Kate Morse

Shell beads from Mandu Mandu Creek rock-shelter, Cape Range peninsula, Western Australia, dated before 30,000 b.p.

A site dated well back into the Pleistocene in Western Australia yields modified shells, seen as a further evidence of the attributes of modern humans from an early Australian context.

A tale of three caves: New dates for Pleistocene occupation in the inland Pilbara

Abstract Preliminary results of test-pit excavations in Yurlu Kankala and Kariyarra Rockshelter demonstrate the repeated occupation of a topographically distinct ‘island of high land’, in the northeastern Pilbara by Aboriginal people from 45,000 years ago to historical times. These results are the first Pilbara Pleistocene dates from sites outside the Hamersley Range and confirm occupation of this region prior to that in the central and western Pilbara and, at Yurlu Kankala, through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A third excavated site, Kunpaja Cave, provides evidence of inland Pilbara occupation through climatic amelioration following the LGM. All three sites are large, highly visible shelters located on ridges or hills, with commanding views over the surrounding land and access to major water sources. It is suggested that these factors played a key role in the discovery and occupation of Yurlu Kankala and Karriyarra Rockshelter by some of the Pilbara’s first settlers, and of Kunpaja Cave as people expanded their territories as the climatic conditions of the LGM changed.

Don’t forget the fish – towards an archaeology of the Abydos Plain, Pilbara, Western Australia

Abstract The archaeology of the arid and apparently inhospitable spinifex plains of today’s inland Pilbara, Western Australia, is dominated by sites with bedrock grinding patches. These range from single and sometimes barely visible areas of ground granite to sites with more than a hundred flat, slightly concave or sometimes deeply grooved ground patches. Sometimes a solitary feature, sometimes associated with engravings or scattered stone artefacts, these sites contribute to the story of the movement of people through this arid landscape. But what do they tell us? Using ethnohistorical, ethnographic and experimental studies, this paper evaluates data collected from sites with bedrock grinding patches recorded on the Abydos Plain. Our results highlight the need for ‘grinding’ patches to be reconsidered as more than ‘grinding’ patches, for better modelling of freshwater ecology and inland fishing, and for the potential of spinifex fibre technology to be actively incorporated into reconstructions of hunter gatherer lifeways in arid landscapes.