‘Small, individually nondescript and easily overlooked’¹: Contact beads from northwest Arnhem Land in an Indigenous–Macassan–European hybrid economy

Abstract

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Re‐evaluating the timing of the Indonesian trepang industry in north‐west Arnhem Land: chronological investigations at Malara (Anuru Bay A)

“…These anthropological assessments of the nature of cultural contact are significant when evaluating the archaeological record of western Arnhem Land from this period. Whether these complex interactions with Macassan trepang fishing fleets, and their influences noted by other researchers on Arnhem Land Indigenous society can be detected in the archaeological record is of significant interest to archaeologists (Clarke 2000a(Clarke , 2000bClarke & Frederick 2008;Clark & May 2013;Mitchell 1994Mitchell , 1996Mitchell , 2000Taçon et al 2012;Wesley & Litster 2015).…”

“…Whether these complex interactions with Macassan trepang fishing fleets, and their influences noted by other researchers on Arnhem Land Indigenous society can be detected in the archaeological record is of significant interest to archaeologists (Clarke , ; Clarke & Frederick ; Clark & May ; Mitchell , , ; Taçon et al . ; Wesley & Litster ).…”

“…The results of our recent research indicate that Malara may have been utilised by eastern Indonesian mariners prior to the trepang industry, possibly for the collection of turtle and mother of pearl shell, and then later intensively at the height of the trepang trade between China and Makassar. This line of inquiry has been pursued in parallel with investigations into long-term Indigenous cultural contact with Asian/Indonesian mariners in the nearby Wellington Range, through recent rock-art studies and excavations at local rock shelters (Clark and May 2013;May et al 2010May et al , 2011Taçon et al 2010Taçon et al , 2012Wesley et al 2012;Wesley and Litster 2015).…”

Painted shark vertebrae beads from the Djawumbu–Madjawarrnja complex, western Arnhem Land

“…We ask researchers to, where possible, retrieve items of personal adornment from their archives and articulate them to the wider archaeological discourse on this enigmatic class of material culture. In addition, studies such as Wesley and Litster (2015), show us that beads may feature in Australian archaeological sites, and as such, methodologies (e.g. sub-sampling using 1mm-mesh sieves) must be developed accordingly.…”

Postcards from the outside: European-contact rock art imagery and occupation on the southern Arnhem Land plateau, Jawoyn lands

“…Trade items were commonly carried by early European explorers travelling across northern Australia including Arnhem Land, although we do not know if they carried trade beads. As Wesley and Litster (2015) have noted, however, trade beads were present on the coast as currencies in AboriginalMacassan-European economies well before the first European explorers of the Arnhem Land plateau, and could thus have entered Jawoyn Country through northern Aboriginal interactions and movements. The absence of any known non-Aboriginal portable object other than the glass bead at Nawarla Gabarnmang indicates that the excavated bead was almost certainly deposited during the early (rather than later) European-contact period, and is likely to either precede, or to be broadly contemporaneous with, the horse painting located some 9 m to the southeast of Square J.…”