Honours Thesis (PDF, 6.58MB)

: An assessment of economic intensification at the Yindayin rockshelter, Stanley Island Martin Wright revised October 2018 Title page: Yindayin rockshelter, Stanley Island (left) facing southwest (Photograph: Westaway, 2016) NOTE: This thesis was updated to correct formatting issues and to adjust volume correction calculations for spits 11 and 12. These corrections have been approved by the Honours Coordinator. Martin Wright, 8 October 2018. [i] TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ......................................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices Tables ..................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ ix Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1 Thesis Overview ................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Introduction and rationale for research ..................................................................................... 13 1.2 Research question and aims ....................................................................................................... 18 1.3 Research design and thesis structure ......................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2 Theory and identification of economic intensification ........................................................ 21 2.1 What is economic intensification? .............................................................................................. 21 2.2 Specialisation, diversification, and investment .......................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Archaeological correlates for specialisation, diversification, and investment .................... 25 2.3 Identifying diversification through Optimal Foraging Theory..................................................... 27 2.3.1 The prey choice model ......................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 The patch choice model ....................................................................................................... 29 2.4 Explaining economic intensification ........................................................................................... 30 2.5 Criteria for economic intensification .......................................................................................... 31 2.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 3 Background .......................................................................................................................... 33 3.1 The Flinders Group ...................................................................................................................... 33 3.2 Stanley Island and the Yindayin (Endaen) rockshelter ................................................................ 33 3.3 Beaton’s Princess Charlotte Bay fieldwork ................................................................................. 36 3.4 Fieldwork conducted August 2016 ............................................................................................. 39 3.4.1 Site integrity ......................................................................................................................... 43 3.5 Trends in Holocene occupation of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ............................................... 43 3.5.1 Chronology ........................................................................................................................... 45 3.5.2 Occupation data ................................................................................................................... 46 3.5.3 Explaining the initiation and fluctuation in island occupation ............................................ 47 3.5.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 50 3.6 Chapter Summary ....................................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 4 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................ 53 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 53 4.1.1 Preparation of Materials ...................................................................................................... 53 [ii] 4.1.2 Identification of faunal material .......................................................................................... 54 4.1.3 Invertebrate Quantification ................................................................................................. 54 4.1.4 Radiocarbon dating .............................................................................................................. 59 4.1.5 Sampling of the 3mm material ............................................................................................ 59 4.2 Analytical methods ..................................................................................................................... 60 4.2.1 Accumulation and Deposition Rates .................................................................................... 61 4.2.2 Fragmentation Rates ............................................................................................................ 63 4.2.3 Diversity Indices ................................................................................................................... 63 4.2.4 Patch Preferences ................................................................................................................ 67 4.3 Environment and Climate data ................................................................................................... 69 4.3.1 Sea level variation ................................................................................................................ 69 4.3.2 Effective Precipitation and Temperature ............................................................................. 70 4.3.3 Fluctuations in the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ..................................................... 70 4.3.4 Reef formation ..................................................................................................................... 71 4.3.5 Extreme cyclonic events....................................................................................................... 71 4.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 5 Results .................................................................................................................................. 73 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 73 5.2 Site occupation data ................................................................................................................... 73 5.2.1 Radiocarbon dating .............................................................................................................. 73 5.2.2 Accumulation rates .............................................................................................................. 75 5.2.3 Deposition rates ................................................................................................................... 77 5.2.4 Summary of site occupation trends ..................................................................................... 85 5.3 Invertebrate quantification data................................................................................................. 87 5.3.1 MNI count ............................................................................................................................ 89 5.3.2 NISP count ............................................................................................................................ 93 5.3.3 Weight .................................................................................................................................. 97 5.3.4 Fragmentation rates .......................................................................................................... 101 5.3.5 Common, non-dominant taxa ............................................................................................ 104 5.3.6 Summary of quantification trends ..................................................................................... 112 5.4 Diversity Indices ........................................................................................................................ 113 5.4.1 NTAXA - Richness ............................................................................................................... 113 5.4.2

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