Justin Shiner

AN ASSESSMENT AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATION OF CORTEX MEASUREMENT IN LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES

We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the methods accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a repeated pattern of the selective removal of artifacts away from their location of manufacture. These findings shed light on the role curation and mobility play in the use and eventual discard of those artifact classes for which conventional measures of curation are not applicable. The results raise new questions about Aboriginal technological organization and land use, while simultaneously highlighting the complex relationship between past human behavior and archaeological assemblage content.

Assemblage formation as a result of raw material acquisition in Western New South Wales, Australia

Abstract Quarries are often defined as locations where people in the post gained access to raw material. Here we consider the definition of quarries in a raw material-rich environment. Stone artifacts found adjacent to two silcrete outcrops that might be labeled as “quarries” are compared with those found at a creek-side “occupation “location in western New South Wales, Australia. We investigate these attributions by considering the technology of raw material procurement in relation to the chronology implied by the age of the surfaces on which the artifacts rest. We assess assemblage patterning in relation to the time period over which assemblages were deposited at each of the locations. Time provides a more useful means than function for understanding differences in assemblage composition.

Burkes Cave and Flaked Stone Assemblage Variability in Western New South Wales, Australia

Abstract In 1970, Harry Allen excavated a small section of creek terrace adjacent to Burkes Cave in the Scope Range of western New South Wales, revealing a stratified deposit dated by a single radiocarbon determination to c.2000 BP. An analysis of the stone artefact assemblage was never fully published. In this paper we present a description of the technological characteristics and composition of the stone artefact assemblage from this important site and consider similarities to and differences from other western New South Wales assemblages we have studied.

The palaeo-environmental history of Big Willum Swamp, Weipa: An environmental context for the archaeological record

Abstract The environmental history of Big Willum (Waandriipayn) Swamp and the surrounding landscape is reconstructed for the last 8000 years through the analysis of pollen, charcoal and mineral magnetics. The data provide a Holocene record of vegetation and fire in an area where few records exist. Swamp initiation at Big Willum began prior to 8000 cal. BP, with swamp–like conditions maintained until 2200 cal. BP, after which it became a permanent deep water body, reaching its present day extent between 600–400 cal. BP. From 7000–1200 cal. BP the surrounding woodland was essentially stable. Fire is present throughout the record, with only one period of pronounced burning outside of the historic period, at around 1000 cal. BP, leading to a slightly more open understorey/woodland. The hydrological change at 2200 cal. BP that led to Big Willum becoming a more permanent water body overlaps with the end of the most intensive period of shell mound formation and the commencement of earth mound building at nearby Wathayn. This is suggestive that change in, or diversification of, mound types may in part be linked to environmental transformations in the late Holocene. One possibility is that greater water security allowed for increasing and more permanent exploitation of inland locations.

Temporal variability in shell mound formation at Albatross Bay, northern Australia

We report the results of 212 radiocarbon determinations from the archaeological excavation of 70 shell mound deposits in the Wathayn region of Albatross Bay, Australia. This is an intensive study of a closely co-located group of mounds within a geographically restricted area in a wider region where many more shell mounds have been reported. Valves from the bivalve Tegillarca granosa (Linnaeus, 1758) were dated. The dates obtained are used to calculate rates of accumulation for the shell mound deposits. These demonstrate highly variable rates of accumulation both within and between mounds. We assess these results in relation to likely mechanisms of shell deposition and show that rates of deposition are affected by time-dependent processes both during the accumulation of shell deposits and during their subsequent deformation. This complicates the interpretation of the rates at which shell mound deposits appear to have accumulated. At Wathayn, there is little temporal or spatial consistency in the rates at which mounds accumulated. Comparisons between the Wathayn results and those obtained from shell deposits elsewhere, both in the wider Albatross Bay region and worldwide, suggest the need for caution when deriving behavioural inferences from shell mound deposition rates, and the need for more comprehensive sampling of individual mounds and groups of mounds.

Analysis of stone artefact assemblages from a recent survey of the Howqua River, Victoria

Abstract Staff and students from the third year Honours course in archaeology at La Trobe University recently undertook a survey of a 10 km section of the Howqua River Valley in the Central Victoria Uplands. The survey identified twelve previously un-recorded surface stone artefact scatters. In addition, detailed artefact recording was conducted at a previously recorded location. Clear spatial patterning in the distribution of artefacts made on different types of raw material was noted. Greenstone artefacts were concentrated at two that spatial differences in artefact discard represent variability in the span of occupation in different areas of the valley.