Mid-to-Late Holocene Aboriginal Flaked Stone Artefact Technology on the Cumberland Plain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: A View from the South Creek Catchment

Late Holocene technological provisioning at the Kings Table rockshelter, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

“…Cores of this type display sequences of removals generally consistent with those described by researchers such as Hiscock (1993) and McLaren et al. (2018), with platforms prepared on the lateral margins or ends of the selected flake and “objective” flakes subsequently struck from these, either across the ventral face of the flake (e.g. Figure 4, 10) or down a lateral margin (e.g.…”

“…While sample size precludes detailed comment, we note that size and weight data for complete and broken tranchet flake cores in the study assemblage point to the preferential selection of larger flakes for tranchet flake reduction, a pattern seen elsewhere in the Sydney Basin (e.g. McLaren et al., 2018). Here, as in other contexts, we consider it likely that a proportion of the tranchet flake cores present within the study assemblage represent items imported specifically for on‐site reduction.…”

“…As in other parts of the Sydney Basin (e.g. Attenbrow et al, 2008;Hiscock & Attenbrow, 2005;Hiscock, 1993;Low, 2015;McLaren et al, 2018), coefficient of variation (CV) values for the length, width and thickness of complete and near-complete Bondi points in the study assemblage provide broad support for the characterisation of these implements as standardised tool components (after Hiscock, 1994Hiscock, , 2002. Following Low (2015), CV values for the length (24.3%) and width (16.8%) of complete and near-complete specimens support the contention that both variables were important design features and standardised accordingly.…”