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The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts more information - www.cambridge.org/9780521407458 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA’S DESERTS This is the first book-length study of the archaeology of Australia’s deserts, one of the world’s major habitats and the largest block of drylands in the Southern Hemisphere. Over the last few decades, a wealth of new environmental and archaeological data about this fascinating region has become available. Drawing on a wide range of sources, The Archaeology of Australia’s Deserts explores the late Pleistocene settlement of Australia’s deserts, the formation of distinctive desert societies and the origins and development of the hunter-gatherer societies documented in the classic nineteenth-century ethnographies of Spencer and Gillen. Written by one of Australia’s leading desert archaeologists, the book interweaves a lively history of research with archaeological data in a masterly survey of the field and a profoundly interdisciplinary study that forces archaeology into conversations with history and anthropology, economy and ecology, and geography and earth sciences. Mike Smith is the senior archaeologist at the National Museum of Australia. For more than 30 years, he has worked extensively across the Australian arid zone, piecing together the archaeology of this immense continental region of dunefields, sandy rivers, salt lakes, and desert uplands. His previous appointments include field archaeologist at the Northern Territory Museum in Darwin and Alice Springs, research Fellow in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Aus- tralian National University, and lecturer in archaeology for the Depart- ment of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National Uni- versity. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and of the Society of Antiquaries (London), he was awarded the Rhys Jones medal by the Australian Archaeological Association in 2006 for ‘out- standing contributions to Australian Archaeology’. In 2010, he received the Verco medal from the Royal Society of South Australia for his research. CAMBRIDGE WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY series editor NORMAN YOFFEE, University of Nevada, Las Vegas editorial board SUSAN ALCOCK, Brown University TOM DILLEHAY, Vanderbilt University TIM PAUKETAT, University of Illinois STEPHEN SHENNAN, University College London CARLA SINOPOLI, University of Michigan DAVID WENGROW, University College London The Cambridge World Archaeology series is addressed to students and professional archaeologists, and to academics in related disciplines. Most volumes present a survey of the archaeology of a region of the world, providing an up-to-date account of research and integrating recent find- ings with new concerns of interpretation. While the focus is on a spe- cific region, broader cultural trends are discussed and the implications of regional findings for cross-cultural interpretations considered. The authors also bring anthropological and historical expertise to bear on archaeological problems and show how both new data and changing intellectual trends in archaeology shape inferences about the past. More recently, the series has expanded to include thematic volumes. recent books in the series li liu and xingcan chen, The Archaeology of China stephen d. houston and takeshi inomata, The Classic Maya philip l. kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia lawrence barham and peter mitchell, The First Africans robin dennell, The Palaeolithic Settlement of Asia christopher pool, Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica samuel m. wilson, The Archaeology of the Caribbean richard bradley, The Prehistory of Britain ludmila koryakova and andrej epimakhov, The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages david wengrow, The Archaeology of Early Egypt paul rainbird, The Archaeology of Micronesia peter m. m. g. akkermansa and glenn m. schwartz, The Archaeology of Syria timothy insoll, The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa cambridge world archaeology THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA’S DESERTS mike smith National Museum of Australia cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usa www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521407458 C Mike Smith 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Smith, M. A., author. The archaeology of Australia’s deserts / Mike Smith, National Museum of Australia. pages cm. – (Cambridge world archaeology) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-40745-8 (hardback) 1. Deserts – Australia. 2. Environmental archaeology – Australia. 3. Archaeology – Australia. 4. Human ecology – Australia. I. Title. gb618.89.s65 2013 994.01–dc23 2012031958 isbn 978-0-521-40745-8 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urlsfor external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Ben, Lost in the Strzelecki Desert as a 10-year-old and tracked through the night. And for Moshu, born in Alice Springs with hair the colour of red desert sands. CONTENTS Figures and Tables page xi Preface xvii Acknowledgements xxi Note on Calibration of Radiocarbon Dates xxv 1 The Archaeology of Deserts: Australia in Context . 1 2 DesertsPast:AHistoryofIdeas.........................17 3 TheEmptyDesert:InlandEnvironmentsPriortoPeople........45 4 Foundations: Moving into the Deserts . 70 5 Islands in the Interior: Last Glacial Aridity and Its Aftermath . 109 6 The ‘Desert Culture’ Revisited: Assembling a Cultural System . 157 7 Rock Art and Place: Evolution of an Inscribed Landscape . 212 8 The Chain of Connection: Trade and Exchange across the Interior..........................................266 9 The Last Millennium: Archaeology and the Classic Ethnographies.....................................302 Glossary of Technical Terms 343 References 349 Index 391 ix FIGURES AND TABLES figures 1.1 The modern distribution of deserts. page 2 1.2 Australia is the driest of the six inhabited continents. 2 1.3 Global spread of modern humans into Australasia. 3 1.4 Map of the Australian arid zone. 5 1.5 Influence of the Australian monsoon on Australia’s deserts. 9 2.1 Baldwin Spencer with Arrernte elders, 1896. 19 2.2 ‘Native village in the Northern Interior’, 1845. 21 2.3 Herbert Basedow’s tracing of rock engravings, 1907. 25 2.4 Robert Keble’s 1947 map of climatic belts. 27 2.5 Jim Bowler’s 1971 map of the Willandra Lakes. 33 3.1 The 1893 digatLakeMulligan. 46 3.2 Distribution of Diprotodon optatum and Genyornis newtoni. 47 3.3 Climatic variability over the last 350 ka showing marine isotope stages (MIS). 51 3.4 Bowler’s ‘hydrological threshold’ for Australian lakes. 53 3.5 The Lake Eyre basin during the last interglacial. 54 3.6 Lake-level curve for Lake Eyre. 55 3.7 Kocurek’s model of aeolian system response to climate change. 59 3.8 The distribution and diversity of late Quaternary megafauna. 62 4.1 Map showing archaeological sites dating more than 30 ka. 73 4.2 Map of the Willandra Lakes. 81 4.3 The excavation at Mungo B in 1976. 82 4.4 The Cuddie Springs bone bed. 85 4.5 Puritjarra rockshelter. 90 4.6 Excavations at Puritjarra rockshelter, 1988. 91 4.7 The Mungo 3 (WLH3) burial. 93 4.8 Artefacts from the 35 ka palaeosurface at Puritjarra. 97 5.1 Map of the continent during the last glacial maximum. 111 5.2 Biotic and human responses during the last glacial maximum. 112 5.3 The location of glacial refugia. 113 5.4 The impact of peak glacial aridity upon land use. 123 xi xii Figures and Tables 5.5 Plot of radiocarbon dates, showing the impact of the last glacial maximum. 124 5.6 Different types of stratigraphic or occupation hiatus. 131 5.7 Map of western Central Australia. 134 5.8 Stratigraphic section, Kulpi Mara excavations. 135 5.9 Large flake implements from the late Pleistocene unit at Puritjarra. 137 5.10 Map of the Pilbara. 139 5.11 Temporal distribution of stone artefacts at Djadjiling. 140 5.12 Temporal distribution of stone artefacts at Serpents Glen. 147 5.13 The sinkhole at Koonalda Cave. 151 5.14 Fossil human footprint dating to 23–19 ka, Willandra Lakes region. 155 6.1 Excavations at Puntutjarpa rockshelter in 1969–70. 159 6.2 Summed probability plot for all radiocarbon ages from archaeological sites in Australian drylands. 161 6.3 Summed probability plot showing radiocarbon dates on Terebralia and Anadara shell middens. 171 6.4 Excavations at the Skew Valley midden, 1975–76. 173 6.5 Stratigraphy of the Skew Valley midden. 173 6.6 Stratigraphic section for Allens Cave. 177 6.7 Small-tool phase artefacts from Puritjarra rockshelter. 186 6.8 The spatial and temporal distribution of geometric microliths. 187 6.9 The distribution of tula adzes, pirri points and millstones. 190 6.10 Unifacial pirri points from the Lake Eyre basin. 191 6.11 Seed-grinders from Central Australia. 199 6.12 The distribution of Australian language families. 203 7.1 Panaramitee-style rock engravings at Florina station, Olary region. 213 7.2 The distribution of graphic and religious systems across Australia. 215 7.3 Denis Ebaterinja drawing the honey ant ‘dreaming’. 218 7.4 Large striped totemic designs at Emily Gap, Central Australia. 221 7.5 Desert-style provinces for mid-Holocene rock engravings. 229 7.6 Panaramitee-style rock engravings at Puritjarra. 230 7.7 Wanga East rockshelter, showing engraved rock slabs and location of dated samples. 237 7.8 Excavation of engraved boulders at Puritjarra. 239 7.9 Early petroglyph assemblages in the Dampier–Burrup area.
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