Coastal Foragers on Southern Shores: Marine Resource Use in Northeast Australia since the Late Pleistocene

Ulm, Sean

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8219-3_19

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Of the 1,269 dates recorded in this region, 980 (77%) occur within the last 5ka (even taphonomically corrected, it remains ~25% of all data). Based on the data, exploitation of coastal resources intensified with the vast majority of occupation still occurring along the northern and eastern coastlines, the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait, and being primarily comprised of shell mounds or middens (Ulm, 2011). Of the 980 dates representing the last 5ka, 520 (53%) were from these types of site, with many of the remaining dates coming from midden strata within the top of rockshelter sites.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A continental narrative: Human settlement patterns and Australian climate change over the last 35,000 years

Williams

Veth

Steffen

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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, we consider the effects of climate systems on past human settlement patterns and inferred demography. We use 5,044 radiocarbon dates from ~1,750 archaeological sites to develop regional timeseries curves for different regions defined in the OZ-INTIMATE compilation as the temperate, tropics, interior and Southern Ocean sectors to explore human-climate relationships in Australia over the last 35,000 years. Correlations undertaken with improved palaeoclimatic data and archaeological records indicate that the regional time-series curves are robust, and can be used as a proxy for human behaviour. However, interrogation of the datasets is essential with artificial peaks and taphonomic over-correction being critical considerations. The time-series curves are interpreted as reflecting population growth, stasis and even decline in phase with terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene climatic fluctuations. This coupling, however, decreases during the last 5,000 years, most likely due to increased population levels, greater territoriality, technological solutions to stress, and social and ideational innovation. Curves from all sectors show exponential population growth over the last 5,000 years. We identify future research priorities, highlighting the paucity of archaeological records across several parts of Australia (<1 dated site/4,000km 2 ), especially around the fringes of the arid zone, and the need for improved taphonomic correction techniques. Finally, we discuss how these time-series curves represent a first-order framework, not dissimilar to global climate models, which researchers can continue to test and refine with local, regional and continental records. KeywordsTime-series analysis, archaeological radiocarbon data, hunter-gatherer behaviour, Aus-INTIMATE, OZ-INTIMATE, human-environment interaction, palaeoenvironment Highlights  Comparison of radiocarbon time-series techniques with other archaeological indices  We demonstrate robust relationship between radiocarbon data and demographic change  Our results suggest past demography was coupled with climate until mid-Holocene  Mid-Holocene social/technological innovation effected a de-coupling of relationship  We provide future directions for Australian archaeological and time-series research 3

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A continental narrative: Human settlement patterns and Australian climate change over the last 35,000 years

Williams

Veth

Steffen

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…Barker 2004;Beaton 1985;Lamb 2011;Rowland 2008;Turney and Hobbs 2006;Ulm 2011). Much of this debate has been inconclusive due to lack of direct evidence, and there is no consensus regarding the cause(s) of developments, implied by the archaeological record.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human history and palaeoenvironmental change at Site 17, Freshwater Beach, Lizard Island, northeast Queensland, Australia

Lentfer

Felgate

Mills³

et al. 2013

QAR

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Late Holocene patterns of change in occupation and use of islands along the eastern coast of Queensland have long been debated in terms of various drivers, though much of this discussion relates to regions south of Cairns, with comparatively little study of the far northern Great Barrier Reef islands. The numerous middens, stone arrangements and art sites on Lizard Island suggest long-term use by Indigenous people, but recent discoveries of pottery give tantalising glimpses of a prehistoric past that may have included a prehistoric economy involving pottery. Here we review previous archaeological surveys and studies on Lizard Island and report on new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies from the Site 17 midden at Freshwater Beach, with an oldest date of 3815–3571 cal BP. We identify two major changes in the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records, one associated with more recent European influences and the other at c.2000 cal BP. Pottery from the intertidal zone is as yet undated. When dates become available the relationship between the Site 17 results reported here and the use of pottery on the island may be clarified.

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“…The majority of fires are anthropogenic, with lightning strikes igniting a small proportion during the transition from the dry to wet season (Bowman et al, 1988;Yibarbuk et al, 2001). Human populations expanded across tropical northern Australia in the last 6,000 years, with the majority of tropical sites indicating increased exploitation of coastal resources in the late Holocene (Ulm, 2011;Williams et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The expansion of freshwater resources across tropical northern Australia provides an essential resource for the increasing coastal human populations in the late Holocene (Williams et al, 2010). Across northern Australia, the last 1000 years is marked by dramatic increases in the number of sites occupied and rates of deposition of materials (Ulm, 2011(Ulm, , 2013 taken as a proxy of increasing populations (Williams et al, 2015).…”

Section: Marr04mentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeoecology of the South Wellesley Archipelago. A history of human occupation and environmental change

Mackenzie¹

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A wealth of palaeoecological studies from the Australasian region identify periods of significant environmental change during the Holocene. However, relatively few studies have focused on the coastal lowlands of tropical northern Australia, limiting our ability to accurately reconstruct this vast bioregion's history. This study addresses the gap in spatially distributed paleoenvironmental research in northern Australia by producing the first reconstructions from the South Wellesley This research examined seven sediment profiles using micro X-ray fluorescence geochemical data and particle size analysis.

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Coastal Foragers on Southern Shores: Marine Resource Use in Northeast Australia since the Late Pleistocene

Cited by 34 publications

References 45 publications

A continental narrative: Human settlement patterns and Australian climate change over the last 35,000 years

A continental narrative: Human settlement patterns and Australian climate change over the last 35,000 years

Human history and palaeoenvironmental change at Site 17, Freshwater Beach, Lizard Island, northeast Queensland, Australia

Palaeoecology of the South Wellesley Archipelago. A history of human occupation and environmental change

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