Poster session

Artefact size and raw material sources in the Sydney region: A preliminary investigation

Val Attenbrow (Australian Museum), Trudi Doelman (University of Sydney),Tessa Corkill (Australian Museum), Hugh Watt (Australian Museum)

Ethnographic and archaeological studies indicate raw material availability influenced the types of raw materials used, the extent to which flakes to be used as tools were retouched, and the size of artefacts found on habitation sites. Assemblages at some distance from sources tend to have more intensively retouched artefacts, smaller artefacts and a smaller size range than assemblages found at or close to quarries.

In the Sydney region, silcrete is a common stone used for making flaked tools. Earlier researchers suggested there were few, if any, sources of suitable flakeable stone in coastal Sydney and that silcrete was brought to coastal sites from Cumberland Plain locations up to 40 km away. Recent investigations challenge that proposition; several silcrete sources are now known near the Sydney CBD, though the number and extent of known sources on the Cumberland Plain exceeds those known in the coastal zone.

If silcrete sources were less abundant in the coastal zone, or if silcrete was brought into the coastal zone from the Cumberland Plain because of its greater abundance or its greater accessibility there, it might be expected that silcrete artefacts in coastal zone assemblages would be smaller in size, have a smaller size range, and/or that retouched flakes would be more greatly reduced than those in Cumberland Plain sites. This study examines only at the size of artefacts, and presents the initial results of a comparative analysis of the size of artefacts from sites in the coastal zone and on the Cumberland Plain.

Aboriginal cultural heritage in Forests NSW

Robyne Bancroft (Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer, Forests NSW)

During 1997 and 1998 the Commonwealth and NSW Governments undertook comprehensive regional assessments (CRA) of the Upper North East and Lower North East regions. These asessments covered the range of environmental, biological, economic, social and cultural values of the North East forests. A co-ordinatated approach across the NSW CRA /RFA (Regional Forest Agreement) regions in the management of consultation with Aboriginal people and the preparation of assessment projects relating to Aboriginal communities’ values within forested area was carried out.

For the UNE (Upper North East) region, a further project was carried out to document and map the boundaries of Aboriginal nations, clans and Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALC), for subsequent consultation and dialogue. Forested landscapes contain much evidence of Aboriginal use of and spiritual links to the land. State Forests reviewed Aboriginal cultural heritage management in consultation with Aboriginal communities, aiming to develop systems that better consider the landscape context of sites and that provide for efficient protection and greater involvement of Aboriginal communities in decision making.

'The old people used to sing to the dishes' - Social lives of grinding/pounding stones in western NSW

Badger Bates and Sarah Martin (Broken Hill, NSW)

A large sample of mortar, pestle, dish and topstone equipment from the Menindee Lakes area is used as a reference point for a series of questions about the social lives of such stones. Oral history based on Badger’s memories of stories told by his grandmother and ethnographic evidence and are used to explore the relationship between people and the stones. Movement and placement of stones, gender use, ownership, sharing with visitors, curation and re-use, territory marking, quarry ownership and use, trimming and decoration to identify owners, and ceremonial activity are discussed. The stones are viewed as powerful objects containing ancestral spirits, hence the relationship between people and ancestors is a significant agency of the archaeological record.

Understanding variation in bone attrition - The role of scavengers

Oliver Brown, Judith Field and Mike Letnic (University of Sydney)

In terms of a quantifiable effect on the composition of archaeofaunal assemblages, primary removal and destruction of remains by scavengers is the most significant of all taphonomic processes. Here we present A 4-year experimental study in the semi-arid zone of western New South Wales that has investigated significant causes of variation in the rate and degree of scavenging of mammalian and avian carcasses. In particular, we have investigated: Variation in scavenger abundance and behaviour related to short-term changes in local climatic conditions and the effect on carcass removal, and; variation in the removal of faunal remains by scavengers related to the weight of the original remains. From this we propose that the analysis of scavenger-effect on faunal assemblages should be done in an ecological, rather than a traditional actualistic context.

States and stones: Stone tool production in the Erlitou culture

Anne Ford (La Trobe University)

The Erlitou culture (1900 – 1500 BC) of Henan Province, China, has been postulated as the earliest evidence of state-level civilisation in China. Excavations at the capital, also called Erlitou, have revealed a culture with palatial/temple remains, social stratification, craft specialisation and elite good production. However, investigation of the Erlitou political economy is required to understand the economic and political relationships between the capital and its regional areas. A lack of stone tool manufacture at the urban centre suggests that it may have used the regional economy in order to gain access to these tools. An investigation into a stone tool manufacturing site, called Huizui, dating to the Erlitou period, will allow us to examine what role this site played in the Erlitou regional economy and its relationship with the urban centre.

Huizui is located 15 kilometres from Erlitou, close to the Song Mountains, an area rich in raw materials. 27% of tools found at Huizui were limestone spade tool blanks. An analysis of these tools examined manufacturing techniques and the on site production cycle. Tool blanks were brought to Huizui as roughly worked blocks before being flaked, hammerdressed, ground and polished. Comparative analysis and thin-section testing linked these spades to those found at Erlitou. Questions relating to craft specialisation and change in production over time also suggest that, during the Erlitou period, there was a concentration on limestone spade production for export.

Current research, therefore, proposes that Huizui was a sub-regional centre of the Erlitou culture, specialising in stone tool production which were then transported to Erlitou for use and possibly other sites. This shows an integrated political economy between Erlitou and its regional centres, suggesting a high degree of control by the capital.

Consulting on the Burnett River, QLD

Douglas Hobbs, Michael Strong and Andrew McLaren (ARCHAEO Cultural Heritage Services, Queensland)

ARCHAEO Cultural Heritage Services, Ashgrove, Brisbane, in partnership with the Indigenous Working Group (IWG), representing the Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang, Taribelang Bunda and Wakka Wakka Aboriginal people with traditional links to the study area, undertook a two-year, 6-stage archaeological mitigation program proposed for the Burnett River Dam project. The dam is located 50 kilometres north east of Gayndah in southeast Queensland.

The survey component of this program located 94 archaeological sites of which 28 warranted more in-depth investigation and management including surface collections and archaeological sub-surface excavations. These 28 open surface sites consisted of stone artefact scatters and campsites, and archaeological excavation was necessary at 7 of them in order to test for possible sub-surface cultural material below the recorded artefact scatter. This poster gives a brief introduction to work carried out on one of those sites; PD20, or, as it is more widely known; Kalliwa Hut. Although the archaeological surveys have been completed, the analysis of the material recovered continues.

New technological initiatives of the Australian Archaeological Association

Luke Kirkwood, Michael Haslam and Sean Ulm (University of Queensland)

The principal goal of the Australian Archaeological Association is to promote the advancement of archaeology in Australia (AAA Constitution, Section 2). The development of computer-based technologies such as the Internet, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and open source technologies have empowered organisations such as the Australian Archaeological Association to maximise the use of limited resources to effectively communicate with its membership and the public.

Here we present the work of two AAA subcommittees that deal with the promotion of the Association’s goals: the Electronic Archiving of Australian Archaeology Subcommittee chaired by Michael Haslam, and the Information Technology Subcommittee chaired by Luke Kirkwood. The first subcommittee has recently completed the massive task of converting all previous volumes of Australian Archaeology to PDF format, dating back to 1974. These files are available as part of a special 30th anniversary DVD of AA which includes features such as searchable articles and selectable graphics. An online version is also planned. In conjunction with the Electronic Archiving initiative, the Information Technology Subcommittee is providing an online searching facility of all AA articles as part of a wider revamp of the AAA website (http://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au).

A study of toolkit composition from Jomon sites in Japan

Mila Gros Valdes Martinez, Devena Haggis and Masaki Nishida (University of Tsukuba, Japan)

The classification of stone artifacts is often defined according to morphology, the type of implements used or the period or origin of the craftsmen that produced them. Stone tool classification in the Jomon Period often covers the whole period generally rather than defining tools from sub-periods and regions in particular. This research utilized quantitative methods to compile and analyse stone tools from Jomon archaeological sites with a view to present a clearer picture of the types and uses of stone tools in the Jomon period and to create a classification system based on data from multiple excavation reports from all regions and periods in Japan. The research study also dealt with hunter-gatherers and toolkit composition from Jomon period sites in Japan as a way to understand their subsistence activities. This enabled us to establish a pattern of classification for stone tools which in turn gave a clearer understanding about what kind of stone tools were commonly used for subsistence activities during this period.

The sociality of stones: Pre-existing monuments and their use in the narratives and networks of the Iron Age of Wales

Geraldine Mate (Kenmore, QLD)

Power relations can be articulated in the ability to translate meaning of, control access to, or claim relationships with pre-existing monuments. In West Wales in the Iron Age, these narratives of power are suggested by both avoidance and re-use of pre-existing monuments. Patterns of avoidance and apparent limits to settling in areas around barrow cemeteries may be seen as signifying cultural rules governing associations with pre-existing monuments. Further, the reuse of barrows and standing stones for Iron Age burials could suggest the re-appropriation of monuments in order to intimate an association with ancestors. Finally, networks of inter-visibility are found between contemporaneous Iron Age settlements, pre-existing Iron Age settlements, and pre-existing monuments. These findings suggest that relational networks existed between settlements, and that there was a role for pre-existing monuments in facilitating these networks.

By examining patterns in the location of settlements and monuments in relation to each other, I suggest that the place of pre-existing monuments in the landscape and how they fitted into relational networks was tied to the everyday through networks of inter-visibility. In addition, their use for rituals such as burials may have marked them as an important facet in the narrative of power and in statements of territoriality, seen in the claiming of pre-existing monuments, in the control of access to monuments and in the monumentality of domestic building in the Iron Age.

Testing the biochemical integrity of fossil bone apatite for use in palaeoclimatic reconstruction at Cuddie Springs, NSW

Karen Privat and Judith Field (University of Sydney) and Clive Trueman (University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom)

In studies involving the analysis of bone and tooth mineral for palaeoclimatic reconstruction, the isotopic analysis of the latter is strongly preferred, as the former is more prone to chemical and physical alteration. A number of parameters have been proposed to detect and quantify the alteration of bone, but there is still debate as to whether the integrity of isotopic data obtained from fossil bone can be verified. This work uses laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) as an analytical screening method to indicate the possible isotopic alteration of bone mineral.

The identification of chemically well preserved fossil bone mineral samples is of particular interest in palaeoclimatic and palaeodietary research where insufficient samples of tooth enamel and bone collagen are available for analysis. This project applies the LA-ICP-MS screening technique to bones from the site of Cuddie Springs in northwestern NSW. The site has yielded a continuous series of megafaunal remains in layers as recent as 36-28kyr (Field et al., 2001). The isotopic analysis of fossil bones and teeth at Cuddie Springs has the potential to provide a record of dietary and environmental change among megafauna at the site, and can add to our understanding of the environmental context of megafaunal decline and extinction.

The National Heritage List: A new opportunity to translate narrative heritage through place

Tracey Rich (EPBC Unit: WWF Australia, Australian Council of National Trusts and Tasmanian Conservation Trust joint project )

Recent amendments to Commmonwealth environmental law (the EPBC Act 1999 (Cth)) have established a new National Heritage List of places of outstanding national heritage significance. Not only are places on the list afforded a similar level of protection to World Heritage sites under the EPBC Act, but the list has the potential to become an anthology of Australia's natural, cultural and Indigenous heritage translated through place. The list potentially offers archaeologists a way of both protecting places of significance, and telling the full narrative story of Australia through place.

Nomination of places to the list is democratic; anyone can nominate a place if they believe it meets at least one of the specified National Heritage criteria to an 'outstanding' degree. Criteria include things like a place's importance in the course or pattern of Australia's cultural and natural history, the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's cultural or natural history, or the place's importance as part of Indigenous tradition.

The poster presentation will overview the process for nominating a place to the National Heritage list under the EPBC Act (including the criteria for qualification, some of the themes being explored to focus nominations, the legislative framework for conservation and management of National Heritage places (legal protection of National Heritage places under the EPBC Act) and introduce the places on the National Heritage list as at 8-12 November.

Macona Inlet 1: Analysis results of a new Late Holocene site in the Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland

Daniel Rosendahl and Robyn Jenkins (University of Southern Queensland)

As part of ongoing research being conducted by Dr Bryce Barker in the Whitsunday Islands, students at the University of Southern Queensland have been involved in the sorting and initial analysis of material from Macona Inlet 1. Dr Bryce Barker completed his PhD studies on the Whitsunday Islands and continues to be involved in studying this region through site surveys, excavation and analysis of sites such as Macona Inlet 1. Macona Inlet 1 is located on Hook Island which is also the location of the oldest site within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and on the East Coast of Australia, Nara Inlet 1. Macona Inlet 1 has a basal date of 3200 BP and contains numerous shell and fauna species.

The aim of this poster will be to present the initial findings from the analysis of the material at Macona Inlet 1. Students at the University of Southern Queensland have been able to gain some practical experience in analysing archaeological material. The processes of identifying species, doing minimum numbers of individuals, compiling a database and identifying change within the archaeological material have been completed. This has allowed for the initial interpretation of the site from the archaeological record to be presented in poster format for the AAA conference.

Manning houses in colonial South Australia

Pamela A. Smith, Keryn Walshe, Donald Pate and Susan Piddock (Flinders University)

Heritage surveys conducted by the Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Project have identified the sites of several previously undocumented Manning houses, including what is believed to be one of only four Manning houses extant in South Australia.

A Manning house is a prefabricated house manufactured in England and imported by the colonists as immediate, and often temporary, housing. Records indicate that all of these houses were imported prior to the late 1840s, although similar prefabricated houses were manufactured locally until the 1850s. South Australia is believed to have been Manning’s most lucrative market and the South Australian Record (24th February, 1841) reported that 1588 such structures in Adelaide alone. An attempt to compile an inventory of Manning houses in South Australia identified 70 houses, of which only two remained (Stark 1979).

A recent excavation at Glenthorne Farm, south of Adelaide, identified the location of what are believed to be the foundations of one of the two Manning houses imported into the colony in 1837 by Major O’Halloran, the first Commission of Police. O’Halloran’s Manning house, named Lizard Lodge, is recorded as having with a timber interior that had been imported from England and external stone walls that would have been constructed around the timber frame. Heritage surveys also identified the locations of four previously undocumented Manning houses, including one that is still standing and is currently being restored. This house has now been fully recorded. Its design is remarkably similar to a 1860s painting of Lizard Lodge and it has provided information about the design and manufacture of the original Manning houses.

Newman’s Nursery: The archaeology of colonial horticultural endeavour

Pamela Smith, Susan Piddock, Robert Keane and Donald Pate (Flinders University)

In the 1850s German born Charles Frederick Newman was experimenting with plants that would adapt to the soils and climate of the new colony of South Australia. In the fertile valley of Water Valley he founded an orchard and nursery that eventually contained several thousand exotic plants. By the 1870s Newman’s Nursery was a ‘Model Nursery’ and recognised as a world-class example of such an enterprise. A report of 1889 stated that the 'Model Nursery' ‘contained six hothouses full of valuable plants, three shade houses and open grounds containing apples, plums, pears, cherries and oranges, just to name a few species. The hothouses were heated by water pipes connected to two furnaces’ (in Swinbourne, 1982:16). Two disastrous hail storms and floods destroyed the glass houses, shade houses and plants during 1913 and the Water Gully site was reluctantly abandoned in 1925. Today the massive walls built from locally quarried stone are listed on the South Australian State Heritage Register.

This poster presents the results of a heritage survey undertaken by the Hills Face Zone Cultural Heritage Project. The survey identified evidence that all of the valley had been a highly constructed cultural landscape containing extensive terracing, slate lined drains, wells, dams, quarries, tracks and house ruins, most of which had been omitted from the earlier heritage survey of the stone buildings. The analysis of the GIS data revealed the extent to which the complex water control systems had controlled and channelled the water. The artificial channelling of water allowed all of the narrow, but fertile flood plain to be utilized and water was reticulated through the extensive complex of hothouses and shadehouses. This ambitious enterprise was ultimately destroyed by flood, largely because the European colonists had little understanding of how severe the rare Australian floods could be. All buildings, except for the house, had been sited across the junction of two creeks, a location where it had been easy to sink wells to supply the nursery with water.

Mill Point Archaeological Project: 2004 field season

Sean Ulm (University of Queensland) and Jill Reid and Judy Powell (Queensland Environmental Protection Agency)

Mill Point (or Elanda Point), in the Cooloola Section of Great Sandy National Park near Noosa, is the site of one of the earliest timber settlements in Queensland, operating between 1869 and 1892. In 2004, community concerns about the long-term future of the site (in particular the cemetery) prompted the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Noosa Shire Council and University of Queensland to collaborate to undertake a detailed survey of the site. In the past, visitor access to the site has been limited by dense vegetation cover and an absence of interpretative materials. This ongoing project adopted an inclusive community-focused framework in its approach to better identify and understand the site and allow for improved visitor access and experience.