Skin-Working at Emu Tracks 2, New South Wales, Australia: An Integrated Residue and Use- Wear Analysis of Backed Artefacts

Abstract

Despite the fact that there is ample ethnographic evidence for the Aboriginal use of animal skins, archaeological evidence far skin-working in Australia is rare. An integrated residue and use-wear analysis of the backed artefact component of stone assemblages from several sites in eastern Australia tested current hypotheses on Australian backed artefact use, and identified skin-working as one of a number of craft and subsistence activities carried out during the mid-to-late Holocene at Emu Tracks 2, an Aboriginal occupation site in central coastal NSW. At this site, backed artefacts functioned as awls, knives, scrapers and incisors for skin-working, and many exhibited evidence for hafting with resin. In this paper we present the evidence far skin-working and for the several functions which backed artefacts performed during this task association. This research makes an important contribution to our knowledge not only of backed artefact use, but also of site activities during a period of dramatic cultural change in the mid-to-late Holocene.