... Sue O'Connor High Cliffy Island, a small island in the north west Kimberley, is the ... more ... Sue O'Connor High Cliffy Island, a small island in the north west Kimberley, is the location of hundreds of stone structures which I began to record in the dry season of 1 985. One of these was subsequently excavated. ... Allen 1985, Irwin 1978). ...
This paper presents a series of new radiocarbon dates from Koolan Shelter 2, a large rockshelter ... more This paper presents a series of new radiocarbon dates from Koolan Shelter 2, a large rockshelter in the coastal west Kimberley. These dates establish Koolan Shelter 2 as the oldest dated site in coastal northern Australia and provide firm evidence for a well established coastal economy by the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene.
In wateryplaces people prefer to live where they can keep their feet dry, and an elevation of a m... more In wateryplaces people prefer to live where they can keep their feet dry, and an elevation of a metre or two can make a difference. The simple distinction between humanly created middens and naturally built features does not easily apply in the Australian tropics, where the natural causes include cyclones, shellfish die-off and the building of mounds by scrub turkeys, and where foragers are not directed in where they choose to camp by concern for the classification by which tidy-minded archaeologists may want to order mounds in the weflands.
This paper overviews Sandra Bowdler's unique contribution to engendering Australian and Southeast... more This paper overviews Sandra Bowdler's unique contribution to engendering Australian and Southeast Asian prehistory using three of her papers as case studies. These include 'Hook, line and dilly bag', her study of the New South Wales shell midden, Bass Point; 'Hunters in the highlands', in which she examines the role of women's technology and subsistence choices in enabling exploitation of high altitude regions; and 'Hoabinhian and non-Hoabinhian', in which she reviews the geographic and locational distribution of stone artefacts of Hoabinhian type within Australia and Southeast Asia and posits that they may be women's multipurpose tools. The use of ethnohistory and ethnographic analogy is identifi ed as playing a central role in Bowdler's interpretations of gender roles and gender identity in the prehistoric record. The ethnohistoric record pertaining to Indigenous women's hunting, particularly of marine mammals, is also discussed and used to underpin an explanatory model for the location and patterning of faunal remains in the Tasmanian midden, the Stockyard Site.
Here we report on a variety of stone constructions that have been recently recorded and mapped on... more Here we report on a variety of stone constructions that have been recently recorded and mapped on Rankin Island in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The function of one of these features, a long stone wall, is discussed in the context of similar built stone features in other areas of northern Australia and Torres Strait. The possibility that the wall functioned as a fi sh trap is examined but dismissed on the basis of the survey levelling data which indicate that even with a higher relative sea stand of +1-2m the wall would only have been breached by king tides on a few days of the year. It is probable that the wall had associative 'ritual' or 'magic' functions, although it is acknowledged that the distinction between 'ritual' and 'subsistence' is a moot one where increase ceremonies and hunting magic are regarded as essential for success in procuring resources. Rankin Island Rankin Island is a small, low island (to 66m), almost square in shape, located less than 500m from the mainland at 16°18'S,
The analysis of fish remains from Island Southeast Asian archaeological assemblages constitutes o... more The analysis of fish remains from Island Southeast Asian archaeological assemblages constitutes one of the main ways to examine human subsistence in the region. Methodological difficulties, however, such as the lack of diagnostic features permitting taxonomic and anatomical identification of fish bones, often results in only a small fraction of a fish assemblage analysed. Taphonomic processes are often not explicitly considered in many aquatic zooarchaeological analyses, leading to a dearth of information on how post-depositional processes may have affected the preservation of fish remains. Here we examine different methodological approaches to the analysis of fish elements recovered from an archaeological site in Indonesia, Tron Bon Lei (Alor, East Nusa Tenggara). We compare the results obtained through more traditional icthyoarchaeology methods, where only specific diagnostic bones are included in the analysis, to those attained when every bone recovered from the site is considered. In doing so, we also describe the entire archaeological sequence of Tron Bon Lei, which had previously only been partly presented. The analysis of the entire archaeological deposit confirms that the Alor inhabitants were intensively exploiting marine resources, while the contribution of terrestrial vertebrates to diet was very limited. Small individuals of inshore ray-finned fishes are more abundant in every layer, with limited evidence of fishing of larger individuals. Nevertheless, larger individuals and open water bony fishes are better represented in the late Pleistocene layers than in the late Holocene deposits. These results suggest changes in sea level may be the main factor responsible for these variations, although the role played by changes in fishing technology and human-induced resource depression needs to be considered. Our results show that analysis of the entirety of an assemblage allows for stronger inferences to be drawn about skeletal representation and taphonomic processes, and thus better informs human maritime subsistence strategies during the late Quaternary in Island Southeast Asia.
We report the discovery of a unusually complex and regionally unique bone artefact in a late Plei... more We report the discovery of a unusually complex and regionally unique bone artefact in a late Pleistocene archaeological assemblage (c. 35 ka) from the site of Matja Kuru 2 on the island of Timor, in Wallacea. The artefact is interpreted as the broken butt of a formerly hafted projectile point, and it preserves evidence of a complex hafting mechanism including insertion into a shaped or split shaft, a complex pattern of binding including lateral stabilization of the cordage within bilateral series of notches, and the application of mastic at several stages in the hafting process. It provides the earliest direct evidence for the use of this combination of hafting technologies in the wider region of Southeast Asia, Wallacea, Melanesia and Australasia, and is morphologically unparalleled in deposits of any age. By contrast, it bears a close morphological resemblance to certain bone artefacts from the Middle Stone Age of Africa and South Asia. Examination of ethnographic projectile technology from the region of Melanesia and Australasia shows that all of the technological elements observed in the Matja Kuru 2 artefact were in use historically in the region, including the unusual feature of bilateral notching to stabilize a hafted point. This artefact challenges the notion that complex bone-working and hafting technologies were a relatively late innovation in this part of the world. Moreover, its regional uniqueness encourages us to abandon the perception of bone artefacts as a discrete class of material culture, and to adopt a new interpretative framework in which they are treated as manifestations of a more general class of artefacts that more typically were produced on perishable raw materials including wood.
Skeletal growth rates reconstructed from bone histology in extinct insular hippopotamids, elephan... more Skeletal growth rates reconstructed from bone histology in extinct insular hippopotamids, elephants, bovids and sauropods have been used to infer dwarfism as a response to island conditions. Limited published records of osteocyte lacunae densities (Ot.Dn), a proxy for living osteocyte proliferation, have suggested a slower rate of bone metabolism in giant mammals. Here, we test whether insularity might have affected bone metabolism in a series of small to giant murine rodents from Timor. Ten adult femora were selected from a fossil assemblage dated to the Late Quaternary (~5000–18 000 years old). Femur morphometric data were used in computing phylogenetically informed body mass regressions, although the phylogenetic signal was very low (Pagel’s λ = 0.03). Estimates of body weight calculated from these femora ranged from 75 to 1188 g. Osteocyte lacunae densities from histological sections of the midshaft femur were evaluated against bone size and estimated body weight. Statistically ...
Traditional fish vertebrae identification relies on the availability of comprehensive reference c... more Traditional fish vertebrae identification relies on the availability of comprehensive reference collections that include every element from the neural spine for each taxon. In regions with great taxonomic diversity, such as the Indo-Pacific, the identification of fish vertebrae to species is difficult. This results in taxonomic lists with many skeletal elements identified only to family. However family level identifications often tell us little about the environmental preferences of the fish and thus, by inference, human fishing practices. Here we apply geometric morphometrics (GM) to examine shape variations within vertebrae in modern specimens of a variety of pelagic and reef species to determine if this method can be used to reliably inform on habitat preferences. Digitized vertebral elements of reef (Acanthuridae, Balistidae, Labridae, Lethrinidae, Lutjanidae and Serranidae) and pelagic/open water (Scombridae and Carangidae) families were scored using 2D landmarks. These were subjected to Generalized Procrustes Analysis and discriminatory multivariate analyses (Linear Discriminant Analysis and Discriminant Function Analysis) in order to assess whether shape can be used to differentiate habitats. Our results suggest that geometric morphometrics do allow the differentiation of habitat in vertebrae and provide an alternative method for the classification of archaeological fish assemblages. These analyses were applied to a sample of archaeological fish remains from a site in Alor Island (Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia) and compared with the results of an earlier traditional comparative icthyoarchaeological analysis. We found that the main component of the Pleistocene marine human diet comprised reef species, with the sporadic *Manuscript Click here to view linked References 2 addition of open water species, supporting the pattern recorded with traditional analyses. This methodology could be widely applied to archaeological fish material from across the Indo-Pacific allowing a greater number of bones in assemblages to contribute to insights into human exploitation of coastal habitats and fishing techniques over time.
Records of the Australian Museum a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Australian ... more Records of the Australian Museum a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Australian Museum, Sydney communicating knowledge derived from our collections
In 2005 the excavation of a new rockshelter in Papua New Guinea, Watinglo, unearthed the unusual ... more In 2005 the excavation of a new rockshelter in Papua New Guinea, Watinglo, unearthed the unusual find of four stone disc-shaped beads. Beads such as this have not hitherto been reported from Papua New Guinea. The context, age, technology of manufacture and petrography of the beads are described.
This paper documents some observations resulting from several months of archaeological reconnaiss... more This paper documents some observations resulting from several months of archaeological reconnaissance on offshore islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago, west Kimberley which I believe to be pertinent to a consideration of prehistoric site patterning in this region. Several trips to the islands were made accompanied by people from the One Arm Point and Mowanjum Aboriginal Communities whose comments have stimulated the ideas presented here. These trips were not made with the objective of recording contemporary resource use by Aboriginal people in this area today, but rather to locate archaeological sites. The observations relating to contemporary land use are therefore of a general nature, and are used solely to generate a model whereby the patterning of prehistoric sites may be understood.
Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehis... more Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record of these Philippines shell middens suggests that porcupinefish were prepared by human inhabitants of the sites to render them safe for consumption, indicating an advanced cultural knowledge of the preparation needed to separate the toxic principle from the edible parts. This constitutes one of the rare examples of poison processing ...
Burial elaborations are a human behaviour that, in recent contexts can inform on social diversifi... more Burial elaborations are a human behaviour that, in recent contexts can inform on social diversification, belief systems, and the introduction of new practices resulting from migration or cultural transmission. The study of mortuary practices in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia has revealed complex and diverse treatments of the deceased. This paper contributes to this topic with the description of three new burials excavated in Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) dated to 7.5, 10, and 12 kya cal BP. In addition to the bioskeletal profiles and palaeohealth observations, we propose the adoption of archaeothanatological methods to characterise burial types in the region. Through the analysis of skeletal element representation, body position, articulation, and grave associations, we provide an example of a holistic approach to mortuary treatments in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Our results provide significant new data for understanding the evolution and diversification of burial practic...
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea, 2021
The dispersal of Homo sapiens to Sahul required passage through the vast Wallacean archipelago, r... more The dispersal of Homo sapiens to Sahul required passage through the vast Wallacean archipelago, resulting in the first large-scale modern human maritime migration. This migration likely required social, technological, and economic innovations as modern humans island-hopped east towards Sahul (the combined Pleistocene landmass of Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands). The dispersal pathways through Wallacea are not well documented archaeologically, with theoretical and computational models of dispersal still playing an important role in our understanding of the region. This article reviews the archaeological and fossil evidence for the earliest H. sapiens presence in Wallacea; suggests possible overlap with archaic humans; and summarizes the findings of recent modelling for modern human migrations through Wallacea. The archaeological record of Wallacea attributed to H. sapiens is currently younger than that found in either Sunda (now comprising the western portion of Island Sou...
The tropical archipelago of Wallacea contains thousands of individual islands interspersed betwee... more The tropical archipelago of Wallacea contains thousands of individual islands interspersed between mainland Asia and Near Oceania, and marks the location of a series of ancient oceanic voyages leading to the peopling of Sahul—i.e., the former continent that joined Australia and New Guinea at a time of lowered sea level—by 50,000 years ago. Despite the apparent deep antiquity of human presence in Wallacea, prior population history research in this region has been hampered by patchy archaeological and genetic records and is largely concentrated upon more recent history that follows the arrival of Austronesian seafarers ~3000–4000 years ago (3–4 ka). To shed light on the deeper history of Wallacea and its connections with New Guinea and Australia, we performed phylogeographic analyses on 656 whole mitogenomes from these three regions, including 186 new samples from eight Wallacean islands and three West Papuan populations. Our results point to a surprisingly dynamic population history ...
... Sue O'Connor High Cliffy Island, a small island in the north west Kimberley, is the ... more ... Sue O'Connor High Cliffy Island, a small island in the north west Kimberley, is the location of hundreds of stone structures which I began to record in the dry season of 1 985. One of these was subsequently excavated. ... Allen 1985, Irwin 1978). ...
This paper presents a series of new radiocarbon dates from Koolan Shelter 2, a large rockshelter ... more This paper presents a series of new radiocarbon dates from Koolan Shelter 2, a large rockshelter in the coastal west Kimberley. These dates establish Koolan Shelter 2 as the oldest dated site in coastal northern Australia and provide firm evidence for a well established coastal economy by the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene.
In wateryplaces people prefer to live where they can keep their feet dry, and an elevation of a m... more In wateryplaces people prefer to live where they can keep their feet dry, and an elevation of a metre or two can make a difference. The simple distinction between humanly created middens and naturally built features does not easily apply in the Australian tropics, where the natural causes include cyclones, shellfish die-off and the building of mounds by scrub turkeys, and where foragers are not directed in where they choose to camp by concern for the classification by which tidy-minded archaeologists may want to order mounds in the weflands.
This paper overviews Sandra Bowdler's unique contribution to engendering Australian and Southeast... more This paper overviews Sandra Bowdler's unique contribution to engendering Australian and Southeast Asian prehistory using three of her papers as case studies. These include 'Hook, line and dilly bag', her study of the New South Wales shell midden, Bass Point; 'Hunters in the highlands', in which she examines the role of women's technology and subsistence choices in enabling exploitation of high altitude regions; and 'Hoabinhian and non-Hoabinhian', in which she reviews the geographic and locational distribution of stone artefacts of Hoabinhian type within Australia and Southeast Asia and posits that they may be women's multipurpose tools. The use of ethnohistory and ethnographic analogy is identifi ed as playing a central role in Bowdler's interpretations of gender roles and gender identity in the prehistoric record. The ethnohistoric record pertaining to Indigenous women's hunting, particularly of marine mammals, is also discussed and used to underpin an explanatory model for the location and patterning of faunal remains in the Tasmanian midden, the Stockyard Site.
Here we report on a variety of stone constructions that have been recently recorded and mapped on... more Here we report on a variety of stone constructions that have been recently recorded and mapped on Rankin Island in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The function of one of these features, a long stone wall, is discussed in the context of similar built stone features in other areas of northern Australia and Torres Strait. The possibility that the wall functioned as a fi sh trap is examined but dismissed on the basis of the survey levelling data which indicate that even with a higher relative sea stand of +1-2m the wall would only have been breached by king tides on a few days of the year. It is probable that the wall had associative 'ritual' or 'magic' functions, although it is acknowledged that the distinction between 'ritual' and 'subsistence' is a moot one where increase ceremonies and hunting magic are regarded as essential for success in procuring resources. Rankin Island Rankin Island is a small, low island (to 66m), almost square in shape, located less than 500m from the mainland at 16°18'S,
The analysis of fish remains from Island Southeast Asian archaeological assemblages constitutes o... more The analysis of fish remains from Island Southeast Asian archaeological assemblages constitutes one of the main ways to examine human subsistence in the region. Methodological difficulties, however, such as the lack of diagnostic features permitting taxonomic and anatomical identification of fish bones, often results in only a small fraction of a fish assemblage analysed. Taphonomic processes are often not explicitly considered in many aquatic zooarchaeological analyses, leading to a dearth of information on how post-depositional processes may have affected the preservation of fish remains. Here we examine different methodological approaches to the analysis of fish elements recovered from an archaeological site in Indonesia, Tron Bon Lei (Alor, East Nusa Tenggara). We compare the results obtained through more traditional icthyoarchaeology methods, where only specific diagnostic bones are included in the analysis, to those attained when every bone recovered from the site is considered. In doing so, we also describe the entire archaeological sequence of Tron Bon Lei, which had previously only been partly presented. The analysis of the entire archaeological deposit confirms that the Alor inhabitants were intensively exploiting marine resources, while the contribution of terrestrial vertebrates to diet was very limited. Small individuals of inshore ray-finned fishes are more abundant in every layer, with limited evidence of fishing of larger individuals. Nevertheless, larger individuals and open water bony fishes are better represented in the late Pleistocene layers than in the late Holocene deposits. These results suggest changes in sea level may be the main factor responsible for these variations, although the role played by changes in fishing technology and human-induced resource depression needs to be considered. Our results show that analysis of the entirety of an assemblage allows for stronger inferences to be drawn about skeletal representation and taphonomic processes, and thus better informs human maritime subsistence strategies during the late Quaternary in Island Southeast Asia.
We report the discovery of a unusually complex and regionally unique bone artefact in a late Plei... more We report the discovery of a unusually complex and regionally unique bone artefact in a late Pleistocene archaeological assemblage (c. 35 ka) from the site of Matja Kuru 2 on the island of Timor, in Wallacea. The artefact is interpreted as the broken butt of a formerly hafted projectile point, and it preserves evidence of a complex hafting mechanism including insertion into a shaped or split shaft, a complex pattern of binding including lateral stabilization of the cordage within bilateral series of notches, and the application of mastic at several stages in the hafting process. It provides the earliest direct evidence for the use of this combination of hafting technologies in the wider region of Southeast Asia, Wallacea, Melanesia and Australasia, and is morphologically unparalleled in deposits of any age. By contrast, it bears a close morphological resemblance to certain bone artefacts from the Middle Stone Age of Africa and South Asia. Examination of ethnographic projectile technology from the region of Melanesia and Australasia shows that all of the technological elements observed in the Matja Kuru 2 artefact were in use historically in the region, including the unusual feature of bilateral notching to stabilize a hafted point. This artefact challenges the notion that complex bone-working and hafting technologies were a relatively late innovation in this part of the world. Moreover, its regional uniqueness encourages us to abandon the perception of bone artefacts as a discrete class of material culture, and to adopt a new interpretative framework in which they are treated as manifestations of a more general class of artefacts that more typically were produced on perishable raw materials including wood.
Skeletal growth rates reconstructed from bone histology in extinct insular hippopotamids, elephan... more Skeletal growth rates reconstructed from bone histology in extinct insular hippopotamids, elephants, bovids and sauropods have been used to infer dwarfism as a response to island conditions. Limited published records of osteocyte lacunae densities (Ot.Dn), a proxy for living osteocyte proliferation, have suggested a slower rate of bone metabolism in giant mammals. Here, we test whether insularity might have affected bone metabolism in a series of small to giant murine rodents from Timor. Ten adult femora were selected from a fossil assemblage dated to the Late Quaternary (~5000–18 000 years old). Femur morphometric data were used in computing phylogenetically informed body mass regressions, although the phylogenetic signal was very low (Pagel’s λ = 0.03). Estimates of body weight calculated from these femora ranged from 75 to 1188 g. Osteocyte lacunae densities from histological sections of the midshaft femur were evaluated against bone size and estimated body weight. Statistically ...
Traditional fish vertebrae identification relies on the availability of comprehensive reference c... more Traditional fish vertebrae identification relies on the availability of comprehensive reference collections that include every element from the neural spine for each taxon. In regions with great taxonomic diversity, such as the Indo-Pacific, the identification of fish vertebrae to species is difficult. This results in taxonomic lists with many skeletal elements identified only to family. However family level identifications often tell us little about the environmental preferences of the fish and thus, by inference, human fishing practices. Here we apply geometric morphometrics (GM) to examine shape variations within vertebrae in modern specimens of a variety of pelagic and reef species to determine if this method can be used to reliably inform on habitat preferences. Digitized vertebral elements of reef (Acanthuridae, Balistidae, Labridae, Lethrinidae, Lutjanidae and Serranidae) and pelagic/open water (Scombridae and Carangidae) families were scored using 2D landmarks. These were subjected to Generalized Procrustes Analysis and discriminatory multivariate analyses (Linear Discriminant Analysis and Discriminant Function Analysis) in order to assess whether shape can be used to differentiate habitats. Our results suggest that geometric morphometrics do allow the differentiation of habitat in vertebrae and provide an alternative method for the classification of archaeological fish assemblages. These analyses were applied to a sample of archaeological fish remains from a site in Alor Island (Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia) and compared with the results of an earlier traditional comparative icthyoarchaeological analysis. We found that the main component of the Pleistocene marine human diet comprised reef species, with the sporadic *Manuscript Click here to view linked References 2 addition of open water species, supporting the pattern recorded with traditional analyses. This methodology could be widely applied to archaeological fish material from across the Indo-Pacific allowing a greater number of bones in assemblages to contribute to insights into human exploitation of coastal habitats and fishing techniques over time.
Records of the Australian Museum a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Australian ... more Records of the Australian Museum a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Australian Museum, Sydney communicating knowledge derived from our collections
In 2005 the excavation of a new rockshelter in Papua New Guinea, Watinglo, unearthed the unusual ... more In 2005 the excavation of a new rockshelter in Papua New Guinea, Watinglo, unearthed the unusual find of four stone disc-shaped beads. Beads such as this have not hitherto been reported from Papua New Guinea. The context, age, technology of manufacture and petrography of the beads are described.
This paper documents some observations resulting from several months of archaeological reconnaiss... more This paper documents some observations resulting from several months of archaeological reconnaissance on offshore islands in the Buccaneer Archipelago, west Kimberley which I believe to be pertinent to a consideration of prehistoric site patterning in this region. Several trips to the islands were made accompanied by people from the One Arm Point and Mowanjum Aboriginal Communities whose comments have stimulated the ideas presented here. These trips were not made with the objective of recording contemporary resource use by Aboriginal people in this area today, but rather to locate archaeological sites. The observations relating to contemporary land use are therefore of a general nature, and are used solely to generate a model whereby the patterning of prehistoric sites may be understood.
Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehis... more Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record of these Philippines shell middens suggests that porcupinefish were prepared by human inhabitants of the sites to render them safe for consumption, indicating an advanced cultural knowledge of the preparation needed to separate the toxic principle from the edible parts. This constitutes one of the rare examples of poison processing ...
Burial elaborations are a human behaviour that, in recent contexts can inform on social diversifi... more Burial elaborations are a human behaviour that, in recent contexts can inform on social diversification, belief systems, and the introduction of new practices resulting from migration or cultural transmission. The study of mortuary practices in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia has revealed complex and diverse treatments of the deceased. This paper contributes to this topic with the description of three new burials excavated in Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) dated to 7.5, 10, and 12 kya cal BP. In addition to the bioskeletal profiles and palaeohealth observations, we propose the adoption of archaeothanatological methods to characterise burial types in the region. Through the analysis of skeletal element representation, body position, articulation, and grave associations, we provide an example of a holistic approach to mortuary treatments in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Our results provide significant new data for understanding the evolution and diversification of burial practic...
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea, 2021
The dispersal of Homo sapiens to Sahul required passage through the vast Wallacean archipelago, r... more The dispersal of Homo sapiens to Sahul required passage through the vast Wallacean archipelago, resulting in the first large-scale modern human maritime migration. This migration likely required social, technological, and economic innovations as modern humans island-hopped east towards Sahul (the combined Pleistocene landmass of Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands). The dispersal pathways through Wallacea are not well documented archaeologically, with theoretical and computational models of dispersal still playing an important role in our understanding of the region. This article reviews the archaeological and fossil evidence for the earliest H. sapiens presence in Wallacea; suggests possible overlap with archaic humans; and summarizes the findings of recent modelling for modern human migrations through Wallacea. The archaeological record of Wallacea attributed to H. sapiens is currently younger than that found in either Sunda (now comprising the western portion of Island Sou...
The tropical archipelago of Wallacea contains thousands of individual islands interspersed betwee... more The tropical archipelago of Wallacea contains thousands of individual islands interspersed between mainland Asia and Near Oceania, and marks the location of a series of ancient oceanic voyages leading to the peopling of Sahul—i.e., the former continent that joined Australia and New Guinea at a time of lowered sea level—by 50,000 years ago. Despite the apparent deep antiquity of human presence in Wallacea, prior population history research in this region has been hampered by patchy archaeological and genetic records and is largely concentrated upon more recent history that follows the arrival of Austronesian seafarers ~3000–4000 years ago (3–4 ka). To shed light on the deeper history of Wallacea and its connections with New Guinea and Australia, we performed phylogeographic analyses on 656 whole mitogenomes from these three regions, including 186 new samples from eight Wallacean islands and three West Papuan populations. Our results point to a surprisingly dynamic population history ...
The Wallacea Archipelago provides an extraordinary laboratory for the study of human colonisation... more The Wallacea Archipelago provides an extraordinary laboratory for the study of human colonisation and adaptation, yet few detailed archaeological studies have been conducted in the region that span the earliest phase of human settlement. Laili Cave, in northern Timor-Leste, preserves the oldest human occupation in this insular region with a cultural sequence spanning 11,200 to 44,600 cal BP. Small-bodied vertebrates and invertebrates were recovered to the lowest excavated levels, associated with highly concentrated stone artefacts. We report on human behavioural adaptations within the context of Pleistocene environments and changing landscapes using zooarchaeological, stone artefact, bathymetric, and experimental isotopic analyses. Results indicate that Pleistocene humans used the abundant local chert liberally and engaged in mobile broad-spectrum exploitation of invertebrates and fishes from marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments within close proximity of Laili Cave. The faunal assemblage indicates heterogeneous but relatively stable environments during the late Pleistocene. Variability in subsistence strategies over time appears to be a response to changing landscapes and concomitant local resources. This record contrasts with marine specialisations evident from other sites in Timor-Leste and within the broader Wallacean region.
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Papers by Sue O'Connor