Tropical environments (Archaeology)
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Recent papers in Tropical environments (Archaeology)
We invite you to visit the tropics this year to participate in the joint Australian Archaeological Association/Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology annual conference, ‘Culture, Climate, Change: Archaeology in the Tropics’. This... more
We invite you to visit the tropics this year to participate in the joint Australian Archaeological Association/Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology annual conference, ‘Culture, Climate, Change: Archaeology in the Tropics’. This is just the third time our two associations have come together to share our annual conferences and we look forward to continuing our close collaboration into the future. The tropical zone is home to extraordinary diversity, reflected in a rich and diverse archaeological and natural heritage. In our own region, discoveries such as Homo floresiensis, sea-faring Lapita peoples on the south coast of Papua New Guinea and the tropics as a key zone controlling global climate have fundamentally reshaped our understandings of the long-term human histories of these vast land and seascapes. Your host James Cook University welcomes you to the tropics to engage in conversations about these issues and about many others which confront our disciplines. Our venue for 2014 is the Pullman Cairns International. We trust that delegates and other guests will enjoy their experiences in the North of Queensland.
Prehistoric stone tools discovered in Southeast Asia contrast with what is found in the rest of the world: they are simple and their production techniques remained unchanged for millennia. To explain these unique characteristics, some... more
Prehistoric stone tools discovered in Southeast Asia contrast with what is found in the rest of the world: they are simple and their production techniques remained unchanged for millennia. To explain these unique characteristics, some scholars offered what is called the " bamboo hypothesis " : if SE Asian stone tools are simple it would be because they were actually used to manufacture more complex implements made of bamboo. This hypothesis relies on a series of indirect evidence, among which the fact that use-traces occurring on the stone tools result from plant processing. These traces are often interpreted as due to bamboo working although in the absence of an adapted reference collection such a precise diagnosis is impossible to make. A fundamental question remains to be addressed: is it possible to distinguish the working of bamboo from the one of other plants based on the traces they produce? To answer this, we carried out several experiments, grounded on ethnoarchaeological observations, which involved 15 tropical plant taxa, including 3 bamboo genera and conducted microscopic use-wear analysis of the experimental tools. Our results show that the use-wear created by processing mature bamboo is well-developed and can be defined through a set of criteria. Altogether they distinguish bamboo wear from the one produced by other plants, although some overlapping exists. Our results can be used as a reference to which the traces on archaeological stone tools can be compared in order to determine whether they were really used to process bamboo and to what extent.
Prehistoric stone tools discovered in Southeast Asia contrast with what is found in the rest of the world: they are simple and their production techniques remained unchanged for millennia. To explain these unique characteristics, some... more
Prehistoric stone tools discovered in Southeast Asia contrast with what is found in the rest of the world: they are simple and their production techniques remained unchanged for millennia. To explain these unique characteristics, some scholars offered what is called the “bamboo hypothesis”: if SE Asian stone tools are simple it would be because they were actually used to manufacture more complex implements made of bamboo. This hypothesis relies on a series of indirect evidence, among which the fact that use-traces occurring on the stone tools result from plant processing. These traces are often interpreted as due to bamboo working although in the absence of an adapted reference collection such a precise diagnosis is impossible to make. A fundamental question remains to be addressed: is it possible to distinguish the working of bamboo from the one of other plants based on the traces they produce? To answer this, we carried out several experiments, grounded on ethnoarchaeological observations, which involved 15 tropical plant taxa, including 3 bamboo genera and conducted microscopic use-wear analysis of the experimental tools. Our results show that the use-wear created by processing mature bamboo is well-developed and can be defined through a set of criteria. Altogether they distinguish bamboo wear from the one produced by other plants, although some overlapping exists. Our results can be used as a reference to which the traces on archaeological stone tools can be compared in order to determine whether they were really used to process bamboo and to what extent.
Thesis in fulfillment of Bachelor of Archaeology (Honours) degree. Recent research in northern Australia has involved nuanced approaches to understand environmental and cultural dynamics that influence responses to late Holocene... more
Thesis in fulfillment of Bachelor of Archaeology (Honours) degree.
Recent research in northern Australia has involved nuanced approaches to understand environmental and cultural dynamics that influence responses to late Holocene environmental variability. This thesis offers a new theoretical approach that proposes cultural memory as the framework in which these responses are selected.
An in-depth overview and comparative analysis is also conducted of all published archaeological work in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cultural memory is not a model to interpret archaeological change, but instead is a cultural mechanism that allows people to make informed decisions when faced with environmental variability. Through looking at the role of knowledge in human responses to environmental variability, archaeologists can begin to understand underlying cultural mechanisms to better contextualise data.
Recent research in northern Australia has involved nuanced approaches to understand environmental and cultural dynamics that influence responses to late Holocene environmental variability. This thesis offers a new theoretical approach that proposes cultural memory as the framework in which these responses are selected.
An in-depth overview and comparative analysis is also conducted of all published archaeological work in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cultural memory is not a model to interpret archaeological change, but instead is a cultural mechanism that allows people to make informed decisions when faced with environmental variability. Through looking at the role of knowledge in human responses to environmental variability, archaeologists can begin to understand underlying cultural mechanisms to better contextualise data.
This research aims to generate detailed understandings of seasonal environmental and hydrological cycles and their effects on the growth and isotopic composition of important economic shellfish taxa endemic to Bentinck Island, Gulf of... more
This research aims to generate detailed understandings of seasonal environmental and hydrological cycles and their effects on the growth and isotopic composition of important economic shellfish taxa endemic to Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, as part of a broader investigation of Kaiadilt occupation patterns.
The skeletal hard parts of molluscan shells contain detailed records of tidal, seasonal, and annual environmental cycles manifesting as discrete growth banding and isotopic variation (Burchell et al. 2013; Deith 1983; Shackleton 1973). Analysis of shellfish remains from archaeological deposits permits complex questions of occupation periodicity, mobility, and demography to be approached. However, the effects of environmental shifts on the growth regimes and isotopic composition of molluscan shell are not uniform, with significant variation derived from different taxa and geographic locations (Bernstein 1990; Carré et al. 2005; Jones and Quitmyer 1996). It is therefore necessary to construct detailed modern baseline analogues to characterise causality between environmental/hydrological cycles and changes in molluscan growth regimes/isotopic composition, providing a contextual framework from which accurate high-resolution interpretations of archaeological material can be made.
These findings provide crucial baseline analogues for a high-resolution study of the seasonality and periodicity of Kaiadilt occupation in the South Wellesley Islands during the mid-to-late Holocene. Novel applications of sclerochronology and scleroisotope analysis will allow more nuanced understandings of Australian offshore island use – including higher-order interpretations of mobility and demography – to be approached
The skeletal hard parts of molluscan shells contain detailed records of tidal, seasonal, and annual environmental cycles manifesting as discrete growth banding and isotopic variation (Burchell et al. 2013; Deith 1983; Shackleton 1973). Analysis of shellfish remains from archaeological deposits permits complex questions of occupation periodicity, mobility, and demography to be approached. However, the effects of environmental shifts on the growth regimes and isotopic composition of molluscan shell are not uniform, with significant variation derived from different taxa and geographic locations (Bernstein 1990; Carré et al. 2005; Jones and Quitmyer 1996). It is therefore necessary to construct detailed modern baseline analogues to characterise causality between environmental/hydrological cycles and changes in molluscan growth regimes/isotopic composition, providing a contextual framework from which accurate high-resolution interpretations of archaeological material can be made.
These findings provide crucial baseline analogues for a high-resolution study of the seasonality and periodicity of Kaiadilt occupation in the South Wellesley Islands during the mid-to-late Holocene. Novel applications of sclerochronology and scleroisotope analysis will allow more nuanced understandings of Australian offshore island use – including higher-order interpretations of mobility and demography – to be approached
... In fact, activities typical of the mid-to late Medieval Warm Period elsewhere are suggested ... by AD 1425, the endemic palm (Paschalococos dispersa) was in rapid decline, and the ... The forest declined but palms and other ligneous... more
... In fact, activities typical of the mid-to late Medieval Warm Period elsewhere are suggested ... by AD 1425, the endemic palm (Paschalococos dispersa) was in rapid decline, and the ... The forest declined but palms and other ligneous species remained in places, despite deteriorating ...
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