- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Tiina Manne
The University of Queensland, Australia, School of Social Science, Department Member
The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans... more
The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans
first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans
and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we
report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary
depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated
by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000
years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and
ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal
of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans
and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we
report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary
depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated
by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000
years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and
ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal
of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Research Interests:
Located on the edge of Australia’s North West continental shelf, Barrow Island is uniquely located to address a number of research questions, such as the antiquity and changing nature of Indigenous occupation, including shifting uses of... more
Located on the edge of Australia’s North West continental shelf, Barrow
Island is uniquely located to address a number of research questions,
such as the antiquity and changing nature of Indigenous occupation,
including shifting uses of regional economic resources in response to
post-glacial sea-level rise. These questions are addressed from a range of archaeological, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological disciplines.
Although only preliminary, results to date indicate the presence of marine resources dating to before sea-level stabilization (∼ 7.5 ka) that
contain both dietary and utilitarian species, including high-ranked
species such as sea turtle. The marine assemblages reflect a variety of
habitats and substrates with a 17,000-year record for the presence of a
former tidal marsh or estuary. We also note recently obtained 14C and
OSL dates that extend the dietarymarine faunas and initial occupation
to well before 41 ka. This demonstrates that consumption of coastal
resources began prior to the Holocene, when we begin to observe more
widespread evidence of marine resource exploitation in the broader
Canarvon Bioregion of northwest Australia. This evidence supports arguments for further research to directly test both the productivity of,
and human reliance on, marine habitats from initial occupation.
Island is uniquely located to address a number of research questions,
such as the antiquity and changing nature of Indigenous occupation,
including shifting uses of regional economic resources in response to
post-glacial sea-level rise. These questions are addressed from a range of archaeological, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological disciplines.
Although only preliminary, results to date indicate the presence of marine resources dating to before sea-level stabilization (∼ 7.5 ka) that
contain both dietary and utilitarian species, including high-ranked
species such as sea turtle. The marine assemblages reflect a variety of
habitats and substrates with a 17,000-year record for the presence of a
former tidal marsh or estuary. We also note recently obtained 14C and
OSL dates that extend the dietarymarine faunas and initial occupation
to well before 41 ka. This demonstrates that consumption of coastal
resources began prior to the Holocene, when we begin to observe more
widespread evidence of marine resource exploitation in the broader
Canarvon Bioregion of northwest Australia. This evidence supports arguments for further research to directly test both the productivity of,
and human reliance on, marine habitats from initial occupation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This contribution synthesizes archaeological studies of human economies from the BarroweMontebello islands and uses the area's archaeological record to determine the effects of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene sea-level rise on... more
This contribution synthesizes archaeological studies of human economies from the BarroweMontebello islands and uses the area's archaeological record to determine the effects of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene sea-level rise on regional coastlines. At the height of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Aus-tralia's northwestern coast extended much further west than the present-day shoreline. During subsequent sea-level rise, the gently prograding continental shelf was inundated, and with it, nearly all archaeological evidence for coastal occupation. The Barrow and Montebello Islands are one of the few exceptions, as they corresponded to inland hinterland ranges during the LGM, with the coastline lying some 50 km to their west. Evidence from all late Pleistocene and Holocene occupation phases of the BarroweMontebello Islands demonstrate that foragers continued to visit the coast and engage in the exploitation of both terrestrial and marine environments. During the late Pleistocene, when the shoreline was 10e15 km away, coastal exploitation is seen through the presence of transportable estuarine and rocky-shore gastropods. By the early Holocene, when sea-levels were within close proximity of the sites, there is a marked increase in marine fauna including reef fish, estuarine and reef shellfish, crustaceans and estuarine crocodile. Together, this suggests that the nearby muddy, procumbent coastlines were productive, as well as an important component of coastal and hinterland economies.
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Australian archaeofaunal assemblages are often heavily fragmented by taphonomic agents whose identity or origins are frequently difficult to discern. This study explores whether the fragmentation and accumulation of bone by carnivorous... more
Australian archaeofaunal assemblages are often heavily fragmented by taphonomic agents whose identity or origins are frequently difficult to discern. This study explores whether the fragmentation and accumulation of bone by carnivorous marsupial quolls may be distinguished from that produced by humans. Analyses of 140 scats obtained from captive feeding trials and wild populations of three quoll species (Dasyurus maculatus, Dasyurus viverrinus and Dasyurus hallucatus) indicates that damage to bones by quolls may be identified through a combination of the median length of bone specimens and observations of specific types of damage to the bone surface. Our results demonstrate that bone consumed by D. viverrinus and D. hallucatus is highly unlikely to be confused with human-accumulated assemblages due to low dietary overlap and the very small bone fragment size produced by both quoll species. Bone accumulations of the larger D. maculatus species, however, may be incorrectly attributed to humans due to the consumption of medium-large mammals by both humans and quolls, and the larger size of bone fragments produced by D. maculatus. Although fragments as large as 25 mm were recovered from wild D. maculatus scats, the median length of scat-bone fragments for D. maculatus falls between ~8.30–10.40 mm. This is significantly different statistically to the median fragment length (11.90 mm) of bone in scats of the Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, as reported by Caroline Northwood (1990). Scats from wild D. maculatus indicate that polish and pitting are the most common forms of surface damage to bone, with more than 25% of specimens displaying these marks. Punctures and tooth drag marks are far rarer, with only 5% of bone specimens exhibiting this kind of damage. In light of these results, we advocate for detailed observation of the surface of bone specimens, along with obtaining specimen lengths, in order to distinguish quoll accumulated bone in archaeofaunal assemblages.
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The role of degradational processes that act on archaeological faunal assemblages after burial has attracted less attention than it warrants, in part because many of the changes take place over time scales that are not amenable to... more
The role of degradational processes that act on archaeological faunal assemblages after burial has attracted less attention than it warrants, in part because many of the changes take place over time scales that are not amenable to experimental investigation. We propose a straightforward method for evaluating the level of post-depositional degradation in a stratified archaeological faunal assemblage based primarily on trends in the burning composition of the assemblage. The twin foundations of the method are: 1) the experimentally verified changes in physical properties that occur in bone as it is progressively burned through carbonized to calcined stages: and 2) postulated contrasts between burning stages in susceptibility to a suite of degradational processes that operate in the burial context, including a range of microbial, fungal, thermal and chemical processes. We present data from seven archaeological sites from Australasia and three ethnographic assemblages from Papua New Guinea, including sites in open-air, rockshelter and cave contexts, and sites with both acidic and alkaline soil conditions. Each of the archaeological sites is treated as a temporally-seriated assemblage that documents the potential impacts of post-depositional degradation on the faunal assemblage. We compare the relative abundance of un-burned, burned/carbonized or calcined bone through each sequence and identify commonalities of pattern that are highly suggestive of post-depositional degradation. For each assemblage, these patterns are verified by visual inspection and identification of classic signs of surface degradation such as pitting and root channelling. In each of the acidic contexts there was a clear trend of increasing degradation of bone with excavation depth (= age). Assemblages from alkaline deposits were more complex, but some also provided more subtle evidence of degradation within the profile. Investigation of burning profiles in combination with careful examination of bone macro-damage provides a useful tool for identifying the pattern of post-depositional degradation within a stratified sequence and for distinguishing this from other various kinds of taphonomic patterning, and from signals produced by human behaviour.
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Abstract This paper presents archaeological evidence for the initial occupation and use of a large clan ossuary on the upper Kikori River at Baina in Papua New Guinea. Drawing extensively on clan oral accounts of its use and function, it... more
Abstract This paper presents archaeological evidence for the initial occupation and use of a large clan ossuary on the upper Kikori River at Baina in Papua New Guinea. Drawing extensively on clan oral accounts of its use and function, it is posited that the timing and use of the site as an ossuary effectively dates the establishment of a sub clan entity known as Kesele and the fragmentation of larger clan based land owning units into smaller sub-clan entities dating from around 200 years ago in the region. It is further posited that evidence of the more intensive use of the site from around 600 years ago and its subsequent use as an ossuary at 200 years ago may be linked to its proximity to an important lithic raw material source used in the manufacture of sago pounders, a major trade item linked to the hiri pottery trade.
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In regions that lack built structures or stratified open archaeological sites, such as precolonial Australia, rockshelters are a major source of detailed information for understanding the nature and timing of human occupation. A key... more
In regions that lack built structures or stratified open archaeological sites, such as precolonial Australia, rockshelters are a major source of detailed information for understanding the nature and timing of human occupation. A key concern is that the proposed ages for the earliest archaeological sites are based on luminescence dating of sediments, rather than directly of cultural materials, leaving the association between the sediments and evidence of human activity questionable. Here, we present evidence of magnetic enhancement associated with cultural horizons within the deposits of a Pleistocene rockshelter in interior northern Queensland. Soil magnetic studies combined with experimental burning show that magnetically enhanced sediments in Gledswood Shelter 1 are the result of anthropogenic burning of hearth fires, which burn hotter and for a longer time than natural wild fires. These techniques appear to work in this setting because of the nature of the local geology and the geological antiquity of the landscape. Susceptibility and frequency dependence of susceptibility signatures provide a critical tool to resolve that human occupation starts at 2.2 m depth within a stratigraphic section. In conjunction with luminescence dating, soil magnetic studies provide an opportunity for archaeologists to resolve the timing of human settlement in Australia and other intracratonic plate settings. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages... more
Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages in Sahul for this early period. However, the stone artefacts and other important archaeological components of the site have never been described in detail, leading to persistent doubts about its stratigraphic integrity. We report on our analysis of the stone artefacts and faunal and other materials recovered during the 1989 excavations, as well as the stratigraphy and depositional history recorded by the original excavators. We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers. Silcrete and quartzite artefacts are common in the early assemblage, which also includes edge-ground axe fragments and ground haematite. The lower flaked stone assemblage is distinctive, comprising a mix of long convergent flakes, some radial flakes with faceted platforms, and many small thin silcrete flakes that we interpret as thinning flakes. Residue and use-wear analysis indicate occasional grinding of haematite and wood- working, as well as frequent abrading of platform edges on thinning flakes. We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been over- stated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50-60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods. We discuss the implications of these new data for understanding the first human colonisation of Sahul.
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The Upper Paleolithic site of Vale Boi in coastal, southwestern Portugal currently represents one of the earliest known cases of grease-rendering in Eurasia, with initial occupation of the site occurring during the early Gravettian at... more
The Upper Paleolithic site of Vale Boi in coastal, southwestern Portugal currently represents one of the earliest known cases of grease-rendering in Eurasia, with initial occupation of the site occurring during the early Gravettian at ~28,000 BP. Already by this time, Vale Boi foragers were intensively processing ungulate carcasses by rendering grease from their bones. Zooarchaeological evidence of grease rendering includes extensive fragmentation of red deer and equine remains, abundant evidence of impact features on specimens and a lower proportion of preserved grease-rich skeletal portions. Comparisons of red deer and horse bone portions with density assays and utility indices suggest that ungulates at Vale Boi were systematically processed for their marrow and bone grease. The early onset of grease-rendering at Vale Boi, in addition to heavy rabbit exploitation may have been spurred by ungulate communities unable to support human consumer-demand on their own. However, the continued practice of grease-rendering at Vale Boi over the course of the Upper Paleolithic may also be closely related to the significance of bone fats for mobile hunter-gatherers e as a highly valued, storable and easily-transportable resource.
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The late Pleistocene record for human exploitation of marine resources is generally accepted as being underrepresented world-wide. The global lowering of sea levels during the last glacial maximum (LGM) extended coastlines, presumably... more
The late Pleistocene record for human exploitation of marine resources is generally accepted as being underrepresented world-wide. The global lowering of sea levels during the last glacial maximum (LGM) extended coastlines, presumably causing much of the evidence for coastal living from that period to be inundated today. The southern coast of Iberia is no exception, having a gently sloping, submerged continental shelf along much of its coastline. During the LGM, this continental shelf would have been partially exposed, with the coastal shore lying a considerable distance south of where it is today. This set of circumstances has no doubt contributed to the lack of known Upper Paleolithic coastal sites in southern Iberia containing records of marine exploitation. However, two key southern Iberian sites provide evidence of long-term marine resource use in this region: Cueva de Nerja and Vale Boi. The southeastern Spanish site of Cueva de Nerja is known for its record of marine fish and shellfish exploitation beginning in the Solutrean (Cortés-Sánchez et al. 2008; Jorda 1986; Morales and Rosello 2008; Serrano et al. 1995). Now the Portuguese site of Vale Boi significantly adds to the evidence of long-term utilization of coastal resources, with its record of marine resource exploitation beginning in the Gravettian.
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Before the 90s, data on Paleolithic human occupation of southern Portugal was very scarce. During the last decade, the knowledge of the Upper Paleolithic of Algarve increased substantially due to the work of a research team based at the... more
Before the 90s, data on Paleolithic human occupation of southern Portugal was very scarce. During the last decade, the knowledge of the Upper Paleolithic of Algarve increased substantially due to the work of a research team based at the University of Algarve. The present paper is a report on the recent results from Algarve, focusing specially on the site of