Supervisors: Professor Peter Veth, Dr Joe Dortch, and Professor Sean Ulm Phone: +61 418901740 Address: School of Social Sciences The University of Western Australia (M257) 35 Stirling Highway Crawley, Perth Western Australia 6009
We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named ‘baler... more We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named ‘baler’) shell knives recovered from Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits in Boodie Cave, Barrow Island. The site is in the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2–42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and specially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaîne operatoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.
Management (CALM) publishes Wildlife Management Programs to provide detailed information and mana... more Management (CALM) publishes Wildlife Management Programs to provide detailed information and management actions for the conservation of threatened or exploited species of flora and fauna. Wildlife Management Program No. 2, The Noisy Scrub Bird, was published in 1986 (Burbidge et al. 1986) and much of the information and recovery actions provided here are taken from that document. This Recovery Plan provides up to date and more detailed descriptions of actions and accurate costing of them. Recovery Plans delineate, justify and schedule management actions necessary to support the recovery of an endangered or vulnerable species or ecological community. The attainment of objectives and the provision of funds is subject to budgetary and other constraints affecting the parties involved, as well as the need to address other priorities. Recovery Plans do not necessarily represent the views nor the official positions of any individuals or agencies represented on the
There has been considerable discussion in archaeology about the benefits of sieving in terms of r... more There has been considerable discussion in archaeology about the benefits of sieving in terms of recovery of particular classes of archaeological material. Less attention has been paid to questions of efficiency and cost effectiveness in the context of consulting archaeology. An experiment was conducted on excavated assemblages from inland Pilbara rockshelters comparing the results of wet and dry sieving in terms of time expended. The results suggest that the additional time spent in wet sieving can be largely offset by greater efficiency in recording and analysis. This, together with the undoubted benefit of improved recovery of archaeological material, confirms the value of wet sieving for reliably assessing sites.
Review(s) of: Salvage Excavation of Six Sites along Caddies, Seconds Ponds, Smalls and Cattai Cre... more Review(s) of: Salvage Excavation of Six Sites along Caddies, Seconds Ponds, Smalls and Cattai Creeks in the Rouse Hill Development Area, NSW, by Jo McDonald Cultural Heritage Management Pty Ltd, Australian Archaeological Consultancy Monograph Series 1, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc., St Lucia, 2005, Xxx+488pp, ISBN 0 9590310 1 4.
Barrow Island and the Dampier Archipelago off the coast of the Pilbara were the setting for a ran... more Barrow Island and the Dampier Archipelago off the coast of the Pilbara were the setting for a range of activities for Indigenous groups preceding European exploration, and the scene of various economic ventures following European settlement (1860s onwards) of the North- West of Western Australia. A limited number of cultural heritage assessments on these islands, both Indigenous (Vinnicombe, 1987; Veth, 1994; Quartermaine, 1994, 1997) and post-contact (MacIlroy, 1979), have been carried out but in all cases addressing only one cultural group and/or type of occupation. In 2004, as a result of two specific consultancies, consultant archaeologists Archae-Aus Pty Ltd, the Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, and the Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia, undertook a collaborative approach. As a result of that work we argue that the identification and assessment of Indigenous, historical and maritime sites is fundamental in the production of comprehensive management strategies for these islands.
This study explores the application of soil micromorphological and automated scanning electron mi... more This study explores the application of soil micromorphological and automated scanning electron microscopy mineralogical analysis to characterise lithological boundaries and site formation history from an archaeological cave site on Barrow Island, northwestern Australia. The high-resolution characterisation is used to document the changing depositional context within Boodie Cave from the earliest period of occupation around 50 ky BP through to when transgressing seas isolated the island around 7 ky BP. Comparisons are made between excavations at the front of the cave — where stratigraphic integrity is high and a thicker, more comprehensive early Holocene sequence is preserved, with excavations inside the cave — where stratigraphic integrity is lower but an older Pleistocene record is preserved. The combination of these depositional scenarios provides a complete stratigraphic sequence for Boodie Cave, with depositional contacts defined at macro-, meso- and micro-scale levels. These co...
We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named ‘baler... more We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named ‘baler’) shell knives recovered from Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits in Boodie Cave, Barrow Island. The site is in the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2–42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and specially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaîne operatoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.
Management (CALM) publishes Wildlife Management Programs to provide detailed information and mana... more Management (CALM) publishes Wildlife Management Programs to provide detailed information and management actions for the conservation of threatened or exploited species of flora and fauna. Wildlife Management Program No. 2, The Noisy Scrub Bird, was published in 1986 (Burbidge et al. 1986) and much of the information and recovery actions provided here are taken from that document. This Recovery Plan provides up to date and more detailed descriptions of actions and accurate costing of them. Recovery Plans delineate, justify and schedule management actions necessary to support the recovery of an endangered or vulnerable species or ecological community. The attainment of objectives and the provision of funds is subject to budgetary and other constraints affecting the parties involved, as well as the need to address other priorities. Recovery Plans do not necessarily represent the views nor the official positions of any individuals or agencies represented on the
There has been considerable discussion in archaeology about the benefits of sieving in terms of r... more There has been considerable discussion in archaeology about the benefits of sieving in terms of recovery of particular classes of archaeological material. Less attention has been paid to questions of efficiency and cost effectiveness in the context of consulting archaeology. An experiment was conducted on excavated assemblages from inland Pilbara rockshelters comparing the results of wet and dry sieving in terms of time expended. The results suggest that the additional time spent in wet sieving can be largely offset by greater efficiency in recording and analysis. This, together with the undoubted benefit of improved recovery of archaeological material, confirms the value of wet sieving for reliably assessing sites.
Review(s) of: Salvage Excavation of Six Sites along Caddies, Seconds Ponds, Smalls and Cattai Cre... more Review(s) of: Salvage Excavation of Six Sites along Caddies, Seconds Ponds, Smalls and Cattai Creeks in the Rouse Hill Development Area, NSW, by Jo McDonald Cultural Heritage Management Pty Ltd, Australian Archaeological Consultancy Monograph Series 1, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc., St Lucia, 2005, Xxx+488pp, ISBN 0 9590310 1 4.
Barrow Island and the Dampier Archipelago off the coast of the Pilbara were the setting for a ran... more Barrow Island and the Dampier Archipelago off the coast of the Pilbara were the setting for a range of activities for Indigenous groups preceding European exploration, and the scene of various economic ventures following European settlement (1860s onwards) of the North- West of Western Australia. A limited number of cultural heritage assessments on these islands, both Indigenous (Vinnicombe, 1987; Veth, 1994; Quartermaine, 1994, 1997) and post-contact (MacIlroy, 1979), have been carried out but in all cases addressing only one cultural group and/or type of occupation. In 2004, as a result of two specific consultancies, consultant archaeologists Archae-Aus Pty Ltd, the Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, and the Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia, undertook a collaborative approach. As a result of that work we argue that the identification and assessment of Indigenous, historical and maritime sites is fundamental in the production of comprehensive management strategies for these islands.
This study explores the application of soil micromorphological and automated scanning electron mi... more This study explores the application of soil micromorphological and automated scanning electron microscopy mineralogical analysis to characterise lithological boundaries and site formation history from an archaeological cave site on Barrow Island, northwestern Australia. The high-resolution characterisation is used to document the changing depositional context within Boodie Cave from the earliest period of occupation around 50 ky BP through to when transgressing seas isolated the island around 7 ky BP. Comparisons are made between excavations at the front of the cave — where stratigraphic integrity is high and a thicker, more comprehensive early Holocene sequence is preserved, with excavations inside the cave — where stratigraphic integrity is lower but an older Pleistocene record is preserved. The combination of these depositional scenarios provides a complete stratigraphic sequence for Boodie Cave, with depositional contacts defined at macro-, meso- and micro-scale levels. These co...
Hunter-gatherers do not occupy sites, they inhabit landscapes. The landscape is not a passive bac... more Hunter-gatherers do not occupy sites, they inhabit landscapes. The landscape is not a passive backdrop to Aboriginal activity but shaped by ongoing natural and cultural processes that create a 'taskscape'. The surface archaeological record is a palimpsest formed as the result of numerous individual events in combination with natural processes that serve to reveal, conceal or alter the record. In this paper we reinterpret archaeological data, collected as part of place based consultancy methodology as dictated by the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972, as part of a Nyiyaparli taskscape. The idea of the taskscape focuses on how landscapes are perceived and experienced not as backdrops or scenery, but in terms of the collection of activities carried out there (Ingold, 1993). Ingold (2007, p. 100) suggests that the lives of hunter-gatherers can be portrayed in terms of the sum of their journeys traced on the ground. The sum of the lives of many individuals is a 'meshwork'. Places then are the knots in the meshwork, connected and formed by the threads of individual journeys. Nyiyaparli country is filled with the marks of these past journeys both from the Kukutpa and from generations of ancestors. Individual archaeological 'sites' in Nyiyaparli country sit within a wider locality where activities frequently occurred, or where natural processes reveal or preserve evidence of past activity, or where an activity that happened to involve durable material such as stone occurred. Some evidence at sites is a by-product of activity—'just rubbish'—such as stone flaking, quarrying stone. Other evidence comprises the remains from deliberate actions—fires, shelters. Still other evidence represents deliberate constructive actions—producing art, leaving cores or grindstones at places to be used again, stone arrangements for ceremonies, fish traps, walled niches and the like. All are evidence of the taskscape—the lived and living landscape at the intersection between nature and culture. Understanding the taskscape calls for a shift in focus from individual 'sites' to an 'archaeology of place'.
Rock shelters commonly attract interest from archaeologists in relation to their excavation poten... more Rock shelters commonly attract interest from archaeologists in relation to their excavation potential and their contribution to building chronological sequences. In the Pilbara, rock shelter use is often interpreted as an ephemeral aspect of Aboriginal settlement patterns. Small rock shelters with shallow deposits are commonly not thought to warrant further investigation and these sites are quite poorly understood. This paper discusses a suite of more than 40 rock shelters in Nyiyaparli country in the eastern Chichester Range and the diverse range of archaeological material associated with them both in terms of their structural characteristics and landscape context. Individual shelters vary markedly in terms of characteristics and associated cultural debris, but commonly occur as components of site complexes or 'places in the landscape'. The inferred functions of spatially associated rock shelters appear complementary. Surface assemblages associated with shelters are also distinctive and indicate provisioning of these places with raw material. Although most shelters have only shallow occupation deposits, or none, these places were clearly regularly and repeatedly used for a range of tasks and formed a network of planned visitation within a socialised landscape. No doubt the visibility and permanence of rock shelters in the landscape made them foci of attention, charged with meaning as markers of 'persistent places' and places of memory. Current practice in compliance archaeology in the Pilbara means that individual components of these complexes are recorded and assessed as separate 'sites', which in turn has implications for assigning significance and the nature of archaeological investigation deemed appropriate. We argue that a consideration of the relationships between individual archaeological components and their landscape context should be paramount in interpreting such site complexes as well as more in keeping with Nyiyaparli understanding of places.
This paper discusses the nature and distribution of a concentration of stone arrangements recorde... more This paper discusses the nature and distribution of a concentration of stone arrangements recorded from the Packsaddle region of the Pilbara, northwest Western Australia. The Gurdadaguji stone arrangements will be shown to have been constructed during the last 500 years: a period which has been characterised as demonstrating increasing population levels and social dynamism. This recent phase has been characterised by a number of researchers from different parts of the Australian arid zone as demostrating increasing social boundedness which may be a consequence of the formation of new group identities and territories. It has been argued that within such a dynamic scenario the need to articulate and negotiate broad-scale alliance and subsistence networks would have been paramount. It is in this context that Gurdadaguji stone arrangements and the landscape in which they sit and the very action of their construction are viewed as part of a wider graphic system which was used to control and promote information exchange. In short - these sites are seen to be an artefact of dynamic ceremonial and ritual behaviours.
As part of a Fortescue Metals Group funded research project, Archae-aus developed a book with the... more As part of a Fortescue Metals Group funded research project, Archae-aus developed a book with the Nyiyaparli community that communicates the cultural and archaeological riches of the Chichester Ranges. The aim was to explain information from consulting archaeology and anthropology to multiple audiences. The Nyiyaparli were the primary audience, closely followed by primary school age children and tourists. This raised the problem of how to transform scientific information for a non-technical audience.
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Papers by Fiona Hook
the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2–42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and specially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaîne operatoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.
the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2–42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and specially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaîne operatoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.