Change in the Australian desert culture: A reanalysis of tulas from Puntutjarpa rocksheiter

Abstract

Abstract Claims for long‐term conservatism of an Australian desert adaptation are assessed by re‐examining one component of the stone artefact assemblage from Puntutjarpa, a rocksheiter in the Western Desert. It is concluded that significant technological changes occur and especially that adzing tools are absent from the early Holocene levels of the site. This finding confirms recent discoveries of demographic, settlement, and technological change elsewhere in the Australian arid zone; and it necessitates the rejection of perceptions of cultural continuity since the Western Desert was first occupied.