Brit Asmussen

Brit Asmussen
Queensland Museum · Cultures and Histories

PhD Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU

About

53
Publications
11,801
Reads
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579
Citations
Introduction
A keen cross-institutional collaborator across science, social science and the humanities disciplines in Australia and overseas, Brit is currently undertaking collections-based research in First Nations, archaeology, biodiversity, botanical, object and digital collections as a Partner Investigator (PI) on ARC research projects
Additional affiliations
February 2011 - present
Queensland Museum
Position
  • Senior Curator
June 2018 - July 2021
Australian Research Council Linkage
Position
  • Partner Investigator
Description
  • Sugarbag and Shellfish: Indigenous Foodways in Colonial Cape York Peninsula Investigates emerging power structures in the context of intercultural entanglements between Indigenous people and settler-colonists 1865-1939 in Cape York Peninsula.
June 2017 - July 2022
Australian Rsearch Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
Position
  • Partner Investigator
Description
  • https://epicaustralia.org.au/ A long term project examining various dimensions of Australasian (pre)history: people, landscape, wildlife, time, climate and modelling.
Education
February 2000 - December 2005
Australian National University
Field of study
  • Australian Aboriginal Archaeology

Publications

Publications (53)
Article
Full-text available
The identification of expedient bivalve tools recovered from archaeological deposits is currently hindered by a lack of analytical frameworks. In order to identify those shell valves which have been used as expedient tools, analysts must be able to identify and distinguish between pre-mortem and post-depositional modifications, and use-wear from to...
Article
Full-text available
Although there has been extensive experimental research on the thermal modification of bone, the results have rarely been applied to interpret zooarchaeological assemblages. The faunal assemblage from Wanderer's Cave, Australia was analysed to investigate the origins, timing and context in which faunal specimens became burned during the mid–late Ho...
Article
Full-text available
Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data indicate that during the mid-to-late Holocene eastern Australia became significantly drier and experienced more intense and more frequent droughts. These changes, driven by the re-emergence and intensification of the ENSO climate phenomena, have been argued to have had considerable impact on Aboriginal so...
Article
Full-text available
Expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples from the Bismarck Archipelago out into the Pacific commencing c.3300 cal BP represents the last great chapter of human global colonisation. The earliest migrants were bearers of finely-made dentate-stamped Lapita pottery, hitherto found only across Island Melanesia and western Polynesia. We document the fi...
Article
Full-text available
We thank all the commentators for their thoughtful comments, and especially Jim Specht for initiating this stimulating Forum on the discovery of Lapita ceramics at Caution Bay on the south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea. All flag numerous important implications of these discoveries for Pacific archaeology. To make the most economical use of our...
Chapter
Full-text available
[Extract] The molluscan assemblage reported here is from Tanamu 1 at Caution Bay, an archaeological site dating from c.5,000 cal BP to c. 100 cal BP. Two 1m × 1m squares (A and B) were excavated in 2.1 ± 0.5cm excavation units (XUs) to 2.82m depth, with all excavated materials retained in 2.1mm mesh sieves undergoing systematic analysis in dedicate...
Article
Although there has been extensive experimental research on the thermal modification of bone, the results have rarely been applied to complex legacy funerary assemblages. The human skeletal remains from an Early Bronze Age IA tomb at Jericho were analysed to assess the utility of macroscopic taphonomic approaches both to interpreting intentionality...
Article
The presence of small depressions on stone tools found in various parts of Australia has frequently been assumed to be the consequence of bipolar knapping. In contrast, Pardoe et al. (2019) and Attenbrow and Kononenko (2019) proposed that these attributes derive from their use for nut cracking. To test this hypothesis, we conducted experiments usin...
Article
Caution Bay, on the South Coast of Papua New Guinea, offers a unique opportunity to assess the possible impacts of predation by pre-Lapita, Lapita, and post-Lapita peoples on local mollusc resources from at least 5000 years ago. Using biometric analysis of the bivalve Anadara antiquata and gastropod Conomurex luhuanus from the site of Tanamu 1, we...
Chapter
Full-text available
In this chapter, we review the present and past environment of Caution Bay set in a broader geographical context, including both terrestrial and marine habitats. Our primary objective is to sketch the general canvas upon which the past 6,000 or so years of local human presence, as represented by the Caution Bay archaeological record, played out. A...
Chapter
This chapter reports on the personnel, research structure and analytical methods employed in the Caution Bay project, constituting the sum of the various phases of field and laboratory research at Caution Bay. We stress that from the onset our approach has been to investigate through excavation the character of the archaeological record at a landsc...
Article
Full-text available
This article discusses changing obligations toward objects from an archaeological site held by the Queensland Museum, through a long-term, 40-year case study. Between 1971 and 1972 a selection of 92 stone blocks weighing up to 5 tons containing Aboriginal engravings were cut out of the site and distributed to multiple locations across Queensland by...
Article
Full-text available
The history of pottery use along the south coast of Papua New Guinea spans from Lapita times, here dated to 2900-2600 cal BP, through to mass production of pottery associated with a number of ethnographically-known interaction (and exchange) networks. Understanding the antecedents and developmental histories of these interaction networks is of cons...
Article
Piece by TRENT DALTON of the Weekend Australian Magazine, concerning the discovery of fragments of the Book of the Dead of Amenhotep (Chief Builder, New Kingdom Egypt)
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Archaeological sites across Australia hold traces of the lives lived by Aboriginal people, including rock art, the stone tools people made and used, and the plant remains and animal bones left from past meals. From this evidence, archaeologists try to ‘work backwards’ – analysing fragmented remains to provide glimpses of the lived experience of tho...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Morphometric analyses of Conomurex luhuanus and Anadara antiquata are used to identify changes in shellfish size- and age-at-death across the pre- to post-Lapita sequence at Square B, Tanamu 1 from Caution Bay, southern Papua New Guinea (PNG). Tanamu 1 comprises one of the rich and diverse shellfish midden assemblages within this Lapita landscape....
Conference Paper
Archaeological research on Australian stone tools suggests that c.4000–1000 years ago people responded to less predictable and more hostile climate by making specific artefacts designed to reduce increased foraging risks, including subsistence failure. Recent research examining this issue directly via key subsistence resources – plant remains – str...
Conference Paper
Different models explaining spatial and temporal changes in relation to the movement and colonisation of the Lapita culture complex have been proposed for different regions throughout Melanesia and the Pacific. At Caution Bay, on the southern coast of PNG excavations of Lapita sites accompanied by rich faunal assemblages ( Mcniven et al. 2011) prov...
Conference Paper
Career Advice Workshop: Museum Archaeology (Mentor: Brit Asmussen) The collation and display of finds from archaeological investigations is an important career path, allowing an interaction between our research and the public. This session will allow students to discuss this career path with a mentor who has worked in the field for many years. Topi...
Article
Full-text available
The remains of shellfish dominate many coastal archaeological sites in the Pacific and provide a wealth of information about economy, culture, environment and climate. Shells are therefore the logical sample type to develop local and regional radiocarbon chronologies. The calibration of radiocarbon (14C) dates on marine animals is not straightforwa...
Chapter
Full-text available
People have made use of what we now call the Great Barrier Reef for a very long time. Aboriginal People have one of the oldest living cultures in the world, dating back at least 50, 000 years. At this time, the Australian coastline lay much further to the east, and it is most likely that people were living in 'kangaroo country' that later became th...
Article
Full-text available
The remains of shellfish dominate many coastal archaeological sites in the Pacific and provide a wealth of information about economy, culture, environment and climate. Shells are therefore the logical sample type to develop local and regional radiocarbon chronologies. The calibration of radiocarbon (14C) dates on marine animals is not straightforwa...
Article
Full-text available
Conference Paper
For those undertaking archaeological research in coastal areas, marine animals are the logical choice of material remains to investigate issues of culture change and the role of environment and climate. The calibration of radiocarbon (14C) dates on marine animals is not straightforward, however, requiring an understanding of habitat and dietary pre...
Article
Insights into Austronesian environmental impacts on the New Guinea mainland are negligible, as until now no conclusive evidence for Lapita settlement of mainland New Guinea had been found (e.g. Lilley 008:79) and the period of concern reveals ‘very little correlation with [anthropogenic] environmental change’ (Hope and Haberle 2005:548). The recent...
Article
Full-text available
Herbivorous and deposit-feeding gastropods are a major component of archaeological shell middens worldwide. They provide a wealth of information about subsistence, economy, environment, and climate, but are generally considered to be less than ideal for radiocarbon dating because they can ingest sediment while they graze, inadvertently consuming te...
Article
Full-text available
In 2007 Bonta and Osborne published 'Cycads in the vernacular: A compendium of local names', in which they concluded that, in contrast to other cycads around the world, very few names and meanings had been documented for Australian Macrozamia species. This paper aims to better document the cycad species utilised by Aboriginal people for the benefit...
Chapter
Full-text available
Insights into Austronesian environmental impacts on the New Guinea mainland are negligible, as until now no conclusive evidence for Lapita settlement of mainland New Guinea had been found (e.g. Lilley 2008:79) and the period of concern reveals 'very little correlation with [anthropogenic] environmental change' (Hope and Haberle 2005:548). The recen...
Article
Full-text available
The identification in the Queensland Museum in April 2012 of missing fragments of a rare ancient Egyptian funerary papyrus, the Book of the Dead of Amenhotep, Overseer of the Builders of Amun, was in many ways a happy accident.
Article
Full-text available
Brief Bio and overview of Museum work
Article
Full-text available
Much is known concerning the various techniques Aboriginal peoples used to remove toxins from Cycas seeds prior to consumption. However, comparatively little is known about the methods used to process different Macrozamia species, as recorded in Aboriginal and historical accounts throughout the eastern, central and southwestern parts of Australia....
Article
Full-text available
Macrozamia seeds have long been considered an important economic resource to Australian hunter-gatherers. As a result of limited ecological data during the 1970's-1980's, seed production in Macrozamia spp. has been conceptualised as low yield and irregular, but easily stimulated through pyrogenic manipulation to produce high yield, regular resource...
Article
Full-text available
Influential arguments have been advanced in Australian archaeology concerning the origins and development of social and economic change in the mid-late Holocene (Lourandos 1997). One example used to support this claim is the perceived existence or ceremonial feasting events held in the semi-arid and rugged sandstone gorge systems of central Queensl...
Thesis
A detailed investigation of Aboriginal use of Australian tropical islands. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric data from 96 tropical islands is examined to evaluate the various forms of tropical Island use in Australia. Implications for temperate and prehistoric island use are briefly discussed.
Thesis
The doctoral research involved the reinterpretation of three important Australian archaeological sites using a multi-disciplinary, 'forensic taphonomic approach' and replicative experimentation on all classes of archaeological data (stone, plant, fauna, sediment). These sites had been interpreted as providing evidence for large-scale ceremonies tie...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter reviews the archaeology and research potential of the tropical rain forest region of northeast Queensland.

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