Freshwater wetlands of tropical Australia are highly productive ecosystems. Along the floodplain ... more Freshwater wetlands of tropical Australia are highly productive ecosystems. Along the floodplain margins of the Northern Territory's South Alligator River, large open sites testify that in the past they were of significant economic importance to the prehistoric Aboriginal occupants. The sites are deflated and the only archaeological remains consist of stone artefacts. However, geomorphological investigations link the sites with the establishment of freshwater wetlands on the floodplains no more than 1500 years ago. Because the sites are flooded in the wet season, dry season occupation is implied. As wetland resources are available seasonally, sites may have been occupied at different times during the dry season according to the availability of resources. Historic evidence from comparable areas elsewhere in tropical Australia indicates that hunters in these areas maintained year-round residency on the floodplain margins, camping on higher ground and exploiting alternative resource bases during the wet season. The presence of mound sites in open woodland abutting the floodplains suggests that such settlement patterns also existed in the Kakadu region prehistorically. This thesis examines site use and settlement patterns on the South Alligator wetland margins through an analysis of the stone artefact assemblages. Stone raw materials and tool types were examined in terms of distributions both within and between sites. Differences in distribution of tool types between sites was linked to differences in site use and season of occupation. The assemblages of the South Alligator wetland sites were subsequently compared with those of nearby rockshelters located in the outliers and plateau valleys of the Arnhem Land escarpment. Differences between them were interpreted as reflecting different environmental locations and economic bases. These differences echoed the dichotomy found by other researchers between plateau valley and plain sites in northern Kakadu. Previously, it had been concluded that the emergence of estuarine [...]
This thesis investigates settlement patterns and mobility strategies on the lower Adelaide River ... more This thesis investigates settlement patterns and mobility strategies on the lower Adelaide River in the late Holocene period. As earth mounds are the dominant site type in the study area and have a chronology spanning at least 4000 years, they provide opportunities for research into Aboriginal adaptive strategies in an environment that changed dramatically over the mid to late Holocene period. Earth mounds have been reported from a number of locations in northern Australia, but until now have not been studied intensively. Several themes raised by the literature in relation to the earth mounds in both northern and southern Australia will be addressed, including location, morphology, chronology, origins and the role that earth mounds play in wider settlement systems. The earth mounds are located next to the vast floodplains of the Adelaide River, one of the major tropical rivers draining the flat coastal plains of the north. The floodplains of the northern rivers underwent dynamic env...
This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultu... more This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultural heritage of protected areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Our particular concern was with the proposition that the discourse of nature conservation was predisposed to a vision of protected areas (in the form of national parks and other ‘nature’ reserves) as pristine nature. According to such a vision, protected areas represent wildernesses that, having escaped the ravages of human exploitation, had now to be preserved as the last reservoirs of biodiversity on a planet threatened with ecological disaster. To what extent, we asked, did such a mindset eclipse the history and heritage of protected areas as human habitats, not to mention effacing the contemporary presence in them of living human cultures?
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2009
When first news reports of a novel Coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, spread around the globe not mu... more When first news reports of a novel Coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, spread around the globe not much more than a year ago, not many of us took notice In the following months it was emails and calls from students, colleagues, and friends in the affected regions that made us aware of the scale of what was emerging Much has changed since then, our personal lives have been turned upside down, travel has all but stopped, research has been impacted as access to laboratories has been restricted, and conferences needed to be cancelled or adapt quickly
... 118 Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studi... more ... 118 Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200. Email: sally.brockwell@anu. edu.au ... Page 3. was dated to 280±140 years BP (ANU-3212) (Meehan et al. 1985:152). ...
This volume represents the first compilation of archaeological research for the Darwin region. Th... more This volume represents the first compilation of archaeological research for the Darwin region. The collection of papers in this volume focuses archaeological attention on a single region from a variety of perspectives, over a time period from 4000 years ago to the Second World War. Some papers expand upon former research on subsistence and settlement of past millennia, while others are groundbreaking in their treatment of the material remains of the very recent past. The aim is to make the results of this research accessible to the general public, as well as to archaeologists and historians.
Rethinking Cultural Resource Management in Southeast Asia
... LIMITS OF NATIONAL PUBLIC GOOD PROTECTED AREA MODELS IN TIMOR LESTE Sue O'Connor, Sa... more ... LIMITS OF NATIONAL PUBLIC GOOD PROTECTED AREA MODELS IN TIMOR LESTE Sue O'Connor, Sandra Pannell and Sally Brockwell Introduction ... Residents in Méhara and Maupitine, living in proximity to Lake Iralaloro, harvest catfish and bream during times of high water ...
Freshwater wetlands of tropical Australia are highly productive ecosystems. Along the floodplain ... more Freshwater wetlands of tropical Australia are highly productive ecosystems. Along the floodplain margins of the Northern Territory's South Alligator River, large open sites testify that in the past they were of significant economic importance to the prehistoric Aboriginal occupants. The sites are deflated and the only archaeological remains consist of stone artefacts. However, geomorphological investigations link the sites with the establishment of freshwater wetlands on the floodplains no more than 1500 years ago. Because the sites are flooded in the wet season, dry season occupation is implied. As wetland resources are available seasonally, sites may have been occupied at different times during the dry season according to the availability of resources. Historic evidence from comparable areas elsewhere in tropical Australia indicates that hunters in these areas maintained year-round residency on the floodplain margins, camping on higher ground and exploiting alternative resource bases during the wet season. The presence of mound sites in open woodland abutting the floodplains suggests that such settlement patterns also existed in the Kakadu region prehistorically. This thesis examines site use and settlement patterns on the South Alligator wetland margins through an analysis of the stone artefact assemblages. Stone raw materials and tool types were examined in terms of distributions both within and between sites. Differences in distribution of tool types between sites was linked to differences in site use and season of occupation. The assemblages of the South Alligator wetland sites were subsequently compared with those of nearby rockshelters located in the outliers and plateau valleys of the Arnhem Land escarpment. Differences between them were interpreted as reflecting different environmental locations and economic bases. These differences echoed the dichotomy found by other researchers between plateau valley and plain sites in northern Kakadu. Previously, it had been concluded that the emergence of estuarine [...]
This thesis investigates settlement patterns and mobility strategies on the lower Adelaide River ... more This thesis investigates settlement patterns and mobility strategies on the lower Adelaide River in the late Holocene period. As earth mounds are the dominant site type in the study area and have a chronology spanning at least 4000 years, they provide opportunities for research into Aboriginal adaptive strategies in an environment that changed dramatically over the mid to late Holocene period. Earth mounds have been reported from a number of locations in northern Australia, but until now have not been studied intensively. Several themes raised by the literature in relation to the earth mounds in both northern and southern Australia will be addressed, including location, morphology, chronology, origins and the role that earth mounds play in wider settlement systems. The earth mounds are located next to the vast floodplains of the Adelaide River, one of the major tropical rivers draining the flat coastal plains of the north. The floodplains of the northern rivers underwent dynamic env...
This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultu... more This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultural heritage of protected areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Our particular concern was with the proposition that the discourse of nature conservation was predisposed to a vision of protected areas (in the form of national parks and other ‘nature’ reserves) as pristine nature. According to such a vision, protected areas represent wildernesses that, having escaped the ravages of human exploitation, had now to be preserved as the last reservoirs of biodiversity on a planet threatened with ecological disaster. To what extent, we asked, did such a mindset eclipse the history and heritage of protected areas as human habitats, not to mention effacing the contemporary presence in them of living human cultures?
International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2009
When first news reports of a novel Coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, spread around the globe not mu... more When first news reports of a novel Coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, spread around the globe not much more than a year ago, not many of us took notice In the following months it was emails and calls from students, colleagues, and friends in the affected regions that made us aware of the scale of what was emerging Much has changed since then, our personal lives have been turned upside down, travel has all but stopped, research has been impacted as access to laboratories has been restricted, and conferences needed to be cancelled or adapt quickly
... 118 Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studi... more ... 118 Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200. Email: sally.brockwell@anu. edu.au ... Page 3. was dated to 280±140 years BP (ANU-3212) (Meehan et al. 1985:152). ...
This volume represents the first compilation of archaeological research for the Darwin region. Th... more This volume represents the first compilation of archaeological research for the Darwin region. The collection of papers in this volume focuses archaeological attention on a single region from a variety of perspectives, over a time period from 4000 years ago to the Second World War. Some papers expand upon former research on subsistence and settlement of past millennia, while others are groundbreaking in their treatment of the material remains of the very recent past. The aim is to make the results of this research accessible to the general public, as well as to archaeologists and historians.
Rethinking Cultural Resource Management in Southeast Asia
... LIMITS OF NATIONAL PUBLIC GOOD PROTECTED AREA MODELS IN TIMOR LESTE Sue O'Connor, Sa... more ... LIMITS OF NATIONAL PUBLIC GOOD PROTECTED AREA MODELS IN TIMOR LESTE Sue O'Connor, Sandra Pannell and Sally Brockwell Introduction ... Residents in Méhara and Maupitine, living in proximity to Lake Iralaloro, harvest catfish and bream during times of high water ...
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