Life on the Margins : An Archaeological Investigation of Late Holocene Economic Variability, Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia

Abstract

terra australis 38Terra 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. (2000) Volume 16 List of volumes in Terra Australis

Characterising marine mollusc exploitation in the eastern African Iron Age: Archaeomalacological evidence from Unguja Ukuu and Fukuchani, Zanzibar

“…In this case, largely due to the lack of detailed archaeological analyses to form a coherent basis for assessing the robusticity of the analogical argument (following Currie, 2016;Wylie, 1985), there appears to be an assumption of continuity in behaviour through time and space via a direct historical approach (similar to Huffman, 2001, see Lane, 2005 for further discussion). This is problematic due to issues of scale and resolution between the archaeological and modern datasets, particularly where the data have been obtained from very different social and economic circumstances (as highlighted recently by Ichumbaki, 2014:2, for Tanzania; see also Faulkner, 2013;Jerardino, 2010Jerardino, , 2012. This combination of direct analogical reasoning, coarse scale and low resolution in the archaeological data has potentially reinforced the notion of the secondary importance of these resources.…”

Archaeological expressions of Holocene cultural and environmental change in coastal Southeast Queensland

“…Most particularly, there has been increasing interest in human behavioural-environmental relationships, the use of molluscs as proxies in environmental reconstructions, and the impacts of humans on marine ecosystems (e.g. Campbell 2008;Faulkner 2009Faulkner , 2013Giovas et al 2010;Giovas et al 2013;Haberle and David 2004;Jerardino 1997;Jerardino et al 2008;Mannino and Thomas 2002;Milner 2013). There is also a greater emphasis on the ecology and biology of the species found in archaeological contexts Giovas et al 2010;Giovas et al 2013;Giovas et al 2016;Thakar 2011;Thakar et al 2015;Whitaker 2008).…”

“…More refined and more regionally-specific palaeoclimatic data have become available. These changing perspectives are able to better inform ongoing debates on questions of the timing and nature of coastal occupation, the importance of molluscs in coastal foraging economies, and the uncritical application of ethnographic analogy to sites increasingly characterised by economic and social variability (Faulkner 2009(Faulkner , 2013Hiscock 1999). …”

“…Braje et al 2007;Crumley 1994;Erlandson and Colten 1991;Erlandson and Glassow 1997;Erlandson et al 1998Erlandson et al , 2004Erlandson et al , 2005Fitzpatrick and Erlandson 2009;Rick et al 2001Rick et al , 2005. Historical ecology is an approach that has implicitly been used in Australia by researchers such as Faulkner (2006Faulkner ( , 2008Faulkner ( , 2010Faulkner ( , 2013, Rowland and Ulm (2010), and Ulm (2006). One of its major strengths lies in demonstrating the broader significance of archaeological research to studies of conservation ecology and biology, and cultural and environmental management, as it provides a particularly long-term, historical dataset for the evaluation of human-environmental interactions and the structure of past ecosystems and landscapes.…”

“…They include Faulkner's (2009Faulkner's ( , 2010Faulkner's ( , 2011Faulkner's ( , 2013) study of shell mounds in Blue Mud Bay (northeast Arnhem Land), where patterns of human behaviour and environmental variability were linked through, among other things, the detailed analysis of the mudflat bivalve Tegillarca granosa (formerly Anadara granosa). Research in the Torres Strait includes the nature and timing of the occupation of so-called non-viable reef islands spread out over some 700km of seascape (McNiven 2015), as well as considerations of marine specialisation , and marine material culture (McNiven 2015).…”