Overdone overkill – the archaeological perspective on Tasmanian megafaunal extinctions

Bennett’s wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) marrow quality vs quantity: evaluating human decision-making and seasonal occupation in late Pleistocene Tasmania

“…Therefore they may have been undesirable to human hunters in southwest Tasmania during the late Pleistocene, despite their very large volumes of marrow and muscle. While this may be speculative, it may help explain their absence from the late Pleistocene archaeological assemblages despite their bones occurring within the same southwest valleys (see discussions by Cosgrove, 1999;Cosgrove and Allen, 2001;Cosgrove et al, 1990Cosgrove et al, , 2010Garvey, 2007aGarvey, , 2010Kiernan et al, 1983;Pike-Tay et al, 2008). Further support for this may come from Hayden's (1981:399) assessment of the patterns seen in his analysis of modern hunteregatherer subsistence activities based on ethnography.…”

Dental microwear texture as a proxy for diet in xenarthrans

“…Similar conclusions were drawn from an OSL study undertaken by Roberts and colleagues (2001) at Cuddie Springs, in which multiple age populations were identified in the single-grain OSL data, and the authors subsequently concluded the site to have significant sediment disturbance. A similar pattern of multiple age populations was determined for a Tasmanian study of megafauna (Turney et al [2008] and discussion in Cosgrove et al [2010Cosgrove et al [ : p. 2497); however, some of these age populations were "omitted for clarity," and an age of~45 Ka was used instead. While further work is needed to better standardize the treatment of OSL data, there is still much that can be learned from the sites mentioned earlier.…”

“…These interpretations ignore the published results of systematic stratigraphic studies undertaken over two decades (e.g., Field and Dodson 1999;Field et al , 2008Field et al , 2013. Importantly, for the scenarios proposed by Grun et al (2010) and Gillespie and Brook (2006) to have any credibility, the REE work of Trueman et al (2005) had to be discredited. Grün et al (2010: p. 608) then concluded that Trueman et al (2005) were analyzing "surface coatings and/or detrital material contained in cracks and pores."…”

“…The Roberts et al (2001) OSL study identified multiple age populations from the single-grain analysis (but see Field et al 2008Field et al , 2013. Stratigraphic disturbance was forwarded as the most likely explanation by these authors, yet other studies of single-grain OSL dating have routinely identified multiple age populations, and the interpretation of disturbance invoked by Roberts et al (2001) is rarely if ever interpreted this way (see Boulter et al 2006;Cosgrove et al 2010). Gillespie and Brook (2006: p. 9) also assert that the bones from Cuddie Springs (SU6) are "fossil rather than archaeological," inferring that bones and stone tools were not contemporaneous.…”

Invited response to K. Ryan’s comments on Coltrain et al. (2004) and Coltrain (2009): is Native Point “Burial 21” Dorset in age; were historic-era burials European in origin and how important were caribou in Sadlermiut diets?

“…Twenty-five years ago, both Taylor and Ward and Wilson were correct in voicing concerns about contamination affecting single radiocarbon assays on archaeological bone. Since that time significant advancements have been made in collagen extraction and purification protocols facilitating the measurement of 14 C ages on purified bone collagen approaching 50k BP, the upper threshold of accelerator radiocarbon dating (e.g., Cosgrove et al, 2010;Summerhayes et al, 2010;Turney et al, 2001).…”