Three Aboriginal shell mounds at Hope Inlet: Evidence for coastal, not maritime Late Holocene economies on the Beagle Gulf mainland, northern Australia

Bourke, Patricia

doi:10.1080/03122417.2004.11681787

Cited by 24 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Shell mounds are distinctive sites found at many locations across coastal northern Australia that are usually characterised by a dominance of the remains of the small intertidal bivalve Anadara granosa. They typically contain little or no non-molluscan fauna, few artefacts and have matrices dominated by shell with very low proportions of soil (Bailey 1977;Bailey et al 1994;Bourke 2000Bourke , 2004Bourke , 2005Faulkner 2006Faulkner , 2008Faulkner , 2009Faulkner , 2010O'Connor 1999;Veitch 1996Veitch , 1999. Albatross Bay, near Weipa on western Cape York Peninsula (Figure 1), evidences a coastal archaeological landscape that includes a spectacularly diverse array of shell mounds as well as other shell-bearing sites including dispersed scatters and concentrated non-mounded middens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One prominent set of issues that has recently emerged in northern Australia relates to the character of the production strategies associated with the formation of shell mound sites (Bailey 1999;Bourke 2000Bourke , 2004Bourke , 2005Clune 2002; Clune & Harrison 2009;Faulkner 2009Faulkner , 2010Faulkner , 2011Harrison 2009;Morrison 2003;O'Connor 1999;Veitch 1999). The term "production strategy" is used here to describe the means by which people acquired food, including foraging strategies, settlement patterns, techniques, technologies, social organisation and associated cultural practices (Ingold 1988;Keen 2004;Lourandos 1988;Marquardt 1988;Narotzky 1997;Povinelli 1993;Sahlins 1972).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Niche production strategies and shell matrix site variability at Albatross Bay, Cape York Peninsula

Morrison

2013

Archaeology in Oceania

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Albatross Bay, near Weipa on western Cape York Peninsula, is well known for the large number of anthropogenic late Holocene shell mound sites that occur in the region. Recent research on shell mound formation and use both here and elsewhere across northern Australia has focused upon the extent to which mound formation may have been tied to intensive use of periodically available gluts of the intertidal bivalve Anadara granosa. This paper explores whether such a model applies in the Albatross Bay region, drawing on data available from 477 shell matrix sites recorded in this region. Data on site size, morphology, composition, substrate type, proximity to contemporary shorelines and shell mound chronology support a model of Aboriginal people episodically and strategically targeting a highly variable niche estuarine resource base rather than intensively focusing on one species. It is proposed that these production strategies were characterised by a high degree of flexibility in terms of resource focus, at times involving a considerable emphasis on A. granosa, but also incorporating other estuarine resources, and that the level or intensity of production was able to be scaled up or down in line with resource availability and abundance. This production system was based upon nuanced knowledge of annual and intra‐annual ecosystem dynamics along with social organisation and communication networks that facilitated a high degree of flexibility around the strategic exploitation of variable estuarine resource bases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche production strategies and shell matrix site variability at Albatross Bay, Cape York Peninsula

Morrison

2013

Archaeology in Oceania

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“…Marine reservoir correction value is the difference between the measured and modelled marine At Hope Inlet, two shell/charcoal paired samples and one shell/charcoal/otolith sample dated from mound HI81 show that this mound formed on a laterite ridge at the uplands edge of mudflats over a few centuries between ca 1800 and 1400 cal BP (Bourke 2004). The date the mound began to form follows a major phase of mudflat build-out dated ca 2300 cal BP at Shoal Bay (Woodroffe and Grime 1999).…”

Section: Ourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Projects such as this are becoming increasing important with further refinement of cultural chronologies in Australian archaeology (Ulm 2002:343 andsee Ingram 1998;Spenneman and Head 1996). For example, radiocarbon dating of Anadara shell mounds on the Beagle Gulf coast suggest rapid formation (a few hundred years or less) and broad contemporaneity of some mounds in terms of human lifespans (Bourke 2004(Bourke , 2005, that must be interpreted within the limits of error inherent in conventional radiocarbon dating (Head 1991;Ward 1994). Such issues have implications for palaeo-environmental models as well as models of past human coastal economies, often derived in large part from data from shell middens.…”

Section: Figure1locationofsampledsitesonthebeaglegulfcoastandsomeplamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The low R and ΔR values at the base of the HI80 deposit occurs for both the shell and otolith samples. These are taken from the base of a defined layer between 48-52 cm depth, containing a high proportion of the bivalves Marcia hiantina and Anadara inaequivalvis in the otherwise Anadara dominated deposit (Bourke 2004). These two species thrive in coarser, sandier substrates than the finer, silty muddy substrates preferred by the dominant Anadara granosa.…”

Section: Marine Reservoir Ages and Correction Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Directions in Archaeological Science (TA28)

Marwick¹,

Fairbairn²,

O’Connor³

2009

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terra australis 28Terra 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. List of volumes in Terra AustralisVolume 1: Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) Volume 2: Ol Tumbuna: Archaeological Excavations in the Eastern Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) Volume 3 Since its inception, the conference has been an important meeting place for the widely dispersed and diverse community of Australasian archaeological scientists, including both those resident in the region, primarily in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Australasians working around the world. The 2005 meeting at ANU was the first to be held there since 1991 and was the venue for the presentation of 79 papers in 10 sessions covering all aspects of archaeological science from analytical chemistry to GIS, fire histories and ancient technology. The linking concept with all of the sessions was the integration of archaeological science research within broader archaeological projects -in other words forwarding interpretations alongside consideration of method. Over 120 delegates from 6 countries attended the lecture sessions which were accompanied by a poster session, plenary lecture and several workshops. Student participation was especially encouraged and, partly as a result of industry and University sponsorship (see below), subsidised places and travel bursaries helped to boost student delegates to almost one third of the overall total attendance. One of the key roles of the AAC has been to promote the work of the region's archaeological scientists by producing refereed publications of conference papers. As academic publication has radically changed in recent years so has the publication format and venues for conference publications. Rather than producing a single conference proceedings, papers from the 2005 AAC can be found in a variety of international journals, including Lithic Technology, Internet Archaeology, Archaeometry and the Journal of Archaeological Science. This volume presents original research papers from three key subject areas covered in the conferenc...

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Climate variability in the mid to late Holocene Arnhem Land Region, North Australia: Archaeological archives of environmental and cultural change

Bourke

Brockwell

Faulkner

et al. 2007

Archaeology in Oceania

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A number of archaeologists have suggested that significant climatic change with environmental and social consequences occurred between 1000 and 400 years ago in the Indo‐Pacific region. We investigate this premise by examining the archaeological record of changes in hunter‐gatherer economies in three geographically distinct coastal regions of tropical northern Australia. These case studies support the argument that Aboriginal mollusc exploitation reflects the altered local ecological habitats that accompanied broader coastal environmental change over the last few thousand years. Overlap between the phases and timing of climatic and behavioural changes within each region suggests that, given regional variation in the nature and of these changes, there was an associated human response to late Holocene climatic variability. These case studies establish that archaeological and environmental evidence mutually support the argument for climate change influencing cultural change in northern Australia. We suggest that, while a direct physical link between environmental change and the interpretations of significant cultural change in the archaeological record have yet to be demonstrated unambiguously in this region, the analysis of mollusc exploitation has the potential to provide the direct link that is currently missing between changes in climate, environment and human responses over the last millennium.

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Three Aboriginal shell mounds at Hope Inlet: Evidence for coastal, not maritime Late Holocene economies on the Beagle Gulf mainland, northern Australia

Cited by 24 publications

References 27 publications

Niche production strategies and shell matrix site variability at Albatross Bay, Cape York Peninsula

Niche production strategies and shell matrix site variability at Albatross Bay, Cape York Peninsula

New Directions in Archaeological Science (TA28)

Climate variability in the mid to late Holocene Arnhem Land Region, North Australia: Archaeological archives of environmental and cultural change

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