Australian Archaeology Research Articles

An Overview of Australian Archaeology: a near surface guide Near Surface keynote paper

As a topic 'Australian archaeology' is immensely vast and covers close to 60,000 years of history with initial colonisation by the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians through to the maritime and industrial archaeology of more recent immigrants. During this keynote I will delve into the history and prehistory of Western Australia as evidenced through the results of exiting new research projects ranging from the enigmatic rock art of the Kimberley through the Pleistocene use of dusty caves in the Pilbara to the shipwrecks in the depths of the Roaring Forties.

Broadcasting, listening and the mysteries of public engagement: an investigation of the AAA online audience

For several years now the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) has been expanding its online presence through the Association’s website, Facebook page and Twitter account. In order to ascertain whether these activities are worth the investment of time and energy required to pursue and maintain them, an audience survey was undertaken. Coupled with interrogation of Facebook and Twitter user data, the survey results were assessed to understand better AAA’s online audience, the value of particular kinds of content, and the online platforms and their use, in order to tailor the Association’s efforts. Results show surprising uptake and use by all age groups, despite the common perception that social media users are predominantly ‘young’. Our overall assessment is that a strong understanding of one’s audience leads to more sophisticated use of online media, which is proving essential to achieving the objects and purposes of the Association in terms of public education and the dissemination of archaeological information, allowing a much broader audience beyond the Association’s own membership base to be reached.

A Context for Concealment: The Historical Archaeology of Folk Ritual and Superstition in Australia

Are there traditions of folk ritual practice in Australian historical contexts, and are they observable in the archaeological record? Studies from the US and UK have documented a range of practices suggesting the persistence of British and European traditions of folk magic well into the twentieth century and previous historical work has identified numerous examples of ritual concealments in Australian buildings. In examining over 4,500 Australian historical archaeological sources, however, we found very few examples of possible folk ritual practices. This raises the question of why such practices are not being captured by current archaeological recording methods. As counterpoint, a general model is constructed from US, UK and Australian work that raises intriguing possibilities for the situating of superstitious behavior in Australian historical archaeology, including the contexts in which people might be more prone to practise such behaviors and how they might be materially identifiable.

Archaeology of Engagement

Throughout the past 20 years, Amazonian archaeology conceptualized new perspectives on past tropical forest cultures due to a deepening engagement of archaeologists with local indigenous communities. In a recent article, Tim Murray reviewed the maturing relationship between archaeologists and indigenous people over the past 25 years, wherein he mainly addressed the decolonization of archaeology in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Examples from South America will enhance Murray’s argument, particularly the ongoing integration of indigenous knowledge and archaeological practices in Amazonia, whereby both knowledge and knowledge production are shared. This article elaborates on deep-historical research, situated along a continuum of participation and collaboration in the Upper Maroni Basin (French Guiana and Suriname, northern Amazonia).

The archaeology of Australian institutions

ABSTRACTThe nature of institutions in Australian archaeology is reviewed and the five papers of this special section introduced.

Islands of the dead? Prehistoric occupation of Kangaroo Island and other southern offshore islands and watercraft use by Aboriginal Australians

Kangaroo Island has long been a source of creation mythology for Indigenous Australians. Over the last century, it has also been a source of creation mythology for Australian archaeology. The theme of the archaeological mythology has been the notion, based on culture-historical interpretations of stone artefact typologies, that the Island was occupied by people belonging to successive large-tool (“Kartan”) and small-tool “Cultures”. A fundamental tenet of the “Kartan Mystery” has been the notion that the Island was abandoned for several thousand years prior to the European colonisation of South Australia, and following the attainment of modern sea-levels, the Indigenous people of southern Australia lacked either the watercraft or the will to continue to inhabit Kangaroo Island and other offshore islands along the southern coastline. From at least as far east as Tasmania to as far west as Rottnest Island off Fremantle (Western Australia), there are islands which have a prehistoric archaeological record and/or an ethnographic status as uninhabited “Islands of the Dead” for adjacent, mainland or Tasmanian Aboriginal societies. This paper explores these notions and refers to evidence that Aboriginal Australians of the southern Australian coastal regions both used watercraft and visited offshore islands such as Kangaroo Island throughout the pre-colonial Holocene period.

A glacial cryptic refuge in south‐east Australia: human occupation and mobility from 36 000 years ago in the Sydney Basin, New South Wales

ABSTRACTExcavations across a source‐bordering dune overlooking the Hawkesbury River in north‐west Sydney, Australia, suggest initial occupation of the region by at least 36 ka, with variable but uninterrupted use until the early Holocene; following abandonment, the site was then re‐occupied by ∼3 ka. Along with a handful of other sites, the results provide the earliest reliable evidence of permanent regional populations within south‐eastern Australia, and support a model in which early colonizers followed the coastal fringe with forays along the main river systems. The evidence is consistent with the demographic model of Williams, 2013 (Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 280: 20130486), which suggested low, but established regional populations before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a population nadir following the LGM and increasing use of the region from ∼12 to 8 ka. The site exhibits increased use at the onset and peak of the LGM, and provides an example of a cryptic refuge as defined by Smith, 2013 (The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts. Cambridge University Press: New York). Specifically, changing artefact densities and attributes show the site was used repeatedly, but for shorter periods through this time, and suggest it formed one of a series of key localities in a point‐to‐point (rather than home‐base) subsistence strategy. This strategy was maintained until the site's abandonment in the early Holocene, despite changing population and climatic conditions through the Terminal Pleistocene.

Cyprus: Antipodeans and the hidden weaves of antiquity

Cyprus is an island of ancient hybrid cultures in the eastern Mediterranean: polyglot, insular, luminously beautiful, but also edgily divided against itself in bitter politics that is symbolised through the religious divisions between Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Andros is the largest island in the Cyclades, characterised by silent immensities and hills sculptured with schist walls and paths from another time. In 1967 and 1973, I attended a University of Sydney study season in Andros, under Alexander Cambitoglou, making archaeological drawings and weaving at night. Since 1995, I have participated in the excavation of the theatre in Paphos, in western Cyprus, directed by Richard Green and Craig Barker and have observed the gradual uncovering of the orchestra, stage building, and entrances of the Greco-Roman theatre.This essay uncovers my own experience within the larger story of how Australians have come to be in Cyprus, and, later, in Andros, digging up their pasts. Is there a reverse colonialism in this movement to excavate another country's past? Beginning with James Stewart in 1937, I trace the movement of Australian archaeology on these two islands.Delving into the worlds of classical antiquity is, I argue, related to the historical European confrontation with the large scope of Indigenous antiquity. Through working with the Tiwi on Bathurst Island off northern Australia, I sense that there is a kind of Aboriginality in searching the classical past.

Signs of the times: Archaeological approaches to historical and contemporary graffiti

The papers in this themed section on historical and contemporary graffiti derive in part from a two-day workshop, That was Then, This is Now: Contemporary Archaeology in Australia, that we (Clarke and Frederick) organised at the University of Sydney in February 2012. The Editors of Australian Archaeology invited us to submit a set of papers from the workshop to showcase some of the Australian research in the field of contemporary archaeology. We agreed that a section on contemporary and historical graffiti would make an interesting and timely contribution to the growing international literature on this topic. The papers by Crisp et al., Frederick, and Ralph and Smith in this themed section were all presented at the workshop, while those by Casella, Fyfe and Brady, Agutter and Lewis were invited to provide further examples of the range and scope of approaches to this topic.

AustArch: A Database of 14C and Non-14C Ages from Archaeological Sites in Australia - Composition, Compilation and Review (Data Paper)

This dataset represents an invaluable compilation of 14C and non-14C ages from archaeological sites for most of the 89 bio-regions of Australia. Critically harvesting some 5,000 14C and 500 non-14C dates from over 1,000 publications, the dataset provides information on each date in 26 fields including its location, site type, biogeographic zone, sample material, context and age details (including 13C and error). This data provides a comprehensive foundation for any regional archaeology in Australia illustrating past research foci, strengths and biases in sampling of bioregions, geomorphic context, site type, sample type, and adequacy of contextualisation (e.g. association with cultural events). Such datasets can improve time series and summed probability methods and are being used as a mainstream proxy to explore archaeological trends and specifically demographic fluctuations for the tropical northern, central arid zone and southern ocean provinces. Such reconstructions will always rely on coverage and adequacy of sampling (52 bioregions register less than 50 dates). While both closed rockshelter sites and open/midden sites account for a similar proportion of dates, less than 14% of sites have returned 4 or more dates. Given that 74% of dates fall within the Holocene epoch, this period is most amenable to archaeological enquiry at a fine-scaled regional level. For the Pleistocene era, larger scale questions such as occupation patterns during the LGM might reasonably be addressed and refined. The data may be re-used for studies of a) timing of colonisation of differing bioregions, b) characterising varying mobility patterns of groups occupying the arid zone, c) identifying gaps in previous research (the Great Victoria and Tanami Deserts), d) as proxy for demographic changes, e) the responses of groups to environmental stochasticity such as OIS2 and ENSO, f) the relationship between occupation and phases of rock art production through time, g) the nature of coastal occupation during lower sea stands and specifically following mid-Holocene stabilisation, and h) not least, as a fundamental building block for any regional archaeology of Australia.

Keeping Country: A Web-Based Approach To Indigenous Outreach In Cultural Heritage Management

Cultural heritage management (CHM) of Indigenous places is the dominant area of professional practice in Australian archaeology, yet relatively few Indigenous Australians take up a career in the sector. The internet is providing new and effective avenues for Indigenous outreach programmes. This paper describes a self-contained, web-enabled, free-to-user cultural heritage training programme designed in consultation with, and for the use of, Indigenous Australians. It includes a consideration of the potential and design requirements of web-delivered courses for more effectively introducing Indigenous communities to the professional CHM sector and thus achieving the long-term goal of increasing the participation of those communities in professional work.

Charcoals as indicators of ancient tree and fuel strategies: An application of anthracology in the Australian Midwest

Anthracology (charcoal analysis) can inform about palaeoenvironments and human choices concerning the use of wood resources. While charcoal is commonly recovered during excavations, anthracology is poorly developed in Australian archaeology. This paper presents the first application of anthracology in the Midwest of Western Australia, at the Weld-RS-0731 (WA Department of Aboriginal Affairs Site ID 28793) site in the Weld Range. It uses methodological approaches developed by European anthracologists but not previously applied to Australian charcoal assemblages. The diversity andfrequency of taxa identified in the late Holocene Weld-RS-0731 charcoal assemblages correspond to known vegetation communities, similar to those found in the area today. Nevertheless, the assemblages’ compositions demonstrate the targeting of specific habitats, as well as the purposeful selection and avoidance of certain taxa. Our results confirm that wood gathering was not a separate specialist activity, but likely occurred alongside other subsistence tasks.

An Archaeology of Australia Since 1788 - Lawrence, S. and Davies, P.

An Archaeology of Australia Since 1788 - Lawrence, S. and Davies, P.

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.

A working profile: The changing face of professional archaeology in Australia

Results from comprehensive surveys of Australian professional archaeologists undertaken in 2005 and 2010 are considered in the context of disciplinary trends, focusing on changes in access and participation, archaeological workplaces, qualifications and skill gaps. Strong growth is demonstrated in the professional archaeology sector between 2005 and 2010, showing substantial restructuring in the last five years, with an increase in Indigenous archaeology and a corresponding decrease in other subfields, especially historical archaeology. An analysis of self-assessed skill sets and skill gaps shows that the training of many professionals continues to leave significant gaps in core skill and knowledge areas which are consistent across industry subfields.

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:A Millennium of Culture Contact: By Alistair Paterson‘Fire and hearth’ Forty years on: essays in honour of Sylvia J. Hallam: Edited by C. Bird and R.E. WebbChanging Perspectives in Australian Archaeology: Papers in Honour of Val Attenbrow Edited by Jim Specht and Robin TorrenceThe Statues that walked: Unraveling the mystery of Easter Island: By Terry Hunt and Carl LipoExploring Prehistory on the Sepik Coast of Papua New Guinea: Edited by John Edward Terrell and Esther M. Schechter

Review Of Geophysical Applications in Australian archaeology

Multidisciplinary approaches are now commonplace in the investigation of archaeological sites worldwide. Consequently, geophysics has become an increasingly important tool for reconstructing past landscapes and investigating research questions. However, despite their acceptance internationally, in Australia the use of geophysical techniques on archaeological sites has been underutilised. This paper examines the history of archaeological geophysics in Australia and seeks to understand, given their potential advantages, the role that factors such as costs, time, instrument availability and lack of theoretical knowledge have played in the underrepresentation of these methods in local archaeological investigations to date. With the recent introduction of short courses in archaeological geophysics to at least one Australian tertiary institution, this review is a timely overview of where this discipline has been, what it has to offer and whether there is potential for Australian archaeologists to develop the skills necessary to conduct archaeological geophysic investigations, as their international counterparts do already, in the future.

Recent studies in Australian palaeoecology and zooarchaeology: a volume in honour of the late Su Solomon

The collection of papers presented in this issue of Environmental Archaeology arose from the sessions ‘Australian Studies in Taphonomy and Archaeofaunas: A Session in Honour of the Late Su Solomon’ at the 2008 annual Australian Archaeological Association Conference held at Noosa, Queensland, 3 to 6 December; and ‘Palaeoecology and its Role in Archaeology: Current Research and Future Directions’ at the 2009 annual Australian Archaeological Association Conference, at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, 10 to 13 December. The theme for the 2009 conference was ‘Old Guard, New Guard’, where participants were asked to consider the major directions for archaeology as we move into the new millennium. For this reason our session wanted to canvass the current research by Australians that integrated palaeoecological and archaeological approaches. The session drew case studies from within Australia and from a number of overseas study sites. A selection of these presentations and those from the 2008 session are brought together here. It is an apparent eclectic selection of papers, yet they all use palaeoecological approaches to enhance our understanding of the archaeological record, and provide a snapshot of the range of research endeavour’s being pursued by Australian-based investigators. Australian archaeology is a relatively young disci

A Retrospective Review of Richard A. Gould's Living Archaeology

Three components provide the structure for Richard Gould’s book Living Archaeology. The first component presents his original re search into the cultural ecology and behavior of Aboriginal groups living in the Australian desert. This section also includes informa tion on Gould’s excavations at Puntutjarpa rock shelter located in the Western Desert and the James Range East shelter in the Central Desert. The second component of the book presents Australian ethnohis torical and archaeological research, which provides a continent-wide context for Gould’s work. Finally, there are a number of connecting chapters and sections that advance Gould’s theoretical arguments concerning the nature of the archaeological record and how ethnographic observations by archaeologists assist its interpretation. In this retrospective, we consider first his motivations for undertaking eth noarchaeological work, then his theoretical position, and finally his contribution to Australian archaeology.

Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia - Edited by Michael Nash

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 40, Issue 2 p. 467-468 Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia – Edited by Michael Nash JESSICA BERRY, JESSICA BERRY Shepherd's Bush, LondonSearch for more papers by this author JESSICA BERRY, JESSICA BERRY Shepherd's Bush, LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 August 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2011.00326_24.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume40, Issue2September 2011Pages 467-468 RelatedInformation