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Aboriginal Camp Sites on the Western Coast of Damper

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Aboriginal Camp Sites on the Western Coast of Damper 93 ictpt.r.,) J','uclof/tcr:/c . 4- ABORIGINAL CAMP SITES ON THEWESTERN COAST OF DAMPER LAND, WESTERNAUSTRALIA by Kim Akerman * The Dampierland Peninsulalies to the north of Broome on the north-west coast of WesternAustralia. The peninsula is within 25" - 30" rainfall belt,with temperature varying between 70° F in July and85° Fin November/December. The low plateau that makes upthe peninsula has el basal locally layer of cretaceous silicifiedsandstone, overlain with occuring Pliestocene sand dunesand a thin sandy soil veneer. locally The area supports tropicalwoodland vegetation known as 'pindan'. Very little has been recordedabout the day-to-day life of the coastal people ofDampierland. W.D. Campbell visited Sunday Island in 1908 andwith W.H. Bird provided an account of the Aborigines inhabitingit in 1915. From this account Bad tribe and from discussions heldwith elderly men of the now resident at OneArm Point, it is clear thatalthough a maritime people the materialculture possessed allowed only a very limitedexploitation of the marineenvironment. Many of the items consideredvital to a-coastal exploiting time. group were absent. Harpoons were not 'used until contact Even now the harpoons useddiffer radically from those used on the northern and eastern coastsof Australia. There appears to be no word in thelanguage for harpoons and they are designated 'English harpoons'and 'Japanese harpoons', depending on their construction(Figure 1, a and b). The 'English harpoon' is an ironrod of 1.5cm diameter non-detachable single up to one meter inlength with a flattened is formed into an off- barbed tip. The other end of the rod mangrove wood pole set 'eye'. This end is lashed firmly onto .a abudffOurMetet-g in TengtitThe-'Japanese-harpoon! differs This in having a detachablebarbed head with a hollow base. is slipped over a onemeter.iron foreshaft which in turnis lashed securely to the mangrovewood shaft. The harpoon line of the former type is securedthrough the 'eye' of the iron rod and in the latter isattached directly to thedetatchable found by Thomson (1934: head. The indigenous harpoon type as fore- 237-62) has a shaft socketed toreceive the head and no preferred for shaft. Among theBad the 'Japanese harpoon' is turtle and the 'Englishharpoon' with its lance-like head, harpooned and the for dugong. Turtles tend to spin when rigid 'English' iron is morelikely to pull out. * Manuscript received March 1974. Kim Akerman is with theDepartment of Public Health,Derby, W.A. 44' 94 ID Workshops Map 1: [Sunday I. 0 Living areas Freshwater soak 0 Low seawarddunes "mircLarger stabel dunes -tin Cape Reef Berthole - Derby Coulomb James :70 Price Pt. 0 INDIAN OCEAN Broom No Peninsula The Dampierland 0 Map 2: '400 ---- Coutait Pt creek 0 200 metres concentration Map 3: Sketch map showing Point of camps in areaB (i) Coulomb Recent sites nearCoulomb Pt. English Harpoon 1 metre Japanese Harpoon used by theBad Figure 1: Modern harpoon types Figure 2: 1 metre A2......... A. red soilcliff beach Al sea level ., rlietStorleilisitcrqe.istliet relationship betweenAl and A2 sites Sketch showingstratigraphical 95 Nowadays there is little emphasis ongathering sea foods from the reef or beach environmentalthough 'shelling' and the gathering of clam meat isundertaken for commercial purposes. Fishing with lines and hooks (formerly not made or used) is undertaken on anirregular basis. Fishing was formerly done with long single pointed unbarbed spears or with special fishing boomerangs. After the coming of the pearling fleets, iron 'boomerangs' were used by menand women when fishing in the shallows. Turtles are taken throughout the year but the main months appear to be October and November when mating or 'married' turtles are common. The hunters usually watch for them from beaches on either side of tidal channels. The copulating turtles are easily approached and harpooned. Dugong on the other hand migrate from areasnorth of Sunday Island south during March/May and at this time, aretaken often. The heavy emphasis on the large marine animals atpresent is nor reflected in surface sites to be describedand there appears to be a radical change inthe exploitation methoas used by the Dampierlanders. Description of sites The sites described here lie along a coastalstretch of some ten miles in lengthimmediately north of James Price Point. In 1971 W.H. Butler conducted a fauna surveyof the area on behalf of the Departmentof Fisheries and Fauna. On this survey artifacts similar to thosedescribed were collected and forwarded to the Western Australia Museum(W.H. Butler, personal communication). At present the coastal strip running from Coulomb Point to Cape Bertholet is aFisheries and Fauna Reserve. The coast here is rugged with beach frontsvarying between 100 and 500 rosters in width. TheFe beaches abut either on to large fixed sand dunes or onto terra rossa cliffs up to thirty meters in height.. Thesites which appear to belong to three different phases I havedesignated Al, A2 and B. Sites designated as Al and Al. appear to beconsiderably older than thOse that fall into the B category. On all three types of sites concentrationsof mollusc shells are evident. In fact, these shell concentrations are the main indications that there has beenaboriginal activity in the area. It appears that rock oysters (Crassostreasp), trochus (Trochus lineatus), ark shells (Arcidaesp), abalone (two species of HaZiotis, H. ovina and H. asinina) andsmall pearl oysters (Pinctada sp and Pteria sp) were themain shell fish gathered, although many shells belonging to other genera were found damaged on sites but in muchlesser quantities. 96 Gastropods were usually found tohave one or more of their whorls damaged - evidenceof the method of extraction the dorsal of the animal. Trochus shells, however, usually had half of their spires removed tofacilitate extraction of the animal. As well as the smaller molluscsthe large shells of trumpet shells (Syrinx auranus)and bailer shells (tdeloamphora), are common althoughusually damaged. Whole shells of the bailer shell usually have thecolumella and interior whorls .removed to convert the outer bodywhorls into a large bowl. Occasional specimens were seen with ahole punched in the side.of the body whorl opposite the aperture,allowing the columella to be grasped as a handle(Davidson 1937:200). Both Al and A2 are associated withthe red soil cliffs and fossilized dunes. Al sites have sparse shellaccumulations usually about small hearth zones. Hearths are characterized by a scatter of either burntsandstone lumps or baked antbed. There is a crude lithic industryusing silcretes which are exposed at sealevel on the western side of Dampierland, (this sandstone/silcrete stratum is wellexposed on the eastern coast of thepeninsula and appears to dip gently to the west). Boulders of silcrete were obtainedfrom creek washouts. Crude flakes with largeplain'striking platforms and sharp edges were used asknives and scrapers. Cores were also used aschoppers; otherwise there is no,evidence of any refined stone or shellindustry. Sites in the Al category do not appearto have any vertical accumulation and liedirectly above the disconformity between the sand stone and thered earth cliffs (Figure 2). A2 sites are found on the topsof the cliffs and appear to be up to 1-1.5 meters indepth. The shell accumulations are interbedded in theterra rossa soils. As hearth accumulations of the same speciesof shells appear, there begun seem to be indicationsthat specialized gathering had species to take place, Small concentrations of individual are found embeddedin the cliff face. The most striking introduction,however, is the refined lithic technology which hasproduced long simple blade points in with some marginal trimming. These blades are 3 to 12 cm length. Dortsb (L972: 65-710 described asimilar industry in the Chichester Ranges of WesternAustralia. At the Chichester Ranges, however, the blades areflaked from black, fine grained Dortch appear cherty siltstone. The techniques describeiby Dampierland to be the same asthose used for blade production on ground edge axes (Figure 3). As well as these points, rare of both pebble and bifacecoroid types have been introduced, pebbles. along with anvils made onsilcrete or shelly conglomerate All implements are madeof either silcrete or conglomerate. No artifacts made of basalt ordolerite have been noted, cm B. A- ground edge with slightmarginal trimming Heavily battered Blade points axe made or silcrete Small grindingplague of ferriginous grit. Thistype of grindstone isassociated 0 4 with bailer shellimplements <2277.- D. points Plain bladeswith flake vc(272212:32r1 F. 402 E. made 0 4 Nosed scraper Figure 5: Chopping implement on brokenflake made on a flake Figure 6: offramjcm Pebble anvil stoneof shelly associated with conglomerate food. oPentng trochusshells for 98 On the A2 sites a shelltechnology appears to have begun. Extremely brittle Melo shell bowls areweathered out of the cliff and one weathered ground bailershell knife/chisel was found. This was the only'shell knifefound associated with the cliff allow some top sites. Although sites in the Al and A2 category impressions of the prehistoriclife of the Dampierlanders, two sites in particular cover the contactand early post-contact era, which allow greaterinsights into the ecology of thestrand dwellers. These I have classed as B sites. B sites differ radically intheir location from A sites lying directly on stablized sanddunes about one mile apart. The first B (i) is on Point Coulomb,the other B (ii), on the south bank of a creek mouth, onemile to the north (Map 2). The sites lie between the first lowseaward dunes and extend east to the tops of thelarger stabilized dunes. On both sites it is possible toobserve that some specialization in food collection hastaken place. Separate hearths are often associated with oneparticular mollusc species, usually trochas, abalone or ark shells, Rock oyster shells are Also by far the commonest beingscattered over the entire area. at both sites it is possible to seethe remainof turtle.
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