J. Peter White

Human Pleistocene adaptations in the tropical island Pacific: recent evidence from New Ireland, a Greater Australian outlier

The late Pleistocene colonization of Greater Australia by humans by c. 40,0130 b.p. is now generally accepted. This landmass, which comprised at periods of lower sea levels Tasmania, Australia and Papua New Guinea, has now produced sites with rich and diverse sequences extending towards or now mainly beyond 30,000 b.p., in the present arid country of western New South Wales (Barbetti & Allen 1972), in southwest Western Australia (Pearce & Barbetti 1981), in the Papua New Guinea Highlands (Gillieson & Mountain 1983), and recently even in Tasmania (Cosgrove 1989). Prior to 1985, with the exception of an 11,000 b.p. date for occupation in Misisjl Cave on New Britain (Specht et al. 1981), the tropical lowlands of Papua New Guinea and its attendant nearer Melanesian island chain had remained a blank on the region’s map of Pleistocene human expansion.

Melanesian Prehistory: Some Recent Advances

Human occupation of New Guinea had begun 50,000 years ago, but islands further east were settled only in Recent times. In part of the New Guinea highlands, wet and dry horticultural systems began by 9000 years ago. Local intensification is evident until the present, but only the most recent major crop (sweet potato, which has been grown in the region for less than 300 years) is documented. On the south coast, exchange systems and economies locally diversify over the last two millennia. In the Melanesian islands, exotic materials were moved 3000 kilometers 3000 years ago, but whether traders or colonists were involved is not yet clear. The prehistory of the area is proving more complex than was believed even a decade ago.

Cambridge in the bush? Archaeology in Australia and New Guinea

Abstract The history of prehistoric archaeology in Australia is ordered into three stages. The third, 1960–80, is marked by a dominance of Cambridge‐trained people, and a focus at first on acquiring stratigraphie sequences and later on human‐environment relationships. The organisation of archaeology in Australia is described, and the political relationship between archaeologists and Aborigines discussed. Archaeology in New Guinea has concentrated on sequence, as well as problems of agricultural origins and trade, but local participation is beginning only now. We conclude that there is no clearly defined regional tradition in Australian archaeology.

The deer hunters: Star Carr reconsidered

Abstract Star Carr, the Mesolithic site excavated thirty years ago, has been considered a classic example of a winter season base camp until recently reinterpreted as a specialized industrial locale. By focusing on site formation processes, we present an alternative interpretation that Star Carr was a hunting and butchering site occupied frequently for very short periods at various times of the year. Our argument considers how recent ethnoarchaeological, taphonomic and site formation studies support this interpretation. We examine seasonality, the length of visits, and major ecofact and artefact classes, including animal bone, flaked stone tools, and antler points. We review previous interpretations.

Late Pleistocene Fauna at Spring Creek, Victoria: A Re-evaluation

Late Pleistocene extinctions of fauna at Spring Creek, Victoria, are re-examined. Researchers are examining whether radiocarbon dates on bones from extant species coming from sites that are both clearly archaeological and Pleistocene in date are subject to the same dating difficulties as are experienced at the non-archaeological, megafaunal sites like Spring Creek.

Age of the Lancefield Megafauna: A Reappraisal

The Lancefield megafauna site is located on the southwest edge of the small town of Lancefield, 70 km NNE of Melbourne. The site is located in a swamp, a depression (possibly formed by a collapsed lava tunnel) which is almost surrounded by weathered Pliocene basalts which have formed a laterite cap. A natural spring flow under this cap emerges at the swamp and the water then drains into Deep Creek, a tributary of the Maribyrnong River. Three fossil megafaunal assemblages occur at Lancefield. The original discovery of 1843, now known as the Mayne Site, was the focus of investigations in the nineteenth-century and again in 1991 (van Huet 1993). The South Site, found in 1983, has been excavated three times since the early 1980s, most recently by van Huet in 1991 (van Huet 1994). The Classic Site was discovered in 1973 and was the focus of major investigations in 1975-76 (Horton 1976; Ladd 1976; Gillespie et al. 1978; Horton and Samuel 1978). Â

Obsidian Traffic in the Southeast Papuan Islands

ABSTRACT Prehistoric obsidian samples from the Trobriand and the northern D’Entrecasteaux Islands are sourced by relative density and PIXE-PIGME to outcrops in the Fergusson Island area. Sites close to the western sources seem to have been supplied by them alone, whereas more distant sites were supplied by a mixture of sources in which the western Fergusson sources predominate over those from the eastern Fergusson area. The dominance of the western sources appears to have occurred because they provided the “best’’ obsidian in a utilitarian sense, whereas in the New Britain source area, social restriction mandated the use of particular source localities.

Mid-Recent Human Occupation and Resource Exploitation in the Bismarck Archipelago

Human settlement of the Bismarck Archipelago occurred by 6000 to 7500 years ago. Early inhabitants of New Ireland drew on widely dispersed stone sources, including obsidian from Talasea (New Britain), whereas those after about 3000 years ago used either stone from more local sources or obsidian from Lou Island (Admiralty Islands group) or Talasea. The dates and resource changes support a gradualist model of Melanesian settlement.