Uncertain supplies: water availability and regional archaeological structure in the Palmer River catchment, central Australia

Abstract

This paper describes a seemingly paradoxical situation in a specific region of the Australian arid zone where indigenous archaeological material is more densely concentrated in areas away from, rather than near, the most permanent waters. In the Palmer River catchment, sites near certain ephemeral waters are argued to have functioned as regional centres while the role of permanent waters is seen to be secondary, particularly in respect of strategies of social interaction and ceremonial performance. Large aggregations at permanent waters were probably the exception rather than the rule and the general trend was toward a reduction in group size with resource scarcity. The use of ephemeral resources for regional interaction provided a means to distribute temporary surplus across a wider population while increasing certainty that essential resources would remain accessible from permanent waters in periods of low rainfall. These features, which were part of the settlement pattern from the mid to late Holocene, were not evident in the archaeological record from the late Pleistocene. The implications of the results for models held to account for settlement patterns in arid regions are addressed.

Aboriginal People and Groundwater

“…Water availability also pre-determines the distribution of plant and animal species. From an archaeological sense this is also reflected in the review of Thorley (2001) on water supplies and use in the Palmer River catchment, central Australia. This study displayed a close relationship between permanent waters and a wide variety of archaeological materials, whereas scatters near ephemeral waters were generally described as being less diverse.…”

“…Water availability and, in particular, permanency are often described as critical factors influencing the settlement patterns of Australian and other Indigenous peoples (Thorley, 2001). Water availability also pre-determines the distribution of plant and animal species.…”

Water Futures in Australia: Materialities, Temporalities, Imaginaries

“…For example, the Gunditjmara eel traps at Lake Condah in Victoria are water‐embedded architectural structures that reveal evidence of a transegalitarian society, producing substantial economic surplus and the basis for complex socialities (Richards 2011). Nonetheless, in the contrasting ecological range, ephemeral waters, with periodic ecological flourishing and relative dry periods, have rich histories of Aboriginal ritual sociality and economy (MacFarlane 2005; Thorley 2001). Rose (2014) argued that the connectivity of Aboriginal people and arid country is characterised by a pattern of ‘flow and return’ that follows the changes in impermanent waters and their fluctuating biota.…”

Towards a Late Holocene archaeology of the Inland Pilbara

“…Significantly it is very rich in carbohydrate, providing 62.5 g per 100 g. By way of comparison, the seeds of another arid zone staple, Acacia aneura, provide only 25.5 g of carbohydrate per 100 g (Peterson 1976:28). In this context it is interesting to note Thorley's (2001) model of site use in the Palmer River area in central Australia in which he links large scale ephemeral water sources and ceremonial activity. Furthermore it is perhaps significant that bush onion is depicted in recent artworks as a plant food strongly associated with women's ceremonies (http://www.aboriginalartistsofaustralia.com.…”