Blowout Taphonomy: Non-Cultural Associations Between Faunal And Stone Artefact Assemblages Along The Cooloola Coast, Southeast Queensland

Abstract

Taphonomic analyses of archaeological sites in coastal regions of Australia have made important contributions to our understanding of processes that create the archaeological record (e.g. Balme et al. 1978; Barker 1987; Bowdler 1984; Hope et al. 1977). Unfortunately, most of these studies have focused upon terrestrial faunal assemblages with the result that few insights have been made concerning the creation of marine faunal assemblages (cf. Colley and Jones 1987; Horton 1978; Jones and Allen 1978; Robins 1987; Stone 1989). This paper partly addresses this problem by examining the effects of carnivore behaviour upon the formation of marine faunal assemblages within archaeological sites along the Cooloola coast, southeast Queensland. The study forms part of a much larger research project concerning prehistoric Aboriginal settlement and subsistence in the Cooloola region during the mid- to late-Holocene (McNiven 1990). A major concern of this project has been the nature of subsistence activities associated with Early Phase (c. 3000 BP - 5500 BP) sites. These sites consist mostly of large stone artefact scatters within huge mobile sand dunes (blowouts) located along the coast between Noosa Heads and Double Island Point. Recent excavations at one of these sites (King's Bore sandblow Site 97) revealed a number of marine mollusc and fish remains in association with stone artefacts. If the faunal materials were culturally associated with stone artefacts, they would provide major insights into the maritime orientation of subsistence activities along coastal southeast Queensland immediately following the Postglacial Marine Transgression (see Hall and Lilley 1987:75-7). In this paper I argue, however, that none of the faunal remains are related to prehistoric Aboriginal behaviour; rather, they represent the by-products of recent dingo and/or bird-of-prey activity.