Revisiting the Past: Changing Interpretations of Pleistocene Settlement Subsistence and Demography in Northern Australia

O’Connor, Sue; Veth, Peter

doi:10.1002/9780470773475.ch2

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Of these sites, only Yirra (Veitch et al 2005) and Milly's Cave (Marwick 2002) were said to feature persuasive evidence of LGM occupation. O'Connor and Veth (2006) concur with Marwick (2002) that the five other sites have no unequivocal evidence of LGM occupation. Marwick's analysis found that of these sites the first two, Newman Rockshelter (Troilett 1982) and Newman Orebody XXIX Rockshelter (Maynard 1980), have stratigraphic records and radiocarbon chronologies that suggest, but do not confirm, evidence of human occupation 13,000 to 17,000 years ago [i.e.…”

supporting

confidence: 51%

Aboriginal Settlement during the LGM at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia

Slack¹,

Fillios²,

Fullagar³

2009

Archaeology in Oceania

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This paper describes the results and implications of recent excavations on the Hamersley Iron Brockman 4 tenement, near Tom Price, Western Australia. Results concentrate on two rock shelters with Aboriginal occupation starting at least 32,000 years ago and extending throughout the Last Glacial period. Preliminary observations are proposed concerning the nature of Aboriginal foraging patterns as displayed in the flaked stone and faunal records for the Brockman region.

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supporting

confidence: 51%

Aboriginal Settlement during the LGM at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia

Slack¹,

Fillios²,

Fullagar³

2009

Archaeology in Oceania

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“…In sites where megafaunal remains co-occur with artifacts, redeposition seems to have played a role (Balme et al 1978;Grim et al 2010;Roberts and Brook 2010). Part of the reason for this scarcity of evidence may be because very little archaeological material at all is known from this time period (Hiscock 2008:43, O'Connor andVeth 2006). Additionally, in many early sites, only lithic artifacts have been recovered, and often very few of those (O'Connell and Allen 2007; O'Connor and Veth 2006).…”

Section: The Archaeological Records Of New Zealand North America Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Associational Critique of Quaternary Overkill and why it is Largely Irrelevant to the Extinction Debate

Surovell¹,

Grund²

2012

Am. antiq.

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The overkill hypothesis has been criticized using a simple observation–with the exception of New Zealand, there is little evidence for human hunting of extinct Quaternary faunas. We explore the legitimacy of this argument, or what we call the “Associational Critique,” the idea that the paucity of evidence for the subsistence exploitation of extinct taxa weakens or falsifies overkill. Using quantitative and probabilistic models, based on the temporal depth of extinction events, human demography, and taphonomic bias, we ask how many associations with extinct fauna should have been found by this point in time in Australia, North America, and New Zealand. We conclude that such evidence should be rare in Australia, of intermediate abundance in North America, and common in New Zealand, a conclusion very much in accord with the current state of the archaeological record. We reach a similar conclusion using an analysis of the relative frequency of radiocarbon dates from each region dating to the time of coexistence of humans and extinct fauna. We argue that a scarcity of evidence for the exploitation of extinct fauna is not only consistent with overkill but also nearly every other extinction hypothesis that has been proposed, thus rendering the Associational Critique irrelevant.

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“…It is generally accepted that foraging and social strategies would have required significant modification as major environmental shifts took place and water sources dried up (Hiscock and Wallis 2005;O'Connor and Veth 2006). However, precisely when environmental deterioration set in is more difficult to determine.…”

Section: 000 Bp To 20000 Bpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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Revisiting the Past: Changing Interpretations of Pleistocene Settlement Subsistence and Demography in Northern Australia

Cited by 19 publications

References 20 publications

Aboriginal Settlement during the LGM at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia

Aboriginal Settlement during the LGM at Brockman, Pilbara Region, Western Australia

The Associational Critique of Quaternary Overkill and why it is Largely Irrelevant to the Extinction Debate

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

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