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Archaeology meeting to discuss the 'construction' of history

December 03, 2004

Australians may have been duped into believing their colonial history was
written by convicts, an international conference on archaeology at the
University of New England will be told later this month.

Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, from the University of Tasmania, will talk about
how writings on convict chain-gang life in 19th century Australia may really
have been written by editors who "inserted moral messages which reflected
their own, middle-class values".

More than 100 archaeologists from around the world are expected to attend
the three-day annual conference of the Australian Archaeological
Association, to be held at UNE from Monday, December 13. The theme of the
conference is "Networks and Narratives", and Dr Maxwell-Stewart's
presentation will show how the need to tell a good story affects the history
that gets written.

A main attraction of the conference will be the group of papers open to the
public, led by Professor Mike Morwood from UNE and Dr Thomas Sutkina from
the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology, Jakarta, on the recent discovery of a
new human species, "Homo floresiensis" (so named because the tiny human
remains were found on the Indonesian island of Flores). This session will be
at UNE's Arts Theatre on Wednesday, December 15 beginning at 11am. Professor
Morwood will be joined by UNE colleague and postgraduate Mark Moore, who
will talk about the use of stone implements discovered alongside the
skeletal remains of the "Homo floresiensis".

Professor Robin Dennell, from Sheffield University in the UK, will open the
conference with his keynote address on how the way the narrative story gets
written dominates our understanding of such famous events as the extinction
of Neandertals, or how human ancestors made their way out of Africa.

Professor Iain Davidson, Director of UNE's Heritage Futures Research Centre,
will review his research from 1992 in which he argued that the initial
colonisation of Australia at some time between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago was
the key event in the human past which shows that language had already
emerged by then. The session in which he is speaking will review more
recent evidence from Africa and Europe to see how far back seafaring can be
demonstrated.

The conference will also look at rock art, museum collecting, Australian
Aboriginal archaeology, and the teaching of archaeology, through 60
presentations and 30 posters by people from eight different countries. UNE
alumni will celebrate 30 years of the Archaeology Department and 50 years of
the University at a function on the Tuesday night.

For more information phone Professor Iain Davidson on 6773 2441 or Lydia
Roberts on 6773 2779.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 3, 2004 11:23 AM