Implications for culture contact history from a glass artefact on a Diingwulung earth mound in Weipa

Abstract

This paper reports on a glass artefact found on an earth mound at Diingwulung in Wathayn Country, near Weipa, far north Queensland. Despite intense research efforts and cultural heritage management surveys over many years, and the fact that they have been reported commonly within the ethnographic literature, such artefacts have been found rarely outside of Aboriginal mission contexts. As well as describing the artefact, its location and the frontier contact complex of the area, this paper includes the background of knapped glass artefacts in Australia, archaeological and ethnographic descriptions of Indigenous glass use in far north Queensland and the methodology of glass artefact analysis. Although it is only a single artefact, we argue that this glass piece has much to reveal not only regarding its chronology, use, and the function of the site where it was found, but also about culture contact, persistence of traditional technology, connections to Country and the continuity and extent of post-contact Indigenous occupation of the area.

Reimagining life and death: Results and interpretation of geophysical and ethnohistorical investigations of earth mounds, Mapoon, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia

“…; Ó Foghlú ; Ó Foghlú et al . ) are quite different in morphology and function from those found in Mapoon.…”

“…() of earth mounds in Wathayn country examined coastal/estuarine earth mounds on the floodplains near the Embley River, Weipa (also see Ó Foghlú ; Ó Foghlú et al . ). The mounds are described as low‐lying and easily overlooked (Brockwell et al .…”

Report on excavation of a shell mound site at Mandjungaar, western Cape York Peninsula

“…As such, it is likely that shell matrix site formation continued in this area until the early contact period, when there was a major transformation in regional economies and settlement patterns, and characterised by short-duration forays from mission settlements (Morrison 2010;Morrison and Shepard 2013;Morrison et al 2015). While there is no direct evidence of post-contact use of mound sites at Mandjungaar, elsewhere in the region there are indications of post-contact use of shell and earth mounds as indicated by the presence of modified glass on and within mound deposits (Morrison 2015;Ó Foghlú et al 2016).…”

Flaked Glass Artifacts from Nineteenth–Century Native Mounted Police Camps in Queensland, Australia

“…Numerous historical and ethnohistorical accounts make it clear that Indigenous peoples across Australia were quick to recognize the potential of glass for making a range of artifacts, including spear points (e.g., Backhouse 1843: 103, 433, 517;Balfour 1903;Bolam 1925: 82;Carnegie 1898;Carter 1798;de Winton 1898: 105-106;Idriess 1937: 59-62;Terry 1925: 264), adzes and other scrapers (e.g., Dawson 1831Dawson : 67, 135, 1935Eden 1874: 54-55;Roth 1899: 69), knives used to incise either human or animal flesh (e.g., Cawthorne 1844: 69; Noble 1879: 64) and razors for shaving (e.g., Gould et al 1971: 165;Wilkins 1928: 24). Although flaked or otherwise utilized glass artifacts are relatively commonly reported in the archaeological literature, they typically occur in small numbers, including often singly, and are rarely subjected to detailed analysis (e.g., Allen and Jones 1980;Bourke 2005;Colley 2000;Foghlú et al 2016;Goward 2011;Harrison 1996Harrison , 2000Irish and Goward 2012;McNiven 1998;Proudfoot et al 1991;Sim and Wallis 2008;Stingemore 2010;Ulm et al 1999Ulm et al , 2009Veth and O'Connor, 2005;Walshe et al 2019;Williamson 2002). There are, however, several notable exceptions.…”