queensland Cultural Heritage Management, engaged in this new coal industry cultural heritage [email protected] management paradigm. Examination of a number of monumental sites in Turkey during 2001 and 2008 has led to observations regarding the management of such places, and identified some Under Regulation – Victoria’s new features that seem to have implications for management Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, why you of cultural places in Australia. In this paper I will briefly should be working in Victoria, and the consider a number of the features of such sites. These allure of regulation include issues of adaptive re-use, general presentation and visitor behaviour, private sponsorship of management Harry Webber and Jamin Moon programs, the management of risk, and appropriation Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, [email protected] of cultural sites. Examples include sites in Istanbul, Cappadoccia, and the southern coast of Turkey. The Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 commenced operation on 28 May 2007 and brings the management of Aboriginal cultural heritage to the forefront of the development planning process in Victoria. A new regulated system has The Rio Tinto Coal Australia Cultural been born. For the development process in Victoria, this Heritage Management Process: system provides reasonable management outcomes for New Directions in Cultural Heritage Aboriginal cultural heritage whilst also giving developers Management in the Coal Mining Industry certainty. Simply put, decisions about the management of Aboriginal cultural heritage must now happen upfront, David Cameron, Joel Deacon and Elspeth Mackenzie before the development approvals process has been Rio Tinto Coal Australia, [email protected] completed. Luke Godwin and Scott L’Oste-Brown Much of this system mirrors how we thought the heritage Central Queensland Cultural Heritage Management assessment and management process already worked, but it legislates this process, and adds an “approvals In 2005 Rio Tinto Coal Australia (RTCA) introduced a process” together with the assessment to provide an new Aboriginal cultural heritage management process for holistic, all in one package. Being a set of rules that its coal mining operations and projects in Queensland everyone must follow, the legislation also effectively sets and New South Wales. The RTCA Cultural Heritage a level playing field for those working in the consulting Management System (CHMS) focuses on building industry in Victoria. On these issues alone, the Victorian long-term sustainable relationships with our Aboriginal system now stands as the best Aboriginal heritage communities to enable them to actively and meaningfully legislation operating in the country. manage all aspects of cultural heritage management activities associated with RTCA’s leases and lands. The The legislation has always been strongly supported by RTCA CHMS represents a new direction in Aboriginal the development industry because of the certainty it cultural heritage management within the coal mining provides, but it would seem this legislation is also having industry moving beyond mere base statutory compliance some unintended benefits for archaeology in Victoria. The to a best practice collaborative approach that formally role of archaeology in development assessments (at least recognises our Aboriginal communities as the rightful in relation to Aboriginal cultural heritage) is now clearer owners and managers of their cultural heritage. than it has ever been, with the legislative requirement that Implementation of the new process has been driven by archaeological assessments be undertaken in accordance RTCA working in direct partnership with our Aboriginal with “proper archaeological practice”. This has in turn communities and through the provision of significant reinvigorated consulting and government archaeologists to resources and logistical support to enable them to ask what proper archaeological practice is. develop their internal administrative capacities, heritage Could it be that consulting archaeology in Victoria actually management skills and business systems. This paper has the legislative backing to do archaeology properly? presents an overview of the guiding ethos driving this change and how the RTCA CHMS operates, how the ethos and process has been embraced by and evolved
52 Session and Paper abstracts | The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management
Session 2 Friday 5 December 3.30-5.30pm – Recent surveys in the Pilbara region of north western Cooroibah Room Australia highlighted difficulties in the identification of anthropogenic flaked stones. The study area is rich in silicious rock and subject to a range of seasonal and Background lithic distribution: aseasonal processes which regularly induce percussive and thermal fracture. The result is a ground surface littered Uninspiring, uninspected and unloved with rocks which effectively mimic flaked stone artefacts. The potential for over-estimates of artefact densities in Colin Pardoe the area is thus considerable. In this paper we describe Colin Pardoe Bio-Anthropology & Archaeology, several of the processes responsible for production of [email protected] these mimics, and the characteristics which allow them to Legislation, cultural heritage management, and much be distinguished from anthropogenically modified rocks. archaeological research in Australia remains focused on That some ambiguity persists in spite of these distinctions the site or the object as the basic descriptive and analytical underlines the need for close attention to detail and for the construct. Although ideas stemming from Processual use of explicit criteria in the identification of artefacts. Archaeology threw up challenges to the primacy of the site in the late 1970s and 1980s, widespread use of the term in legislation has made alternative approaches problematic. In this paper, I consider some of the practical problems of a Musings from the Field: largely undefined site focus and some of the unanticipated Reassessing Lithics in the West consequences that result from this including: Linda E. Villiers • the requirement, by some regulatory authorities, to Australian Interaction Consultants, [email protected] determine the precise extent of a site (possibly requiring Having spent the last few years conducting surveys in expensive and potentially unnecessary test excavation); varied terrains across Western Australia, it has become • biases to the common data base (state site registers) apparent that current technological approaches to lithic that result in objects of the background distribution being assemblages in Australia have more than a few rough registered and equated with ‘sites’ of higher density and edges to them; work done 30 or more years ago has number; and never been reassessed in light of later findings; and ancient orthodoxies on the dating and nature of assemblages • obscuring patterns of the nature and distribution of people continue to be accepted without question. across the land. Little attempt has been made by archaeologists to I explore the value of consistent measurement and systematise or update our knowledge base with documentation of density of material in a way that allows us information contained in the vast amount of reports to describe the background lithic distribution on a regional generated by heritage consulting over the last decade basis. Characterising the background lithic distribution or two. This represents an invaluable database which allows the archaeologist to separate out the evidence of perhaps assumes more significance than it warrants, given ubiquitous occupation (itself of some value) and to analyse the decline in research emanating from universities, as site characteristics more accurately. This relatively simple their Archaeology Departments struggle to deal with the task would produce results that are of greater value to realities of economic rationalism. The spotlight has swung Aboriginal people for both common understanding and to consultants as they are the ones bringing home the heritage assessment; to archaeologists interpreting the information now. There is an ever increasing pool of data archaeological record; and to regulatory bodies assessing which could be used to re-evaluate our understandings the heritage evidence. of lithic technologies used in the West, cast light on some long-lived dating problems and refine our conceptions of what people were actually doing in various parts of the Issues concerning the identification state. Examples from recent surveys are used to illustrate of flaked stone artefacts in a material-rich some thoughts and information gleaned from basic context analyses of Isolated Artefact plots are also mined for their information. O. Macgregor, A. Mackay, P.J. Hughes, and M.E. Sullivan The Australian National University, [email protected]
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 53 ‘After the Land Hardened’: Brimbank Park: Aboriginal Prehistoric Settlement Patterns Recent Discoveries in the Keilor Terraces at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western of the Maribyrnong River Australia Shaun Canning, Darren Griffin, Vanessa Flynn and Jaclyn Michael Slack Ward Scarp Archaeology, [email protected] ACHM, [email protected] Richard Fullagar ACHM Vic have recently conducted a series of extensive Scarp Archaeology excavations as a component of a Voluntary Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) for City West Water. Harold Ashburton and R.J. McKay The excavations resulted in the discovery of a small Puutu Kunti Kurruma and Pinikura artefact assemblage spanning the Holocene-Pleistocene This paper describes the results of recent surveys and transition, a well defined Pleistocene hearth feature, numerous excavations on the Rio Tinto Brockman 4 and a small suite of faunal remains. The small artefact tenement, near to Tom Price, Western Australia. A large assemblage shows considerable variation through time, survey sample including open scatters, rock shelters and both in raw material type and discard rates. Changes in isolated artefacts has allowed us to complete a detailed discard rates through time at Keilor have been observed study of intra site variability and landscape use in the previously, and this excavation adds another dimension region, with initial occupation dating back more than to this observable trend. Importantly, the radiocarbon 22,000 years and continuing today. Guruma country at determinations were made from large samples of charcoal Brockman is reconstructed on two levels: first as a foraging in direct association with the hearth feature, whereas landscape of patches and habitats, placed within an the overwhelming majority of previous dates from the overall framework of behavioural ecology; and second as immediate region have been from geomorphic associations a landscape of stories, songs and meaning that link the or luminescence dating of sediment. The dates obtained physical remains of the past with peoples’ lives today. from the hearth suggest that the occupation of the Keilor Terraces are not as old as previously stated from the geomorphic dating. In one of the first major excavations of its type within the Keilor Terraces under the new Victorian The Impact of the Aboriginal Heritage Act Aboriginal Heritage Act, the results of the project fully justify 2006 on Consulting Projects: the client electing to complete a CHMP on a voluntary a Case Study basis.
Oona Nicolson The region has been subject to only a few archaeological ERM Australia, [email protected] assessments and those conducted have been almost exclusively limited to field survey. The results of the cultural Thomas Richards heritage assessment for the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project Aboriginal Affairs Victoria have the potential to contribute to the understanding of the The introduction of the Aboriginal Heritage Act has had an archaeology within this area of Victoria. impact on the way in which heritage consultants conduct their work in regard to development projects. Common practices for investigating heritage and managing sites have changed since the Act was introduced in May 2007. This paper presents a case study comparing the archaeological investigations carried out pre and post introduction of the Act on land to be developed in southern metropolitan Melbourne. The methodologies used are compared in relation to the final outcomes regarding the archaeological site interpretations. Due to the strength of the Act the second stage of the site investigations was able to be conducted in more detail using better archaeological practice. Pleistocene and Holocene date sequences have been obtained and the understanding of the archaeological site is now quite different from the results that were gained from large scale monitoring of part of the site prior to the introduction of the Act.
54 Session and Paper abstracts | The AACAI Session: Consulting, Research and Heritage Management
GIS Applications in Consulting: Archaeological sensitivity and the A case study at Hattah-Kulkyne National distribution of archaeological sites in the Park, Northwest Victoria Macquarie Marshes, NSW
Robyn Jenkins, Joseph Brooke, Andrew Costello, Vanessa Jamie Reeves Edmonds, Jeff Hill, Chris Kaskadanis and Siobhan Biosis Research, [email protected] Paterson Predictive modelling is a term frequently used in Australian Sinclair Knight Merz, [email protected] archaeological cultural heritage management. There are The tight timeframes involved in archaeological consulting many ways to build predictive models and GIS presents projects have resulted in the increased application of archaeologists with a powerful option for this purpose. This new technologies, particularly GIS. In the development of paper presents the development of a predictive model of cultural heritage management plans (CHMPs), GIS has archaeological site distribution in the Macquarie Marshes, been used as an aid that can be applied to both fieldwork central NSW, for the NSW Department of Environment and and reporting. Existing data, such as register site cards, Climate Change. In particular the model used available infrastructure, geological and geographic landscapes and landscape data sets (soil, vegetation, floods, topography) proposed works can be overlayed onto aerial photography and known archaeological site records to characterise or topographic maps to assist in initial predictive modelling and then map the predicted distribution of archaeological for locating archaeological places. This data can also sites at a very large scale, expressed as archaeological be inputted into differential GPS for field use, effectively sensitivity areas. By using a diverse range of data sets, enabling existing sites to be relocated and the extents and and assigning each a unique archaeological sensitivity information about new sites to be mapped. In addition value, the issue of survey coverage was addressed GIS technology aids the reporting process, by providing to some degree. The data was analysed using the accurate site plans for site cards and providing visual MapInfo GIS, and simple procedures were employed to information to be added to the report. characterise the archaeological values of different areas. The basic approach and sensitivity model illustrates A case study which highlights some of the benefits of this the accessibility, value and utility of GIS in archaeology, technology was an extensive survey conducted within presenting a conservative model of landscapes classified Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, Northwest Victoria. This by archaeological value for use in heritage management. project involved a combination of relocating existing sites and recording new Aboriginal and Historic Places as part of the Living Murray Project. GIS data was applied in a variety of ways as part of the pre-planning for fieldwork, the site survey and the final CHMP.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 55 have led to inequalities in wealth and control and acted as a Beyond Borders catalyst for fort building. There is also evidence to suggest that the regional trade in slavery and associated raiding and warfare may have played a role in promoting fort building, and Boundaries: especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. This paper explores the causes and consequences of the construction and Research Projects occupation of fortified structures in Timor Leste. It highlights considerable variation in the structural features of walled Beyond Sahul compounds and offers alternate readings on the dynamics of fort building over time. Session 1 Saturday 6 December 8.30-10.30am – Cooroibah Room Phil Habgood Vanuatu Archaeology: An update on School of Social Science, University of Queensland and Lapita pots and burials, giant tortoises Converge Heritage + Community, [email protected] and other matters Michelle Langley Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford School of Social Science, University of Queensland, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian [email protected] National University, [email protected] Australian Archaeologists continue to undertake research and The ARC-funded project on ‘Northern Vanuatu as a Pacific fieldwork beyond Sahul, in the Pacific, Asia, Africa, Europe Crossroads’ ended in 2008 and the next phase of Vanuatu and the Middle East. Much of this research is providing archaeological research 2008-2012 has recently commenced, also ground-breaking data for broader archaeological issues ARC-funded and involving a multidisciplinary and multinational team relating to the development of peoples, material culture and of over 40 researchers. Results from the previous project and from society. This session will provide an opportunity for these the 2008 field season of the new one are discussed, including the researchers to discuss their research projects and present surprising discovery that giant horned land tortoises were roaming their results. the archipelago when people first arrived there some 3000 or so years ago, and formed a significant food resource for hungry long- distance canoe travellers. Prehistoric Forts and Walled Settlements in Timor Leste Toba and Beyond: Preliminary results Sue O’Connor, Sally Brockwell and Andrew McWilliam of recent excavations at Toba ash sites, Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, College of Asia rockshelters and limestone caves in the and the Pacific, Australian National University, [email protected] Kurnool and Middle Son Districts, India The remains of fortified walled structures abound in remote Chris Clarkson and Tam Smith hilltop locations in the contemporary landscape of Timor School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Leste. While few have so far been mapped, dated or [email protected] otherwise investigated, radiocarbon dating on marine shell Preliminary results are reported for archaeological research conducted and charcoal, and OSL dating of pottery from test pits within in two river valleys in India: the Jerreru River Valley in the Kurnool district the walls of a few such structures suggest that they began of Andhra Pradesh in southern India, and the Son River Valley of Uttar to be constructed about 1300 AD (Lape 2006; Lape and Pradesh in the north. The paper will focus on three main aspects of late Chao 2008). These results match well with the mainland trade Pleistocene human evolution in South Asia: 1. the impact of the Toba ceramics recorded within them. Oral accounts indicate that super-eruption on local climate, vegetation and human presence in the walled villages continued to be constructed and used up until area, 2. the peopling of South Asia by anatomically modern humans and the middle of the twentieth century. Lape (2006) and Lape the nature of their archaeological signature, and 3: the timing and origins and Chao (2008) link the emergence of fortified settlements of the first microlithic technologies in the region. The two sampled regions in Timor Leste post 1000 AD with a period of rapid climate provide an opportunity to compare long sweeps of time in very different change associated with ENSO variation leading to resource geographic zones - both of which contain vast lithic assemblages and scarcity and inter-group conflict. However historical accounts rich Toba ash deposits. We also report on our most recent excavations indicate that the trade in sandalwood from the island, in in the Billasurgam Cave complex, first excavated by Foote in the late exchange for value goods such as iron and ceramics, may 1800s.
56 Session and Paper abstracts | Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Research Projects Beyond Sahul
The Late Pleistocene Peopling of East environmental relationship of painting sites of northwest Asia and Associated Climate-Environment Yunnan, near Jinsha Jiang (Yangtze Kiang) River, already History: Preliminary results of a new field surveyed and initially recorded. Results from 2008 field work will be summarised, with a focus on rock art and an project in Yunnan Province, SW China analysis of recently excavated material. Paul S.C. Taçon School of Arts, Griffith University, [email protected] Ji Xueping The largest Bronze Age cemeteries Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, China in Cyprus
Darren Curnoe David Frankel University of New South Wales Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University, [email protected] Yang Decong Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, China The Bronze Age burial grounds beside the small village of Deneia in central Cyprus extend over several square Andy Herries kilometres. Generations of villagers have opened the University of New South Wales underground chamber tombs and removed thousands of Li Gang artefacts, while large areas have been destroyed by recent Cultural Relics Administration Institute, Diqing Tibethan housing and agricultural development. Although some Autonomous Prefecture small-scale attempts had been made to salvage antiquities Scott Mooney and to clear tombs, the full extent of the cemeteries University of New South Wales had never been documented and comparatively little was known of this site, despite its size and importance. Maxime Aubert Research by the Australian Cyprus Expedition in 2003 Australian National University and 2004 was designed to address the linked issues Sally May of exploiting the archaeological potential of this much Griffith University damaged site and providing the Cypriot Department of Antiquities with a basis for future management. This This Chinese-Australian collaborative project aims to presentation will discuss approaches to field survey, (1) establish the contribution made by late Pleistocene sampling of tombs and processing and publishing large humans in China to the peopling of East Asia and bodies of data, together with a discussion of some of Australasia, (2) assess the role played by climate and the implications of the research for understanding the environmental change in this evolutionary episode, and (3) history of the site and its changing place during the major provide a deep-time/evolutionary context for understanding transformations in Cypriot society during the second contemporary environmental concerns in our region. This millennium BCE. is being achieved by studying the morphology of late Pleistocene humans from Yunnan Province, re-evaluating and synthesising archaeological evidence for early modern human behaviour, constructing a chronological framework Politiko Kokkinorotsos: for modern human evolution in Yunnan and reconstructing A Chalcolithic hunting station in Cyprus a late Pleistocene climate-environment history for the Jennifer Webb region. Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University, These aims are being addressed through [email protected] palaeoanthropological, archaeological, sedimentological Excavations in 2007 by the Australian Cyprus Expedition at Politiko and rock art studies and four main site-based sub- Kokkinorotsos in central Cyprus, directed by D. Frankel and J.M. projects. The palaeoanthropology involves the dating Webb, were designed to contribute to a better understanding of and new description of fossil human remains from the regional variation and the absolute and relative chronology of the Dahe, Mengzi and Longtanshan sites. The archaeology island during the first half of the third millennium BCE. consists of an analysis of excavated material from Dahe, Mengzi and Longtanshan and further fieldwork at Mengzi. The site appears to have been of limited extent with relatively Sediment analysis consists of describing the nature of the ephemeral architecture and no burial facilities. With the exception charcoal, pollen and magnetic mineralogy of sediment from of several oven pits and hearths and two large circular pits, no Dahe, Mengzi and Longtanshan. Rock art studies focus on identifiable occupational features were found. Both pits and a the dating, description, animal species identification and
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 57 large natural hollow, up to 2m deep, were filled with fragmentary The results of this research have potential implications pottery, ground and chipped stone and animal bone. Twelve for interpretation of Islamic landscapes across the globe radiocarbon dates place occupation between 2900 and 2700 and indeed there are some interesting parallels that can BCE, in the late Middle and early Late Chalcolithic period. be drawn with the archaeology of Australia’s Muslim cameleers. Finds included over a tonne of pottery, 150 kg of animal bone and a large quantity of ground and chipped stone. Analysis of the faunal remains shows that deer provided 89.9% of the meat consumed at Kokkinorotsos, caprines 8.7% and pig 1.4%. The The Neanderthals of Sima de los Palomas, deer were certainly hunted and pig and caprines appear, in this Spain instance, to have been feral domesticates. The chipped stone tool sample is dominated by flake scrapers, scalar pieces and Phil Habgood burins, implying a functional bias toward hide processing, bone School of Social Science, University of Queensland and splitting (perhaps for marrow extraction) and antler working. Converge Heritage + Community, Although cereal remains (wheat, barley) were recovered, the rarity [email protected] of harvesting tools suggests that domestic crops were grown Michael Walker elsewhere and transported to the site. Facultad de Biologı´a, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 It therefore appears probable that Kokkinorotsos was a Murcia, Spain seasonally or intermittently occupied hunting station. Some This paper reports on archaeological research being form of feasting may also be reflected in the prevalence of fine conducted at Sima de los Palomas del Cabezo Gordo, ware eating and drinking vessels in the ceramic assemblage, southern Spain. Sima de los Palomas is a significant while figurine fragments and a number of non-utilitarian, possibly Middle Palaeolithic research site as it is providing the zoomorphic vessels hint at a more formal ritual dimension. This much sought-after combination of the skeletal remains paper will present the data and discuss some of the issues of Neanderthals and the evidence of their lifeways (stone relating to the interpretation of Kokkinorotsos in its regional and artefacts, faunal material, hearths). The site dates from wider island context. 120,000 to <40,000 years BP. The focus of the research project is an investigation into the development and demise of the Neanderthals in the Iberian Peninsula and Arqueología en al-Andalus: their interaction with anatomically modern humans. The Islamic landscapes in southern Spain objective of the last few field seasons has been to recover new Neanderthal skeletal material that dates to the period Rebecca Parkes of possible co-habitation and interaction between the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. The Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2007 and 2008 field seasons resulted in the uncovering of [email protected] articulated Neanderthal partial skeletons, the first in Europe for some 30 years. Islamic archaeology is an area of research that is not widely pursued in Australia; however it is a subject that has direct relevance to aspects of Australia’s historical past and to archaeological research in the broader Asia-Pacific region. Even at the global scale there are relatively few scholars who are investigating Islamic archaeology in terms of the archaeology of religion and the insights that can be gained through analysis of Islamic cultural landscapes. This paper will discuss the results of a recent field program undertaken in the province of Granada in southern Spain, where a landscape approach was applied to the interpretation of cultural remains in the Valle de Lecrín, during the final phases of the Muslim kingdom (14th and 15th centuries CE). In particular, it will focus on the ways in which elements of that landscape provide significant insights regarding Islamic cosmology and the ways in which the direction of Mecca (qibla) was determined for the purposes of prayer and other day-to-day activities.
58 Session and Paper abstracts | Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Research Projects Beyond Sahul
Session 2 Saturday 6 December 11:00am-12.00pm Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating – Cooroibah Room of Pottery from the Galapagos Islands
Iona Flett Optical dating of Australia’s earliest Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University human occupation sites: A fresh look at an old question Atholl Anderson Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian Nathan Jankowski, Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts National University and Jacqui Fenwick Ed Rhodes School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Wollongong Metropolitan University The earliest archaeological traces of modern humans Although there were no obvious signs of human presence in Australia are artefacts excavated from rock shelter or prior inhabitation in the Galapagos Islands when they deposits at Malakunanja II and Nauwalabila I in the were accidentally discovered by Europeans in 1535, a Northern Territory. Sediments associated with these group of Norwegian archaeologists led by Thor Heyerdahl artefacts have been dated to 60,000–50,000 years in 1953 uncovered hundreds of pieces of pottery from ago using thermoluminescence and optically stimulated coastal sites on three islands. They reported at the luminescence (OSL) techniques, both of which rely on time that the pot sherds could be identified as coastal sediment exposure to sunlight to reset the luminescence Ecuadorian and Peruvian material, and concluded that ‘clock’. OSL (or optical) dating has also been used to prehistoric navigators on balsa rafts had been making obtain slightly younger ages (50,000–46,000 years) for periodic temporary visits to the Galapagos from the initial human occupation of the Devil’s Lair and Lake Mungo mainland. This conclusion had important implications in (Shawcross trench) sites in southwestern and southeastern Pacific archaeology: If South American Indians had the Australia, respectively. Since these studies were made, navigational and craft-building capacity to deliberately significant technological and methodological advances voyage across 1000km of open water (which had have been made in OSL dating, especially as regards previously been considered quite unlikely), could they not the use of individual quartz grains to detect problems of also have ventured further into the Pacific? Perhaps the insufficient sunlight exposure before sediment deposition presence of the much-debated sweet potato in Polynesia and of mixing of grains after burial. These developments isn’t explained by Polynesians taking crops home from enable OSL ages to be obtained with improved accuracy South America, but by South Americans distributing their and precision. In this presentation, we report the initial favourite foods during their own long-distance expeditions? results of a new, systematic dating study of these four sites (and others), using the same instrumentation, experimental In the wake of some doubt about possible bias in the procedures, and methods of data analysis to provide a collecting and analytical techniques employed by the common ‘yardstick’ for comparing the new chronologies. Norwegians, archaeologists from the ANU coordinated The latter approach, recently applied to Middle Stone an expedition in 2005 to re-investigate the previously Age sites across southern Africa, is able to resolve small described sites. Artefacts similar to those described by differences in ages that are otherwise obscured by Heyerdahl were recovered from similar locales, as were experimental uncertainties associated solely with the use of large amounts of material which is clearly historical. There different equipment, protocols and analytical tools. Our aim appeared, to both groups of archaeologists, to be no is to provide a chronology of unprecedented resolution for stratigraphic delineation between the younger material the human colonisation of Australia. and the “aboriginal” pieces, and while it is possible that environmental factors could account for the mixing as Heyerdahl suggested, it is perhaps more likely that all the artefacts are of a similar, relatively young age. To test this hypothesis, direct dating of some of the fragments has been attempted. Thermo-luminescence dating (TL) of heated objects is a well-established technique, and a similar principle lies behind Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, although it is far less frequently applied to pottery. The research described in this presentation involved
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 59 dating twenty pieces of pottery using the single-aliquot Following the Ring of Fire: regenerative dose (SAR) OSL procedure to calculate The Use and Distribution of Volcanic Glass the length of time that had elapsed since the firing of Artefacts in Far East Russia the pottery. We also calculated the annual dose of radiation each piece was receiving from the surrounding Trudy Doelman environment, and from radioactive minerals within University of Sydney, [email protected] the pottery fabric. Five pieces of pottery were from excavations in coastal mainland Ecuador, six pieces were Robin Torrence from Heyerdahl’s original collection, and the remainder from Australian Museum the ANU collection. Although there is a large scatter of Nikolay Kluyev and Igor Sleptsov ages, some interesting trends in the results are apparent. Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, This paper reports the results, explains some modifications Vladivostok, Primorye, Russia made to the standard sample pre-treatment method, and discusses the potential for using OSL dating on pottery Vladimir Popov from other sites in the Pacific. Far East Geological Institute, Vladivostok, Primorye, Russia The overland movement of hunter/gatherers across northeast Asia and into North America through Optical dating of Middle and Later Stone unpredictable, harsh environmental conditions is Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, considered one of the most extraordinary feats of humankind. How people achieved this goal in the Late Tanzania Pleistocene (c. 16,000 bp) has long been debated in archaeology. These early colonisers shared a common Luke Gliganic, Zenobia Jacobs and Richard Roberts stone tool technology - microblades made from volcanic School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of glass used to arm hunting weaponry - making them highly Wollongong efficient killers of large game. This project examines the Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo movement of people in northeast Asia by tracing the Department of Prehistory, Complutense University, Madrid distribution of volcanic glass artefacts through time and 28040, Spain across the landscape from three important sources in the region. Technological, typological and geochemical studies Mumba rockshelter in Tanzania has one of the most complete of artefacts have demonstrated that between c. 24,000 and continuous archaeological sequences in East Africa, up to c.2500 years ago artefacts were transported up to extending from the MSA to the present and including an early 700 kilometres from source areas across northeast Asia. LSA lithic assemblage in Bed V. The timing of the MSA–LSA This paper presents an overview of a multi-disciplinary, transition is of archaeological interest, as the development collaborative project between archaeologists and of LSA technology is widely viewed as a product of modern geologists from the University of Sydney, the Australian human behaviour. Previous studies have given a wide range Museum and the Russian Academy of Sciences. of ages for Bed V, resulting in an ambiguous chronology for this important deposit. In this presentation, we will report the preliminary results of an optical (optically stimulated luminescence, OSL) dating program to improve our understanding of the chronology of Bed V. OSL dating is a technique that measures the elapsed time since luminescent minerals, such as quartz and feldspar, were last exposed to sunlight. We have examined sand-sized grains of quartz from Mumba rockshelter, and found that they are dominated by the “poorly behaving” components of the OSL signal, which have previously proven troublesome for OSL dating in East Africa. A variety of experiments have been made, and a range of analytical approaches taken, to minimise these unwanted components. We will describe our progress in dating the Bed V deposits, the results obtained thus far, and the problems still to be overcome. The implications of the OSL chronology for emergence of modern human behaviour, and for the dispersal of modern humans in and out of Africa, will also be discussed briefly.
60 Session and Paper abstracts | Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon
nursing background, she was quick to attend the evidence Australian Studies when available and to record this evidence in meticulous detail. While it is true that much of these records remain unpublished, the legacy of that work has nevertheless had in Taphonomy and a great impact on research and researchers in Australia – hence this special session at this conference. Her Archaeofaunas: enthusiasm was transferred to colleagues through long conversations and emails and her generosity in sharing A Session in Honour of her data. Her enthusiasm was never greater than at the conference that she organised at the University of New England in 1987. The excitement generated by this the Late Su Solomon conference alone prompted a flurry of research in the Session 1 Saturday 6 December 2.00-3.30pm field. Since those heady taphonomic 1980s days of the – Cooroibah Room word taphonomy (see Solomon 1990) has now changed its meaning and has become synonymous with ‘site Judith Field formation processes’. This seems a shame, because the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis field has lost much of the focus illustrated in the 1990 and The School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, ’Problem Solving in Taphonomy’. Perhaps Su’s untimely University of Sydney, [email protected] death we will, like the 1987 conference, prompt a return Jillian Garvey to some of these empirically based studies that have Archaeology Program, School of Historical and European wide implications. The unpublished records that Su has Studies, LaTrobe University, [email protected] left behind might be another good source to continue this work. Su Solomon’s contribution to the study of animal bones and the field of taphonomy in Australia has influenced many students and scholars. Her experimental studies, which unfortunately remain largely unpublished, have Investigating marrow processing in the helped established the foundation on which much of Central Queensland Highlands, Australia our understanding of Australian taphonomy rests. This session aims to celebrate her life as an archaeologist/ Brit Asmussen ‘nurse anthropologist’ by the presentation and discussion School of Archaeology, Australian National University, of some recent studies in this field. Zooarchaeology and [email protected] taphonomy are interdisciplinary fields that play an important One of the several taphonomic contributions Su Solomon role in understanding human behaviour by studying past made to Australian archaeology was her replicative and contemporary animal populations, and their interaction experiments simulating the processing of Macropod long with humans. While the zooarchaeological record primarily bones to extract marrow. Although marrow-processing deals with bone, teeth and shells accumulated from both experiments had been previously conducted, Solomon’s humans and non-human activity; equally important is the experiments were the first to be methodologically field of taphonomy which has been critical in understanding informed by ethnographic descriptions, replicate the depositional histories of some of our most important processing following in-situ cooking and defleshing and archaeological sites. Su’s main interest was in animal dismemberment, suggest archaeological correlates of bones. She is remembered for her hands on approach to marrow processing and discuss overprinting by Dingoes. archaeology and her great generosity of spirit when it came This paper overviews Solomon’s marrow processing to sharing her knowledge with her colleagues and friends. experiments, and applies her identified correlates to the analysis of prey butchery, marrow processing and the effects of dingo overprinting in the Central Queensland About Su Highlands, Australia.
Jane Balme Department of Archaeology, University of Western Australia, [email protected] Su Solomon died on the 25th August this year and with that we lost taphonomy’s greatest supporter in Australia. Nothing got her more excited than hearing about another death by carnivore. Never squeamish, a result of her
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 61 Quality vs Quantity: can assist in determining cause and manner of death as well Understanding human prey selection in as placing the victim and/or the accused at the scene. The late Pleistocene southwest Tasmania anthropologist may be asked to assess defects as caused by humans, animals or natural forces (eg. burning). This Jillian Garvey paper present three case studies. Two of these illustrate the Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University, assessment of defects as caused by humans or animals. [email protected] In both these cases Su Solomon’s involvement resulted in successful outcomes. A third case involved burnt bones and Research indicates that humans in late Pleistocene an assessment of the causes of these defects was crucial in southwest Tasmania focused on a specific prey species, determining the cause of death. the Bennett’s wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus), with recent skeletochronological (dental growth-increment) analysis of wallaby teeth suggesting that hunting occurred in upland and lowland valleys on a coordinated seasonal basis. Can cortical bone thickness help The dominance of Bennett’s wallaby body parts and distinguish human from non-human bone elements, in particular split hindlimbs and metatarsals, in fragments? A study using the tibia the zooarchaeological assemblages implies humans were targeting these elements for their relatively large marrow yield. Sarah Croker Alternatively, it may have been the marrow quality that humans Disciplines of Anatomy & Histology, University of Sydney, were seeking. These theories have yet to be tested. [email protected] The aim of this research is to investigate the economic utility Warren Reed and the fatty acid profile of the bone marrow of the modern School of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Bennett’s wallaby. This information will be used to try and Sydney identify why this species, and specific body parts, dominates Denise Donlon the southwest Tasmanian zooarchaeological assemblages. Disciplines of Anatomy & Histology, University of Sydney Early results show that the unsaturated or desirable marrow increases distally away from the body core, thus the most Fragments of bone are notoriously difficult to identify, yet sought after marrow is situated within the tibia and radius/ the separation of human from non-human bone is an ulna. However, the economic utility trails indicate a large size important task. Occasional sources of literature mention discrepancy between the forelimbs and hindlimbs. The bone that cortical bone thickness may be a distinguishing factor marrow fatty acid analysis will be extended to include animals between human and non-human bone. But details are from different geographical and altitudinal regions to determine frustratingly scarce. And does this hold true for Australian if seasonal differences in the nutritional quality can explain conditions? This study has used the tibia as a test bone, human hunting in lowland or upland valleys during particular as it is a large weight-bearing bone in all the sample seasons. This study will help to better understand human taxa (human, sheep, kangaroo, dog, pig and cattle). adaptation and decision-making in late Pleistocene Tasmania, Radiography was used to visualise the internal dimensions and aid in understanding why the Bennett’s wallaby is the of the tibiae. Measurements were taken of shaft width, dominant prey species. medulla width and cortical bone thickness at the midshaft. The results showed that human tibiae were not clearly distinguishable from all studied non-human taxa. The Taphonomy and forensic anthropology cortex of the human tibia varies according to which side is under consideration. Accordingly, the large anterior ridge of Denise Donlon the human tibia resulted in its grouping with the thicker- Disciplines of Anatomy & Histology, University of Sydney, boned animals (pigs and cattle). The thinner posterior, [email protected] medial and lateral sides of the bone were also similar to pigs, but to kangaroos as well, and, to a lesser extent, The primary role of a forensic anthropologist is to produce sheep and dogs. a biological profile to assist in identification of skeletonised or otherwise compromised skeletal remains. More recently When identifying bones, no single criteria should be however taphonomic assessment is emerging as an depended upon; and there is certainly much scope important part of forensic anthropological analysis. An for further work here. This study does show, however, understanding of taphonomic processes can be applied to that suggestions of a useful distinction between human the estimation of postmortem interval, distinguishing between and non-human cortical bone thickness appear to be human and non-human induced trauma/defects and also in misleading. the reconstruction of postmortem events. Such interpretations
62 Session and Paper abstracts | Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon
Towards a clearer understanding of the Session 2 Saturday 6 December 4.00-5.30pm importance of crocodiles as taphonomic – Cooroibah Room agents in the early hominin fossil record Michael Westaway Culture vs Nature: The taphonomy of a Queensland Museum, [email protected] faunal assemblage from Cuddie Springs Jackson Njau National Natural History Museum in Arusha, Tanzania Melanie Fillios Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, Wally Wood University of Sydney, [email protected] Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University Judith Field While predator damage is often identified in the human Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis; fossil record, only a small number of hominin specimens and School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, have been identified as possible victims of crocodiles. University of Sydney This is interesting, considering our increasing knowledge on the importance of wetland adaptations to the evolution Bethan Charles of earlier hominins. Dubois (1927) and Von Koenigswald Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, (1968) provide the first examples of crocodile damage The late Pleistocene faunal extinctions were a global to hominin bones from Trinil and Sangiran, Java (a phenomenon, with Australia suffering proportionally the “Pithecanthropus” femur and “Meganthropus” mandible 6B, greatest losses of any continent. The chronology of these respectively). A significant contribution to the literature was extinctions is a far from clear though there are indications the determination by Davidson and Solomon (1990) that that human occupation of the continent overlapped the tooth marks on the type specimen of Homo habilis, OH with the tail-end of the extinction event. Investigating the 7 conform with crocodilian damage, therefore concluding interactions of humans and now extinct fauna (megafauna) a possible crocodile attack to this Olduvai hominin. is hampered by the lack of datasets with which to explore Actualistic studies using forensic case work, behavioural these associations. At the present time, there is one observations and experimental taphonomy provide a site in New Guinea (Nombe Rockshelter) and one on clearer view of the extensive damage to bone caused by continental Australia (Cuddie Springs) where a temporal crocodiles. Unlike mammalian carnivores, characteristics overlap between humans and megafauna has been of bone assemblages produced by crocodiles are highly identified. Cuddie Springs in southeastern Australia has varied due to differences in feeding biology and behaviour reportedly the only known stratified deposit containing an of the crocs. Due to close similarity among Crocodylus association of megafauna and an archaeological record species in dental and cranial morphology there are some through two sequential stratigraphic units dating from general patterns in the way these large meat-eating reptiles c.36kyr to c.30kyr. As the association between megafauna modify bones, and theoretically we would expect Nile and and humans has been subject to much debate, this paper Australian crocodiles, as well as their fossil counterparts, presents the results of a detailed taphonomic study of a to produce similar taphonomic signatures. In this paper faunal assemblage from Stratigraphic Unit 6 at Cuddie we provide diagnostic features of crocodilian feeding Springs. The study has revealed an in situ accumulation traces observed from modern fauna and from the hominin of bone consistent with a waterhole death assemblage. fossil record. Accurate determinations however are not Overall the faunal assemblage has yielded little direct possible without robust data obtained actualistically. Here evidence of carnivore or human activity. Post depositional we integrate experimental and naturalistic taphonomic factors such as physical destruction incurred by trampling, research with forensic data to assess claims of crocodilian compaction of sediments, or the hydrological status of the predation risks to Olduvai and Javan hominins. Our lake appear to play important roles. Taphonomic analysis approach provides a powerful tool in zooarchaeology of the faunal assemblage presented here shows equivocal and paleoecological research. Ultimately a referential evidence for a primary role of humans in the accumulation taphonomic framework is needed from which inferences of the extinct and extant fauna at Cuddie Springs. on the degree of crocodile-hominin interactions on paleolandscapes can be drawn by palaeoanthropologists. We then outline various methods of collaboration that seek to increase crocodilian tooth-mark data from forensic research, controlled and naturalistic observations.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 63 ESR-U Series dating at Cuddie Springs Megafauna and Humans in Tasmania deposits and the problems of perspectives Richard Cosgrove in site interpretation Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, Judith Field [email protected] Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis Judith Field and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis University of Sydney, [email protected] and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Stephen Eggins University of Sydney Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National Joan Brenner-Coltrain University Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake Nigel Spooner City, USA Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National Jillian Garvey University; and DSTO, Edinburgh, SA Archaeology Program, La Trobe University Alistair W.G. Pike Bethan Charles Department of Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis Wolfgang Müller and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University University of Sydney of London, Surrey, UK Jim O’Connell Clive Trueman Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake Geochemistry Research Group, National Oceanography City, USA Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK Steve Wroe Richard Fullagar Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney Issue of taphonomy have always been paramount in the interpretation of site content and stratigraphy at Albert Goede Cuddie Springs. While some researchers hold that the School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Wildlife site represents a disturbed mixture of old and young Research, University of Sydney material, the investigators continue to report the site in Wendy Lees other terms. An ESR U-series study was undertaken on a Research School of Earth Sciences, number of horizons, both archaeological and pre-human Australian National University as a direct test of the nature of the faunal contexts at the Re-excavation of Titan’s Shelter using archaeological site. In overall terms the site is shown to have an age techniques, cave survey and dating of megafaunal bones depth curve indicating increasing age with depth. For the from natural pit fall caves in the Florentine River valley, archaeological levels the material known to be in situ has the Hastings and Ida Bay areas in Tasmania has revealed returned ages broadly consistent with previous studies. For a range of large extinct mammals and their dwarfed a small number of samples from stratigraphic unit 6A the versions dating to the late Pleistocene. These include ages are considerably older and are consistent with these Thylacoleo carnifex, Sthenurus sp, Macropus giganteus being intrusive. This paper presents these results and titan, and possibly Sarcophilus laniarius. No extinct discusses the different lines of evidence that have been mammals have been found in Nunamira Cave; a human considered in the interpretation of the site chronology. occupation site dated to c. 31,000 BP, 6 kilometres south of Titan’s Shelter. In addition there is no evidence of megafaunal hunting in any of the earliest human sites found in Tasmania. Here we explore the reasons for this by examining the faunal and chronological data from these sites. Comparisons are made with the recently dated Protemnodon anak from Mt Cripps, northern Tasmania.
64 Session and Paper abstracts | Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon
Palaeoenvironmental and Cultural Anticipating the antecedent antics of ants: Change across the Wellesley Archipelago: Observations on the capacity of ants to Preliminary Results from the Southern Gulf contribute to site formation processes in of Carpentaria archaeological contexts
Sean Ulm Richard Robins Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University EVERICK Heritage Consultants Pty Ltd, of Queensland, [email protected] [email protected] Nicholas Evans In this paper we describe the results of a small experiment Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and designed to determine the capacity of green head Asian Studies, Australian National University ants (Rhytidoponera metallica) to disturb sandy soils and associated cultural objects. This experiment was Paul Memmott undertaken to provide explanations for the movement of Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of small cultural objects in a shell midden in sandy soils in Queensland southeast Queensland. Daniel Rosendahl Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland Patterns of predation: Richard Robins Human exploitation of Anadara granosa, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University Blue Mud Bay, north Australia of Queensland; and Everick Heritage Consultants Pty Ltd Ian Lilley Pat Faulkner Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University School of Social Science, University of Queensland, of Queensland [email protected] Errol Stock In addressing questions revolving around the formation of School of Environment, Griffith University the large, Anadara granosa dominated shell mounds of northern Australia, most analyses have been based on the Despite occupying similar environments, major differences implicit assumption of continuity in patterns and intensity are documented in the biology, language, material of human exploitation. Using archaeological, biological, culture, economy and social organisation of the four ecological and environmental data, this paper provides an Aboriginal groups who own the Wellesley Islands in the alternative explanation highlighting differences in human southern Gulf of Carpentaria - the Lardil and Yangkaal behaviour between the recent past and the period of of the North Wellesley Islands; the Kaiadilt of the South mound formation. Wellesley Islands; and the Ganggalida of the mainland and near-shore islands. A number of models, based largely on linguistic analyses and palaeogeographic modelling, have been proposed to account for these differences, positing progressive fissioning and subsequent divergence from an ancestral population pool. However, until now these models have lacked an archaeological framework to provide chronological context. Despite earlier assessments indicating a scant archaeological record in the Wellesley Islands, preliminary findings indicate a rich archaeological record replete with deep stratified shell mounds on river margins and shell middens contained in beach ridge complexes with considerable time depth. Archaeozoological data, including local shellfish expirations, are used to model landscape development during the Holocene and to map differences in economic systems across the Wellesley archipelago. Results are used to begin to explore hypotheses for the origins of cultural differences observed in this island group.
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 65 Poster abstracts
Archaeological Research as a Community analysis of the Watinglo plant macrofossil assemblage was Resource: Cultural Tourism and the Nara undertaken to identify changes in the intensity and diversity of Inlet Rock Art Site economic tree species exploited that may indicate changes in subsistence practices. Bryce Barker School of Humanities and Communication, University of Southern Queensland, Weeds of society: An investigation Sue Olsson into agricultural production at Kaman- Environmental Protection Agency Kalehöyük The Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service in Kirsten Bradley conjunction with the Ngaro Aboriginal Community have School of Social Science, University of Queensland provided extensive new interpretive resources for tourists at the heavily visited Nara Inlet Art Site on Hook Island in An archaeobotanical perspective is offered for the socio- the Whitsunday Islands, central Queensland coast. The economic development of Kaman-Kalehöyük, Central information presented relies heavily on Ngaro oral traditions Turkey. Cereal grains, chaff and weeds seeds have been and archaeological knowledge, gleaned from research analysed to determine ancient crop husbandry practices carried out at the site and in the region generally over the at this multi-phase occupation site. Understanding how last 15 years. The use of the interpretive material from cereal crops were used, how they were processed and the archaeology demonstrates how practical, community how socio-political changes affected crop production based outcomes for ostensibly academically oriented practices assists to further to our understanding of past research can be utilised by a range of community agricultural systems in Central Anatolia. By focusing on stakeholders. the Bronze Age (c. 2000-1180 BCE) occupation of the site, the archaeobotanical record reflects the economic, political and social changes that occurred during a period of environmental and cultural instability. Analysis Analysis of the Watinglo Plant Macrofossil of archaeobotanical data has led to the interpretation Assemblage, Northern Lowlands, Papua of the scale of production at the site during the Bronze New Guinea Age. This analysis provides vital data that furthers the understanding of the socio-political development of Joann Bowman Kaman-Kalehöyük and other vassal cities across Anatolia School of Social Science, University of Queensland with the introduction, establishment and decline of the Much debate has surrounded questions of the timing, nature Hittite kingdom. and origins of the development of food production practices, including the use of tree species, in Near Oceania. The extent of the influence that migrating Austronesian speakers had Down the Line: Research Results from on this process has received particular attention and current Sugarloaf Pipeline Project Stone Artefact debate is divided on the issue. Theories range from those suggesting that the development of tree species exploitation and Site Distribution Analysis practices, including arboriculture, were developed completely Joseph Brooke, Andrew Costello, independently in Near Oceania to those suggesting that Robyn Jenkins and Shannon Sutton Austronesian speakers introduced the use of many species Sinclair Knight Merz and subsistence practices to a Near Oceanic population that did not previously utilise them. The northern coastline In accordance with the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act of Papua New Guinea has been identified as an area 2006 a cultural heritage management plan was completed of significant interest in this debate; however, the region for the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project. Pipeline and other linear has been largely overlooked in past research. This poorly infrastructure projects are often viewed as restricted in investigated region is potentially of great importance to our archaeological scope, due to the narrow corridor they understandings of Papuan-Austronesian interactions as the provide for investigation. The SPP activity area spanned the likely region through which Austronesian speaking groups boundaries of three Registered Aboriginal Party applicants, moved into Near Oceania. We seek to begin to rectify this three shire councils and a variety of landforms, including imbalance through an analysis of tree species exploitation two major Rivers and the Great Dividing Range. throughout the Holocene at Watinglo, a site in the northern The project required a methodology that extracted the lowlands of Papua New Guinea. A time sensitive quantitative maximum amount of information from the limited area
66 Poster abstracts
available for investigation. The approach was to coordinate representativeness criterion can give rise to an impression the efforts of many of the other specialists involved that sites of the same type which are located close in the project; geomorphologists, design engineers, together are uniform in composition. If sites within the ecologists, geologists and geotechnical engineers. The broader ‘site type’ categories are not uniform, retaining a results from the analysis have illustrated the benefits of representative sample of site types does not fulfil the aim the multidiscipline approach in archaeological consulting. of preserving a full representation of the variability of the The focus for further research is on possible locations of archaeological record. Therefore a prerequisite for any resource extraction sites and cultural boundary delineation representative sample must be an assessment of site in the stone tool distribution.This poster will illustrate and assemblage variability. This project aims to investigate explain the results and contentions arising from the detailed ‘open’ site variability and the definition of a representative stone artefact and site distribution analysis. sample through field survey.
Cultural Heritage Highway: Results of Brimbank Park: Recent Discoveries in the the archaeological and cultural heritage Keilor Terraces of the Maribyrnong River assessment for the Warrell Creek to Shaun Canning, Darren Griffin, Vanessa Flynn Urunga Pacific Highway Upgrade and Jaclyn Ward Joseph Brooke, Rose Reid and Vanessa Edmonds ACHM Sinclair Knight Merz ACHM Vic have recently conducted a series of extensive Linear infrastructure projects are often viewed as restricted excavations as a component of a Voluntary Cultural in archaeological scope, due to the narrow corridor Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) for City West Water. they provide for investigation. However, they also have The excavations resulted in the discovery of a small the benefit of traversing a wide range of land systems, artefact assemblage spanning the Holocene-Pleistocene landforms, topographic features, vegetation communities, transition, a well defined Pleistocene hearth feature, faunal habitats, traditional lands of past and contemporary and a small suite of faunal remains. The small artefact Aboriginal communities, and cultural, spiritual and assemblage shows considerable variation through time, archaeological sites of significance. This feature of linear both in raw material type and discard rates. Changes in projects allows for some interesting comparisons. discard rates through time at Keilor have been observed previously, and this excavation adds another dimension Preliminary results of the cultural heritage and archaeological to this observable trend. Importantly, the radiocarbon assessments, including extensive survey and initial sub- determinations were made from large samples of charcoal surface testing, are presented. Interpretation and potential in direct association with the hearth feature, whereas future research questions are postulated, and benefits to the the overwhelming majority of previous dates from the understanding of regional archaeology and cultural heritage immediate region have been from geomorphic associations from large linear corridor projects are raised. or luminescence dating of sediment. The dates obtained from the hearth suggest that the occupation of the Keilor Terraces are not as old as previously stated from the The surface archaeological record in geomorphic dating. In one of the first major excavations western NSW: Challenges for significance of its type within the Keilor Terraces under the new Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act , the significance of the assessment contribution to our knowledge of Aboriginal occupation around Melbourne fully justify the excavation expense and T.G. Bryant and P.C. Fanning methodology. City West Water is to be congratulated on Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University electing to complete a CHMP on a voluntary basis. S.J. Holdaway Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland Archaeological significance assessments are a Tell Tales fundamental step in heritage management. Maintaining a representative sample of the archaeological record in Steve Chaddock its entirety is one of the main criteria in New South Wales Caloundra Regional Art Gallery significance assessments. A representative sample In recent times the Sunshine Coast Regional Council of site types in a range of environments is preserved have been able to deliver some interpretive signage about to allow for future changes in research priorities. The
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 67 historic buildings which has delivered rigorus information The Online Seed Atlas Database to locals and tourists about the historic stories that create the environment in which we live. Beerburrum’s stories are Andrew Fairbairn, Nathan Wright, Stephanie Smith, based in the WWI soldier settler scheme which aimed to Reiner Mantei and Xavier Carah provide a living for diggers in the pineapple fields; railways School of Social Science University of Queensland hospitals and residences are identified and the local school The aim of this project is to collate a substantive data- was intricately involved in research and development of set relating to the measurements of seven ancient the project. Some of Landsborough’s historic structures domesticated plant species. The project was initiated received recognition via a separate project which included for several reasons. First, there is a rarity of seed the pub and railway station, an important WWII railhead for measurement reference guides which leaves a void in the US and Australian troops; the air-raid shelter survives on data regarding seeds that archaeologists have access to. the platform. Second, there is a general lack of standards and protocols In order to tell its stories, Bankfoot House, which is closed by which seed measurement data is to be collected. to the public until modern facilities are developed to enable Third, there is no readily accessible database of such safe access, has embraced the technology age and now data available for students, archaeologists, and other exists as a virtual environment for your exploration. The professionals to use. virtual environment is delivered through a webpage which Our aim is to attempt to remedy these issues by is linked to a curriculum-based educational resource that establishing seed measurement protocols that are aims to make the collections, stories and other elements robust and testable. Further, we aim to establish a readily of the Bankfoot House story accessible to local schools as accessible web-based data source that can be used by well as the wider community. archaeologists in the field and the laboratory. It is hoped that this will enable research and further study into seed morphometrics. We also envisage that such a database The ANGA (Archaeobotany in New Guinea and the protocols we aim to establish will be applicable to and Australia) database: A new tool other seed populations from around the globe. Finally, we for promoting Australasian research in hope that this project will be a beneficial educational tool for university undergraduates, professional archaeologists, environmental archaeology and local and international researchers. Tim Denham School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University The Australasian Pollen and Spore Amanda Kennedy Atlas: Update on a new online relational database. The ANGA (Archaeobotany in New Guinea and Australia) working group was formed in December 2007 to take a Simon Haberle, Feli Hopf and Geoffrey Hope more active role in showcasing the potential contribution Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of that archaeobotany can make to archaeological Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University practice in the region. One concrete outcome from the meeting was the establishment of an on-line database The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas enables online of archaeobotanical reference specimens (currently accessibility to the largest collection of pollen and spores seeds, starch and resins/residues; phytoliths and wood information in the Australasian region that is currently located charcoal to come) held in Australian institutions. Reference at the Australian National University. This is a searchable collections are essential assets for archaeobotanical database that is accessible over the web and suitable for research and the lack of access to collections is a key professional as well as the technical novice involved in pollen impediment to further development of the sub-discipline in and spore identification. Novel approaches to the federation Australasia. The database aims to improve the awareness of other smaller existing pollen and spores databases will of national holdings, allowing researchers at all levels to result in an ever expanding and freely available resource. The efficiently identify where and what reference material is information made available will increase research capacity available and also identify gaps in national holdings, thus across the through a reduction in duplication and enhanced allowing identification of collection development priorities. accessibility to key knowledge available in the Australasian Development of the initial holdings database into a source Pollen and Spore Atlas. Key features of the database that of identification information, similar to the Australian Spore are applicable to archaeological research are illustrated in this and Pollen Atlas, is planned. presentation and an online demonstration will be available during the conference.
68 Poster abstracts
Direct Dating of Human Remains Ancient starch as evidence of culinary practices in the late Chinese Neolithic Renaud Joannes-boyau and Rainer Grün Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian Duncan Jones National University Archaeology Program, La Trobe University Dating studies on palaoeanthropological sites is usually Excavations at Kangjia in northern China have revealed carried out on material associated with the human remains, the remains of a late Neolithic village with evidence such as the sediment, charcoal or other fauna rather than of millet agriculture and pig domestication. This study the human specimen itself. The reason lies in the fact analyses residues recovered from the surfaces of that most dating techniques are destructive and because potsherds excavated at Kangjia. Starch and phytoliths the hominid remains are too rare to be sacrificed for will be examined to determine the taxa of plants which dating. This indirect dating approach is in many cases not may have been harvested and processed at the site satisfactory, because: of Kangjia. Furthermore, the presence of damaged or (i) human remains are often buried into the sediments and gelatinised starches may give additional information on how the association with other materials is uncertain; plants were processed and prepared for consumption. Preliminary results have shown identified starch with the (ii) faunal remains or minerals from the sediment are re- possibility of identification to genus. This research aims to worked from older deposits (see e.g. present discussion of investigate subsistence and feasting practices in the late the age of the Homo erectus remains in Indonesia); Chinese Neolithic. (iii) the hominid specimen was discovered at a time when no careful excavations were carried out and it is impossible to correlate the specimen with other datable material Human caused stratigraphic mixing (nearly 90% of all palaeoanthropological specimen). of a coastal Hawaiian midden during Until recently, hominid fossils could only be dated prehistory: Implications for interpreting by radiocarbon. This method reaches back to about cultural deposits 40,000 years. As a consequence, all the older fossils could not be analysed and many important questions Sasiphan Khaweerat in our understanding of human evolution could not be School of Social Science, University of Queensland addressed. Human remains are scarce and extremely Marshall Weisler valuable, therefore any sort of destruction has to be kept School of Social Science, University of Queensland to an absolute minimum. This is of particular importance in Australia where any human fossils are sacred. Thus, Jian-xin Zhao for the analysis of hominid material it was necessary to Radiogenic Isotopes Facilities, Centre for Microscopy develop more or less non-destructive techniques. The and Microanalysis, University of Queensland poster will present an outline of the recent developments of Yue-Xing Feng the current research held at the Research School of Earth Radiogenic Isotopes Facilities, Centre for Microscopy Sciences at the Australian National University, on improving and Microanalysis, University of Queensland non-destructive protocols as well as the precision of U- series and ESR dating of tooth enamel. The spatial position of artefacts, faunal remains and ecofacts is fundamental for making archaeological interpretations based on presence-absence occurrence and frequency distributions throughout stratified contexts. However, it was only during the past few decades that archaeologists realised the potential effects of site formation processes and post-depositional disturbances on the archaeological record. In the Hawaiian coastal setting—where many of the earliest sites are located— storm surge, wind erosion, burrowing seabirds and modern developments have all been implicated in the disturbance of cultural deposits. Here, we identify human caused stratigraphic mixing of a coastal Hawaiian midden during prehistory. That human occupants disturbed cultural layer content by excavating holes for posts, ovens and trash pits during prehistory is not unusual. What was unexpected,
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 69 however, is that the stratigraphy appeared intact. Using The Art Items of Wadi Hammeh 27: high-precision U-series dating of 22 samples of Pocillopora Interactions and Individual Expression sp. branch coral from throughout three distinct cultural layers, we document stratigraphic mixing of a coastal Janine Major midden along the north shore of Moloka‘i. For purposes Archaeology Program, La Trobe University of archaeological interpretation, all cultural layers were The growing interest in exploring the role that symbols and considered as one analytical unit with any temporal change images may have had in forming social and economic obscured by mixing. Other coastal archaeological deposits relationships within and amongst communities of the may evidence a similar situation. Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Levant underpins my research. During the Epipalaeolthic, and particularly within the Natufian period (c. 13,000 to 10,200 BP), the Pleistocene Sahul: The archaeology Levant experienced a blossoming of art that is impressive of the archaeology in relation to its relative sudden appearance, its high degree of technical mastery as well as its application to Michelle C. Langley otherwise functional artefacts. School of Social Science, University of Queensland Wadi Hammeh 27, located in the Jordan Valley, has Over the last century, more than 300 excavations yielded one of the most extensive and well provenanced have been undertaken at Pleistocene sites throughout corpuses of decorated items, particularly from an Sahul, the combined landmass of Australia and Papua open-air Early Natufian settlement. The assemblage New Guinea. These excavations form the basis of our therefore provides and opportunity to study these artistic understanding of the last 50,000 years of human history in expressions from both a technological and contextual this region of the world. A recent synthesis of this material point of view. The art assemblage from Wadi Hammeh provides an overview of both the matrix of the Pleistocene 27 includes anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and geometric archaeological record and how it has been investigated motifs which appear on bone and stone items such as throughout the past 100 years. Results highlight gaps and figurines, pendants, sickle hafts, ground stone equipment, weaknesses in the Pleistocene record as well as identifying plaques and architectural elements. Francesco d’Errico’s new areas for research. development of microscopic analyses provides the methodological framework for the technological analysis of the Wadi Hammeh 27 assemblage. Identifying to Species Fragmented This paper discusses relationships between manufacturing Mammal Bone and Bone Artefacts from techniques, raw material and motifs within the art Hawaiian Archaeological Sites with assemblage from Wadi Hammeh 27. The study provides Scanning Electron Microscopy insights into aspects of interaction between the occupants of this site and other Natufian sites as well as notions of Linda McCarthy and Marshall Weisler individual expression at Wadi Hammeh 27. School of Social Science, University of Queensland A significant percentage of mammal bones from Hawaiian archaeological middens are fragments with few, if any, The Identification of Australian diagnostic features that permit identification to the species Archaeological Resins and Gums level. In Hawaii, bones of humans, pigs and dogs were also fashioned into fishhooks, thus obscuring macroscopic Carney D. Matheson landmarks required for species-level taxonomic School of Social Science, University of Queensland and assignment. We use microscopic landmarks of mammal Department of Anthropology and Department of Biology, bones of known taxa to identify fragmentary bones and Lakehead University, Canada fishhooks to species. Using faunal assemblages from four Plant exudates have been used for millennia for a variety religious sites excavated recently on West Moloka’i, we of purposes. The study and identification of plant exudates demonstrate the significant contribution of high-powered in archaeology however has been very limited. An easy scanning electron microscopy for identifying “unidentified” screening procedure for the identification of plant exudates mammal bones and bone artefacts to species, thus that have been used in an archaeological context has been increasing our understanding of subsistence practices, established. These exudates include gums and resins ritual behaviour and selection of raw material for artefact and this research has focused on the Australian native manufacture. plant species that have been used in the past. Various
70 Poster abstracts
physical and chemical attributes of exudates have been approximately 30kms west of Boonah in Queensland and investigated including colour, density, melting temperature, is registered on the Queensland Heritage Register for its UV fluorescence, refractive index, optical rotation, solubility, recognised significance to Queensland (601732). The road Infrared spectroscopy and Gas chromatography mass was constructed in 1847, as the principal highway and spectroscopy. The solubility and UV fluorescence of the freight route to the southern Darling Downs. It continued exudates has proved to be an extremely simple and most to serve this purpose into the 1870s, when the advent of efficient way to screen residues that are suspected to the Toowoomba-Warwick railway line and the handover of contain a plant exudate. Confirmation can be achieved maintenance to local government, both contributed to its to a limited extent with infrared spectroscopy and can be gradual demise. The Construction of Cunningham’s Gap performed non-destructively while the resin is in situ but a in 1935 resulted in Spicer’s Gap becoming a local road, final confirmation can be gained with gas chromatography with use as a public road ceasing completely in 1973. For mass spectroscopy. A set of experimental material, such a specialised site, Converge Heritage + Community references collection and artefacts were examined using assembled a team of relevant professionals including the established method. heritage consultants, heritage engineers, historians and archaeologists, to create a CMP which offered a comprehensive investigation into the history and existing Is it Possible to Recognise Different nature of the site and present effective and practical conservation policies and management strategies that, if Behaviours in an Archaeological Discard followed, will facilitate the long term conservation of the Assemblage? An Example from a Late- Spicer’s Gap Road. Classic Mayan Midden in Southern Mexico
Coral Montero Lopez La Trobe University NSW Roads and Traffic Authority’s (RTA) Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage The characterisation of the archaeological features (such as caches, offerings, and middens) as ritual or domestic Consultation and Investigation (PACHCI) in Mayan archaeology has usually been defined early in Daniel Percival and Gretta Logue the excavation process. This identification is limited to the NSW Roads Traffic Authority type and quantity of its contents and to the location of the element in reference to other archaeological elements, The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) recognises the such as structures. Nevertheless, recent works have need to manage the impact of its projects on Aboriginal shown that these deposits are not always the result of cultural heritage in a manner which meets its legislative a single behaviour, but represent an accumulation of responsibilities and is appropriate, practical and culturally residual materials from different activities, a palimpsest. It sensitive. The RTA has developed and launched a is therefore necessary to redefine these features based on Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation the behaviours that produced them, as well as considering and Investigation (PACHCI). This procedure provides the the formation processes. Taphonomic analysis—or RTA with a framework for its consultation with Aboriginal the transformations that occur before, during and after stakeholders on Aboriginal cultural heritage projects deposition—of a collection of archaeofaunal remains from associated with road planning, development, construction a midden associated with the palace in the archaeological and maintenance activities throughout NSW. site of Chinikiha, Chiapas, Mexico is used to discuss these This procedure aims to: issues. • Ensure that RTA projects likely to affect Aboriginal cultural heritage receive the appropriate level of assessment and community involvement. Spicer’s Gap: A Collaborative Approach to Conservation Management Planning • Ensure that a suitable and consistent standard of cultural and archaeological assessment and reporting is met by the Anna Nelson and Stefani Blackmore RTA and its consultants on projects across NSW. Converge Heritage + Community • Achieve Aboriginal cultural heritage best practice. Converge Heritage + Community were commissioned by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) to prepare a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for the 1.6km section of Spicer’s Gap Road which has been declared a Conservation Park. Spicer’s Gap Road is located
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 71 The UNSW JEOL JXA-8500F Hyperprobe: expenditure for analysis and processes for identification Spatially resolved elemental analysis for of shell taxa to ensure consistency among multitudes of archaeological research volunteers with different levels of skill and experience.
Karen Privat Electron Microscope Unit, University of New South Wales A Story in Shells: Preliminary In 2008, the Electron Microscope Unit of the University of Archaeological Results from New South Wales acquired a JEOL JXA-8500F field-emission Sandalwood River, Mornington Island, Hyperprobe – one of only two such instruments in Australia. Gulf of Carpentaria This electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) instrumentation allows a researcher to obtain quantitative compositional data Daniel Rosendahl, Sean Ulm from specific regions in their sample, from a few microns to University of Queensland less that one micron in diameter. Here I present an overview Cyril Moon and Johnny Williams of the new instrumentation – its analytical capabilities and Mornington Island Elders specimen preparation considerations. In 2007, the first intensive archaeological surveys of EPMA can be used to analyse a wide range of archaeological the Wellesley Islands were undertaken revealing a rich materials including lithics, ceramics, glass, metal, paint and archaeological record including camps sites, rock- pigment. Quantitative elemental analysis of such materials walled fish traps, middens, shell mounds, burials and a can help to address issues such as provenance, trade and quarry site. Fifty of the sites recorded were located in the exchange, resource exploitation and manufacturing techniques. Sandalwood River catchment. Separated from the sea This poster discusses the actual and potential contribution by transgressive Holocene sand dunes, the catchment is that EPMA analysis can make to archaeological research, and dominated by extensive intertidal and supratidal flats which outlines a number of case studies in brief. drain into the Gulf via Sandalwood River. Shell mounds UNSW and the AMMRF network are eager to develop new dominate the archaeological record of the catchment, applications for instrumentation, to increase awareness of exhibiting rich and diverse assemblages of shellfish, fish our analytical facilities among archaeological researchers, and crustaceans. Black-lipped oyster bioherms (death and to foster collaborative research between archaeologists assemblages) located around the margins of the saltflats and microscopists. This poster provides information on have enabled us to model local sea-level change and facility access for the UNSW 8500F and related domestic landscape development. The radiocarbon chronology EPMA facilities within the AMMRF network, as well as funding suggests landscape stabilisation shortly after sea-level opportunities available through the AMMRF Travel and Access stabilisation c.5000 BP with late Holocene human Program. occupation of the catchment. Preliminary results of excavations at three shell mound and radiocarbon dates from a further five sites in the catchment are presented. Stories from the Sieve: Preliminary Laboratory Results from Three Shell Mounds on Mornington Island, Mangoola Coal Aboriginal Gulf of Carpentaria Cultural Heritage Offsets
Daniel Rosendahl, Elle Piotto, Amy Tabrett and Sean Ulm Mary-Jean Sutton University of Queensland Umwelt Tania Court Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Offsets (ACHOs) are commonly UNE used to mitigate the impact of development on cultural heritage. ACHOs can take many forms including The first intensive archaeological surveys and excavations conservation of land and sites, training and employment of the Wellesley Islands in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria outcomes. The size of the offset is generally dictated by were undertaken in 2007. Of the rich archaeological the size of the project and its impact on Aboriginal cultural record, the dominant site types were shell mounds heritage and archaeological values. The purpose of this comprising large volumes of diverse marine shell taxa. poster is to provide an example of an outstanding ACHO So how long does it take to analyse a shell mound? that has arisen as a result of a large mining project in the This poster presents preliminary laboratory results of the Upper Hunter Valley - the Mangoola Coal Mine (formerly analysis of three shell mound excavations, including time Anvil Hill) in Wybong, New South Wales. The Mangoola
72 Poster abstracts
Coal Mine falls within the boundary of the Wanaruah Local grained basalt adze sources or quarries. The majority of Aboriginal Land Council and the ACHO strategy was prehistoric settlements ring the embayments that punctuate determined by Mangoola Coal in consultation with the the rocky coastlines. These residential complexes consist registered Aboriginal stakeholder groups. of dry laid stone foundations in a range of shapes and sizes. Most complexes contained a ritual structure known The ACHO strategy includes the acquisition by Mangoola ethnographically as a fishing shrine (ko‘a), a men’s house (hale Coal of 1078 hectares of land with demonstrated high mua) or household shrine where offerings of fresh branch Aboriginal cultural heritage, archaeological, historical, coral, shellfish, urchins and fish were presented at stone god ecological and aesthetic value. This area is known from images, well-defined altars, or placed on other portions of the partial survey to contain at least 109 archaeological sites shrine. Classic ethnohistoric sources mention specific ritual including sixteen rockshelter sites with surface artefacts items and the gods they are associated with. We conducted and potential archaeological deposit (PAD). The acquisition excavations at four ritual sites: two on the rocky west coast of this land has ensured that damage to rockshelter sites and two along the soft south shoreline. These sites were well and their PADs from feral animals and impacts to surface dated by U-series determinations of ritual corals with assays sites from other agricultural practices will be minimised. assigned to the Expansion Period of late Hawaiian prehistory This poster provides an example of how a large developer (in this case, after A.D. 1300). We examined 46,558 fish can work together with the local Aboriginal stakeholder bones weighing 1.96kg from all four sites to determine groups to provide positive cultural heritage conservation subsistence practices, ecological constraints of the offshore outcomes on an equally large scale. fishery and, importantly, the kinds of fish that were used in ritual, thus augmenting the ethnohistories.
Picturing Change: 21st century perspectives on the contact period Alternative Interpretive Landscapes: rock art of Australia Representations of Archaeology in Paul S.C. Tacon and Sally K. May Australian Poetry Griffith University Emma Ward Alistair Paterson School of Social Science, University of Queensland University of Western Australia This research utilised content analysis to explore June Ross representations of archaeology in the alternative media University of New England production of poetry in Australia. Studies into how archaeology is perceived by the Australian public reveal a ‘Picturing Change’ is an Australian Research Council funded number of stereotypes about the discipline and those who collaborative research project that began in 2008. It focuses practice it. These stereotypes have been demonstrated on Australian Indigenous rock art produced since the arrival to be prevalent within media depictions of archaeology. of Asians and Europeans in different parts of Australia. It also Previous research into archaeology in the media has is concerned with contemporary Indigenous views about focused on mainstream media production leaving contact period rock-art, related oral histories and contact alternative media representations of archaeology poorly period stories manifested visually. A key goal is to raise understood. This study investigated how archaeology national and international awareness of this little studied body is represented in alternative media production of poetry of rock art and Australian Indigenous rock art more generally. in Australia. A dataset of 64 Australian poems about, or In this new project we add another dimension to contact/ relating to, archaeology were analysed. Analysis revealed colonialism research by exploring contact rock art imagery that stereotypes and misconceptions about archaeology and contemporary stories/oral history about historical-era rock are being reinforced through this area of media production, art. Recent rock art, especially from the early contact period, specifically that there is no archaeology of note in Australia, is a unique but enduring Indigenous archival record. that archaeology is all about digging, that archaeologists are interested in rocks and that all archaeologists are male and either eccentric or an explorer. Ritual Use of Fish in Ancient Hawaii
Helene Tomkins and Marshall Weisler School of Social Science, University of Queensland The leeward side of Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands is known for its abundant coastal fishing grounds and numerous fine-
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 73 Calibration of the late Holocene 14C Parks Victoria marine reservoir ages in Hawaii using Post-Fire Archaeological Survey U-series dated coral: Spatial and temporal Doug Williams, Alistair Grinbergs and Angela Spitzer variation in ∆R Ironbark Heritage and Environment Pty Ltd Marshall Weisler This presents the results of an archaeological survey School of Social Science, University of Queensland conducted for Parks Victoria in collaboration with Aboriginal Quan Hua communities from far-east Gippsland and the Australian Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Alps. Severe bush fires swept through the Victorian Highlands in 2007 and funding was received to find Jian-xin Zhao archaeological sites within the National Parks while visibility Radiogenic Isotopes Facility, Centre for Microscopy and was increased. More than 90 new sites were recorded and Microanalysis, University of Queensland the results of this work are presented in this poster in plain A fundamental problem with radiocarbon chronologies built English for the members of the Aboriginal communities on charcoal dates is the possibility of inbuilt age of wood involved in this survey. This to facilitate community samples. The primary hindrance for using marine-derived ownership and access of the cultural heritage and the materials for dating is the lack of localised correction archaeological data collected. factors for calibrating the marine reservoir effect. The best method for determining the marine reservoir is radiocarbon dating coral samples that were precisely dated by U- Parks Victoria series assay. These two independent datasets provide Post-Flood Archaeological Survey an unprecedented opportunity to refine local marine reservoir correction factors through time. Our study area Doug Williams, Alistair Grinbergs and Angela Spitzer is the west third of Moloka’i where this leeward settlement Ironbark Heritage and Environment Pty Ltd pattern consists of prehistoric habitations clustered around This presents the results of an archaeological survey embayments. Many residential complexes contain a conducted for Parks Victoria in collaboration with the Gunai freestanding stone structure known ethnographically as Kurnai Aboriginal Community. Major flooding occured in a fishing shrine where fresh branch coral was placed as Victoria in 2007 and funding was received to study the offerings. We obtained TIMS U-series dates on 160+ coral impact of this event on archaeological sites. Over 30 samples from well-provenanced stratigraphic contexts new sites were recorded and several areas impacted and selected 12 of these for AMS dating at ANSTO. Two were identified. This work allows Parks Victoria and the samples were dated from each of the three west coastlines Department of Sustainability and Environment to better plan as samples from different shorelines, with unique offshore for the management of Aboriginal heritage places in riparian conditions (upwelling, currents and wind patterns) provides contexts. The results of this work are presented in this insights into the variation of offshore conditions around the poster in plain English for the Gaunai Kurnai community. same island. We dated an additional six coral samples to This to facilitate community ownership and access of the span the entire ~1000 year culture-historical sequence for cultural heritage and the archaeological data collected. the Hawaiian Islands.
74 Presenters
Mike Adamson, Archaeology Department, Sally Brockwell, Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, College of Flinders University, [email protected]...... 24 Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University...... 56 Atholl Anderson, Department of Archaeology and Natural Joseph Brooke, Sinclair Knight Merz, History, Australian National University...... 59 [email protected]...... 51, 55, 56, 66, 67 Ken Aplin, Australian National Wildlife Collection, Oliver Brown, Total Earth Care Pty Ltd, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems...... 46 [email protected]...... 51 Stewart Armstrong, National Trust of Queensland, Steve Brown, Culture & Heritage Division, NSW [email protected]...... 31 Department of Environment and Climate Change, [email protected]...... 39 Harold Ashburton, Puutu Kunti Kurruma and Pinikura.....54 T.G. Bryant, Graduate School of the Environment, Brit Asmussen, School of Archaeology, Australian National Macquarie University, [email protected]...... 67 University, [email protected]...... 45, 61 Jennifer Burch, La Trobe University and Environmental Val Attenbrow, Anthropology Unit, Research Branch, Resources Management Australia, Australian Museum...... 36 [email protected]...... 37 Maxime Aubert, Research School of Earth Sciences, James Butler, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australian Australian National University...... 57 Tropical Forest Institute, James Cook University...... 28 Paul Bahn, 428 Anlaby Road, Hull, HU3 6QP, England, David Cameron, Rio Tinto Coal Australia, [email protected]...... 16 [email protected]...... 52 Jane Balme, Department of Archaeology, University of Shaun Canning, ACHM, Western Australia, [email protected]...... 40, 61 [email protected]...... 54, 67 Anthony J. Barham, Archaeology and Anthropology, Xavier Carah, School of Social Science, University of College of Arts and Social Sciences; and Archaeology Queensland, [email protected]...... 68 and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, College of Asia Pacific, Australian National Steve Chaddock, Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, University, [email protected]...... 27, 46 [email protected]...... 67 Bryce Barker, School of Humanities and Communication, Robin Chapple, Friends of Australian Rock Art Inc. (FARA), University of Southern Queensland, [email protected]...... 49 [email protected]...... 66 Bethan Charles, Department of Archaeology and Australian Key John Beattie, NSW Department of Environment Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis and the School of and Climate Change...... 29 Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney...... 63, 64 Stuart Bedford, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Robyne Churnside, Member of the Ngarluma Native Title Australian National University...... 56 Holder group, c-/ Ngarluma Resource Centre, Roeburne, WA, 6718...... 50 Robert G. Bednarik, [email protected]...... 50 Warren Clark, NSW Department of Environment and Climate Sheahan Bestel, School of Geography and Environmental Change, [email protected]...... 44 Science, Monash University; and Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University...... 47 Chris Clarkson, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 35, 37, 42, 56 Stefani Blackmore, Converge Heritage + Community.....71 Noelene Cole, [email protected]...... 51 Patricia Bourke, Heritage Conservation Branch, NRETA...... 25 Emlyn Collins, Consulting Archaeologist, Joann Bowman, School of Social Science, University of [email protected]...... 44 Queensland, [email protected]...... 66 Kate Connell, School of Social Science, University of Kirsten Bradley, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 35, 36 Queensland, [email protected]...... 66 Richard Cosgrove, Archaeology Program, La Trobe Liam Brady, University of Western Australia, University, [email protected]...... 64 [email protected]...... 33, 34 Andrew Costello, Sinclair Knight Merz, Joan Brenner-Coltrain, Department of Anthropology, [email protected]...... 51, 55, 66 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA...... 64
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 75 Tania Court, University of New England...... 72 P.C. Fanning, Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University...... 67 Sarah Croker, Disciplines of Anatomy & Histology, University of Sydney, [email protected]...... 62 Pat Faulkner, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 65 Leanne Cullen, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australian Tropical Forest Institute, James Cook University, Jacqui Fenwick, School of Earth and Environmental [email protected]...... 28 Sciences, University of Wollongong...... 59 Darren Curnoe, University of New South Wales...... 57 Jennifer M. Ferris, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, USA, Cameo Dalley, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, [email protected]...... 36 University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 25, 26 Judith Field, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Joedie Davis, NSW Department of Environment and Microanalysis and the School of Philosophical and Historical Climate Change...... 29 Inquiry, The University of Sydney, Joel Deacon, Rio Tinto Coal Australia ...... 52 [email protected]...... 45, 47, 61, 63, 64 Tim Denham, School of Geography and Environmental Melanie Fillios, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Science, Monash University...... 68 Microanalysis, University of Sydney, [email protected]...... 63 Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, [email protected]...... 26 Iona Flett, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University...... 59 Trudy Doelman, University of Sydney, [email protected]...... 60 Vanessa Flynn, ACHM ...... 54, 67 Ines Domingo Sanz, Flinders University, David Frankel, Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University, [email protected]...... 34 [email protected]...... 57 Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Department of Prehistory, Natalie Franklin, Environment & Heritage, Design, Complutense University, Madrid 28040, Spain...... 60 Environment & Stewardship, Queensland Department of Main Roads, Denise Donlon, Disciplines of Anatomy & Histology, [email protected]...... 31 University of Sydney [email protected] Richard Fullagar, Department of Archaeology, University of Paul Donnelly, NSW Department of Environment and Sydney and Scarp Archaeology, Climate Change ...... 29 [email protected]...... 45, 54, 64 Joe Dortch, Archaeology, University of Western Australia, Tom Gara, ACHM ...... 51 [email protected]...... 40 Jillian Garvey, Archaeology Program, School of Historical Bettyann Doyle, School of Social Science, University of and European Studies, LaTrobe University, Queensland, [email protected]...... 38 [email protected]...... 61, 62, 64 Neale Draper, ACHM, [email protected]...... 51 Luke Gliganic, School of Earth and Environmental Fiona Dyason, Archaeology, Sciences, University of Wollongong...... 60 University of Western Australia...... 40 Luke Godwin, Central Queensland Cultural Heritage Vanessa Edmonds, Sinclair Knight Merz...... 51, 55 Management, [email protected] ...... 38, 41, 52 Stephen Eggins, Research School of Earth Sciences, Albert Goede, School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Australian National University...... 64 Wildlife Research, University of Sydney...... 64 Ian Evans, University of Newcastle, Alice Gorman, Archaeology Department, Flinders [email protected]...... 32 University, [email protected]...... 40 Nicholas Evans, Department of Linguistics, Nicolas K Grguric, Archae-Aus, [email protected] Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Darren Griffin, ACHM ...... 54, 67 Australian National University...... 65 Alistair Grinbergs, Ironbark Heritage Theo Evans, CSIRO Entomology...... 34 and Environment Pty Ltd...... 74 Andrew Fairbairn, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 46, 68
76 Presenters
Rainer Grün, Research School of Earth Sciences, Robyn Jenkins, Sinclair Knight Merz, Australian National University...... 69 [email protected]...... 51, 55, 66 David Guilfoyle, South Coast Natural Resource Ji Xueping, Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Management, Albany, Archaeology, China...... 57 [email protected]...... 30, 40 Jian-xin Zhao, Radiogenic Isotopes Facility, Daryl Guse, RSPAS, Australian National University, Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, [email protected]...... 25, 33 University of Queensland...... 69, 74 Simon Haberle, Department of Archaeology and Natural Renaud Joannes-boyau, Research School of Earth History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Sciences, The Australian National University, Australian National University...... 47, 68 [email protected]...... 69 Phil Habgood, School of Social Science, University Harvey Johnston, NSW Department of Environment and of Queensland; Converge Heritage + Community Climate Change, [email protected]...... 56, 58 [email protected]...... 44 Haiming Wang, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Duncan Jones, Archaeology Program, Relics and Archaeology, China; and Institute of La Trobe University, [email protected]...... 69 Archaeology, Chinese Academy Chris Kaskadanis, Sinclair Knight Merz ...... 55 of Social Sciences, China...... 47 Mick Kelly, NSW Department of Environment Cameron Harvey, Cultural Heritage Branch, Queensland and Climate Change...... 29 Environmental Protection Agency, [email protected]...... 42 Amanda Kennedy...... 67 Ken Hayward, Bush Heritage Australia...... 40 Sasiphan Khaweerat, School of Social Science, University of Queensland...... 69 Steve Hemming, Flinders University, [email protected]...... 29 Nikolay Kluyev, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography, Vladivostok, Primorye, Russia...... 60 Andy Herries, University of New South Wales...... 57 Michelle Langley, School of Social Science, Wilfred Hicks, Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo Native Title Claimant University of Queensland, [email protected], 70 group, PO Box 268, Roebourne, WA, 6718...... 50 Donald Lantzke, Australian Interaction Consultants...... 49 Jeff Hill, Sinclair Knight Merz ...... 51, 55 Wendy Lees, Research School of Earth Sciences, Rosemary Hill, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australian National University...... 64 [email protected]...... 28 Carol Lentfer, School of Social Science, Peter Hiscock, Department of Archaeology and University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 45 Anthropology Australian National University...... 36, 43 Leping Jiang, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics S.J. Holdaway, Department of Anthropology, and Archaeology, China and Institute of Archaeology, University of Auckland...... 67 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China...... 47 Geoffrey Hope, Department of Archaeology and Natural Sarah Lewis, Australian Interaction Consultants...... 49 History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University...... 47, 68 Li Gang, Cultural Relics Administration Institute, Diqing Tibethan Autonomous Prefecture...... 57 Feli Hopf, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Li Liu, Archaeology Program, La Trobe University and Australian National University...... 68 School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University...... 47 Philip Hughes, Huonbrook Environment and Heritage.....43 Ian Lilley, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, P.J. Hughes, Australian National University...... 53 University of Queensland...... 65 Zenobia Jacobs, School of Earth and Environmental Gretta Logue, RTA, [email protected]...... 71 Sciences, University of Wollongong...... 59, 60 Marlize Lombard, Institute for Human Evolution, University Nathan Jankowski, School of Earth and Environmental of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Sciences, University of Wollongong...... 59 [email protected]...... 35
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 77 Scott L’Oste-Brown, Central Queensland Cultural Heritage Leanne Mitchell, NSW Department of Management, [email protected]...... 38, 41, 52 Environment and Climate Change, [email protected]...... 44 Chris Lovell, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 23 Coral Montero Lopez, La Trobe University, [email protected]...... 71 Roger Luebbers, Luebbers & Associates, [email protected]...... 41 Cyril Moon, Mornington Island Elder...... 72 Jane Lydon, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Jamin Moon, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria...... 52 Monash University, [email protected] Scott Mooney, University of New South Wales...... 57 Oliver Macgregor, Australian National University Brendan James Moore, South West Aboriginal Land and [email protected]...... 53 Sea Council, [email protected]...... 30 Alex Mackay, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Michael Morrison, Northern Cultural Heritage and Australian National University, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, [email protected] ...... 35, 53 [email protected]...... 25, 27 Elspeth Mackenzie, Rio Tinto Coal Australia ...... 52 David Mott, ACHM ...... 51 Janine Major, Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, Wolfgang Müller, Department of Earth Sciences, [email protected]...... 70 Royal Holloway University of London, Surrey, UK...... 64 Reiner Mantei, School of Social Science, Ken Mulvaney, University of New England, University of Queensland...... 68 [email protected]...... 48 Ben Marwick, Department of Anthropology, University of Karen Murphy, School of Social Science, University of Washington, USA, [email protected], 43 Queensland and Cultural Heritage Branch, Geraldine Mate, Queensland Museum and School of Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 31, 32 [email protected]...... 31 Anna Nelson, Converge Heritage + Community, Carney D. Matheson, School of Social Science, [email protected]...... 71 University of Queensland, Department of Anthropology Oona Nicholson, ERM, [email protected], 54 and Department of Biology, Lakehead University, Canada, [email protected]...... 70 Jackson Njau, National Natural History Museum in Arusha, Tanzania ...... 63 Sally K. May, Griffith University...... 33, 57, 73 Sue Nugent, School of Social Science, Linda McCarthy, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 46 University of Queensland...... 70 Jim O’Connell, Department of Anthropology, Jo McDonald, Jo McDonald Cultural Heritage University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA...... 64 Management, [email protected]...... 33 Sue O’Connor, Department of Archaeology and Natural Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy, James Cook University...... 28 History, RSPAS, College of Asia and the Pacific, R.J. McKay, Puutu Kunti Kurruma and Pinikura...... 54 Australian National University, [email protected]...... 46, 56 Darlene McNaughton, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, Cliff Ogleby, [email protected]...... 44 James Cook University, Colin Pardoe, Colin Pardoe Bio-Anthropology & [email protected]...... 27 Archaeology, [email protected] ...... 53 Ian McNiven, Monash University, Rebecca Parkes, School of Archaeology & Anthropology, [email protected]...... 23, 24, 34 College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National Andrew McWilliam, Archaeology and Natural History, University, [email protected]...... 58 RSPAS, College of Asia and the Pacific, Alistair Paterson, University of Western Australia...... 73 Australian National University ...... 56 Siobhan Paterson, Sinclair Knight Merz ...... 55 Paul Memmott, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland...... 65
78 Presenters
Christina Pavlides, Archaeology Program, La Trobe Annie Ross, School of NRSM and School of Social University, [email protected]...... 45 Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 38 Daniel Percival, NSW Roads and Traffic Authority...... 71 June Ross, University of New England, Alistair W.G. Pike, Department of Archaeology, [email protected]...... 33, 73 University of Bristol, Bristol, UK...... 64 Mike Rowland, Department of Natural Resources Elle Piotto, School of Social Science, and Water, [email protected]...... 23 University of Queensland ...... 72 Anthony Simmons, Queensland Environmental Protection Vladimir Popov, Far East Geological Institute, Agency, [email protected]...... 32 Vladivostok, Primorye, Russia...... 60 Tom Sizer, West Gippsland Catchment Management Carl Porter, Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, Authority, [email protected]...... 29 [email protected]...... 32 Michael Slack, Scarp Archaeology, Jon Prangnell, School of Social Science, [email protected] ...... 54 University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 42 Igor Sleptsov, Institute of History, Archaeology Matthew Prebble, Department of Archaeology and Natural and Ethnography, Vladivostok, Primorye, Russia...... 60 History, College of Asian and Pacific, Australian National University...... 47 Sue Smalldon, Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dampier, WA, [email protected]...... 48, 50 Karen Privat, Electron Microscope Unit, University of New South Wales, [email protected]...... 72 Stephanie Smith, School of Social Science, University of Queensland...... 68 Quan Hua, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation...... 74 Tam Smith, School of Social Science, University of Queensland ...... 56 Warren Reed, School of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney...... 62 Andrew Sneddon, Godden Mackay Logan Heritage Consultants, [email protected]...... 43 Jamie Reeves, Biosis Research, [email protected]...... 55 Jim Specht, Anthropology, Australian Museum, [email protected]...... 45 Rose Reid, Sinclair Knight Merz...... 67 Angela Spitzer, Ironbark Heritage and Environment Pty Ltd, Doc Reynolds, Project Director and Traditional Owner, [email protected]...... 74 Esperance Region...... 30 Nigel Spooner, Research School of Earth Sciences, Ed Rhodes, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Australian National University; and DSTO, Manchester Metropolitan University...... 59 Edinburgh, SA...... 64 Thomas Richards, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria...... 54 Matthew Spriggs, School of Archaeology Mal Ridges, NSW Department of Environment and Anthropology, Australian National University, and Climate Change, [email protected]...... 56 [email protected]...... 29, 43 Andrew Starkey, Kokatha representative...... 40 Richard G. Roberts, School of Earth and Environmental Errol Stock, School of Environment, Griffith University.....65 Sciences, University of Wollongong...... 59, 60 M.E. Sullivan, Australian National University ...... 53 Gail Robertson, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University; and School of Social Science, Mary-Jean Sutton, Umwelt, [email protected] University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 36 Shannon Sutton, Sinclair Knight Merz...... 66 Richard Robins, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Amy Tabrett, School of Social Science, Studies Unit, University of Queensland; University of Queensland...... 72 and Everick Heritage Consultants Pty Ltd, [email protected]...... 65 Paul S.C. Taçon, School of Arts, Griffith University, [email protected]...... 33, 57, 73 Daniel Rosendahl, Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland, Alandra Tasire, University of New England, [email protected]...... 65, 72 [email protected]...... 34
Programme and Abstracts | Australian Archaeological Association | Annual Conference | 3 – 6 December 2008 79 Andrew Thorn, ARTCARE Australia...... 34 Tanya Willlis, Southern Gulf Catchments NRM, [email protected]...... 26 Helene Tomkins, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Michael Wood, James Cook University...... 28 [email protected]...... 73 Wally Wood, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Robin Torrence, Division of Anthropology, Bond University...... 28, 63 Australian Museum...... 46, 60 Nathan Wright, School of Social Science, Carlos Torres, NSW Department of Environment University of Queensland...... 68 and Climate Change ...... 29 Steve Wroe, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy Clive Trueman, Geochemistry Research Group, National and Microanalysis and the School of Philosophical Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney...... 64 Southampton, UK...... 64 Xingcan Chen, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics Sean Ulm, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Archaeology, China; and Institute of Archaeology, Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China...... 47 [email protected]...... 38, 65, 72 Yang Decong, Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics Peter Veth, Australian National University...... 33 and Archaeology, China...... 57 Linda E. Villiers, Australian Interaction Consultants, Yue-Xing Feng, Radiogenic Isotopes Facilities, [email protected]...... 53 Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Queensland...... 69 Michael Walker, Facultad de Biologı´a, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain...... 58 Emma Ward, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected] Jaclyn Ward, ACHM ...... 54, 67 Jennifer Webb, Archaeology Program, LaTrobe University, [email protected]...... 57 John Webb, Department of Environmental Geoscience, La Trobe University...... 47 Wayne Webb, Project Director and Traditional Owner, South-West Region...... 30 Harry Webber, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, [email protected] ...... 52 Marshall Weisler, School of Social Science, University of Queensland, [email protected]...... 69, 70, 74 Alison Weisskopf, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK...... 47 Wellesley Islands Rangers, Mornington Island CDEP, Gununa PO, Mornington Island, QLD 4871...... 26 Michael Westaway, Queensland Museum, [email protected]...... 44, 63 Chris Wilson, Flinders University ...... 29 Doug Williams, Ironbark Heritage and Environment Pty Ltd...... 74 Johnny Williams Mornington Island Elder...... 72 Lorraine Williams...... 25
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