Jane Balme

Excavations Revealing 40,000 Years of Occupation at Mimbi Caves, South Central Kimberley, Western Australia

Mimbi is the name given by Gooniyandi people to a place about 90km east of Fitzroy Crossing in the southern Kimberley. Its western boundary is defined by the Emanuel Range and the eastern boundary by Lawford Range. Both of these ranges are composed of Devonian limestone. Caves have formed within the limestone and in some, perennial water pools are present. The width between the ranges varies between two and five kilometres. It is a relatively flat area of savanna woodland with many ephemeral creeks draining the ranges. The Gooniyandi people are the traditional owners of the Mimbi area for whom it has great significance because it is associated with an important creation story about the marroowa or lunkura (Blue Tongue lizard). It is also important because of the obvious physical evidence in the form of rock paintings and campsites of their long occupation of the area and because of the oral and physical evidence of occupation of some of the caves by their ancestors who avoided police and pastoralists in the early twentieth century. For some time now anthropologist, Sandy Toussaint has been recording and mapping Indigenous stories at Mimbi at the request of senior custodians, brother and sister Morgal and Neville Sharpe. While passing through the area in 1996 Sandy Toussaint and I discussed with members of the Mimbi community the possibility of extending this work to include archaeological evidence. People were especially interested in antiquity of Aboriginal occupation of the area but also in finding physical evidence of their peoples past activities. The archaeological work began in 1998 with these aims and with the aim of documenting the various influences on occupation patterns in the past. The work was carried out in collaboration with the Mimbi community and bearing in mind their interests in a developing cultural tourism project. As part of this research test pits were excavated in two caves during 1999. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of these excavations.

Perceptions of Archaeology in Australia amongst educated young Australians

Abstarct A survey of Western Australian undergraduate students asking them about their knowledge of and interest in archaeology as well as their beliefs in other explanations for the past was undertaken in 2001. The results of this show that most of these students have a fair idea of what archaeologists do but there is much confusion between the disciplines of archaeology and palaeontology. While Australian archaeologists have been successful in passing on the results of some of their findings to the public, few people understand the study of the Indigenous past as archaeology. There is also much acceptance by the survey respondents of non-archaeological explanations of the past. Some of this acceptance might be attributed to religious belief but perhaps some because these explanations offer more exciting versions of the past. Our challenge is to bring some of this excitement to Australian archaeology.

The Antiquity Of Grinding Stones In Semi-Arid Western New South Wales

Western New South Wales is well known as one of the largest regional data sets of Pleistocene archaeological material in Australia. Dating of aeolian sediments has been possible through the archaeological accumulation and subsequent preservation of organic remains within dune sequences associated with lakes and waterways. The identifiable stratification within these, produced by fluctuations in lake and river levels, has provided good potential to interpret the age of archaeological material within them. However, western NSW archaeological sites are generally exposed, and partially eroded, open sites. Once exposed, and during the process of erosion, non-contemporaneous materials become mixed. Eroded sites can be expected to exhibit both laterally and vertically mixed materials. Organic remains, particularly highly visible shellfish, are often seen eroding from within dated dune sediments but in situ artefacts and mammalian bones are less frequently found in situ because they occur in isolation, not in larger clumps. Dating of these by their association with dated material is thus very difficult. Establishing contemporaneity of archaeological materials in large blowouts or exposures is also problematic.

Towards an accurate and precise chronology for the colonization of Australia: The example of Riwi, Kimberley, Western Australia

An extensive series of 44 radiocarbon (14C) and 37 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages have been obtained from the site of Riwi, south central Kimberley (NW Australia). As one of the earliest known Pleistocene sites in Australia, with archaeologically sterile sediment beneath deposits containing occupation, the chronology of the site is important in renewed debates surrounding the colonization of Sahul. Charcoal is preserved throughout the sequence and within multiple discrete hearth features. Prior to 14C dating, charcoal has been pretreated with both acid-base-acid (ABA) and acid base oxidation-stepped combustion (ABOx-SC) methods at multiple laboratories. Ages are consistent between laboratories and also between the two pretreatment methods, suggesting that contamination is easily removed from charcoal at Riwi and the Pleistocene ages are likely to be accurate. Whilst some charcoal samples recovered from outside hearth features are identified as outliers within a Bayesian model, all ages on charcoal within hearth features are consistent with stratigraphy. OSL dating has been undertaken using single quartz grains from the sandy matrix. The majority of samples show De distributions that are well-bleached but that also include evidence for mixing as a result of post-depositional bioturbation of the sediment. The results of the two techniques are compared and evaluated within a Bayesian model. Consistency between the two methods is good, and we demonstrate human occupation at this site from 46.4–44.6 cal kBP (95.4% probability range). Importantly, the lowest archaeological horizon at Riwi is underlain by sterile sediments which have been dated by OSL making it possible to demonstrate the absence of human occupation for between 0.9–5.2 ka (68.2% probability range) prior to occupation.

World’s earliest ground-edge axe production coincides with human colonisation of Australia

Abstract We report evidence for the world’s earliest ground-edge axe, 44–49,000 years old. Its antiquity coincides with or immediately follows the arrival of humans on the Australian landmass. Ground/polished axes are not associated with the eastward dispersal of Homo sapiens across Eurasia and the discovery of axes in Australia at the point of colonisation exemplifies a diversification of technological practices that occurred as modern humans dispersed from Africa. Ground-edge axes are now known from two different colonised lands at the time humans arrived and hence we argue that these technological strategies are associated with the adaptation of economies and social practices to new environmental contexts.

Headroom and human trampling: cave ceiling-height determines the spatial patterning of stone artefacts at Petzkes Cave, northern New South Wales

Going into a cave or shelter, one walks where one can stand upright or has to crouch less. That affects which zones objects are trampled on, which zones they may be kicked out of, which zones they may be kicked into. And those effects interact with the usual spatial order–with its activity zones and drop zones–that develops through occupation of the enclosed cave or shelter.

Occupation at carpenters gap 3, windjana gorge, kimberley, Western Australia

Abstract Carpenters Gap 3 (CG3), a limestone cave and shelter complex in the Napier Range, Western Australia, was occupied by Aboriginal people intermittently from over 30,000 years ago through to the historic period. Excavations at CG3 provide only slight evidence for occupation following first settlement in the late Pleistocene. Analysis of the radiocarbon dates indicates that following this there was a hiatus in occupation during the Last Glacial Maximum. In common with most Australian sites, the evidence for occupation increases sharply from the mid-Holocene. Faunal remains, interpreted predominantly as the remains of people’s meals, all suggest foraging of the immediate surroundings throughout the entire period of occupation. Fragments of baler shell and scaphopod beads are present from the early Holocene, suggesting movement of high value goods from the coast (over 200 km distant). Flakes from edge-ground axes recovered from occupation units dated to approximately 33,000 cal. BP, when overall artefact numbers are low, suggest that these tools formed an important component of the lithic repertoire at this time.

Benchmarking for archaeology honours degrees in Australian universities

Abstract A bachelor degree with honours in archaeology is still seen as the fundamental level of academic achievement required to gain entry to the profession and to higher degree research in archaeology in Australia. This is despite the recent proliferation of other kinds of similar university awards, such as specialist diplomas and coursework masters programs. A comparison of the content and standards of honours degrees currently offered by Australian universities suggests variation in the threshold standards, the contents and the grading systems used. Considering our common belief in the role of the degree we think that it is now time to introduce standardisation and benchmarking practices, such as those implemented in British universities.

Earth Mounds in Southeastern Australia

Earth mounds are pre-European heaps of raised dirt, which consist mainly of charcoal rich sediment with fragments of burnt clay. The two objectives of this paper are to describe the earth mounds which occur in the Macquarie Marshes in northern New South Wales and to advance a speculative hypothesis that the earth mounds in southeastern Australia could have functioned as gardens.

The effect of retouch intensity on mid to late Holocene unifacial and bifacial points from the Kimberley

Abstract Stone points have provided key data for studies of hunter gatherer lifeways in several parts of the world. Point technologies occur widely across northern Australia, appearing around the mid-Holocene and persisting into the European Contact period. These points exhibit high-morphological variation, and include bifacial, unifacial and other forms. In the Northern Territory and north Queensland, points have been shown to form part of a reduction continuum. However, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, similar reconstructions of artefact life history have not been conducted. Using a recently excavated assemblage with a large sample of retouched unifacial and bifacial points (n = 137), we examine the effect of retouch intensity on changing point morphology. Quantification of point reduction reveals a complex artefact life history having compelling parallels with point assemblages from other parts of northern Australia. Drivers for the inception of point technology in northern Australia are likely to be multiple, including environmental change, population change and social signalling.