Patricia C. Fanning

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Macquarie University

We use a sedimentological approach to examine the formation and deformation processes associated with the accumulation of shell deposits in two major clusters of shell mounds, the Weipa group in the monsoonal environment of Albatross Bay in the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland, Australia, and the Farasan Islands group in the semi-arid env...

Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulatio...

Surface artifacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo‐Arabian belt, a pivotal region in dispersals out of Africa. Discarded by hominins, these artifacts are key to understanding past landscape use and dispersals, yet behavioral interpretation of present‐day artifact distributions cannot be carried out with...

Preprint download available via EarthArxiv at: https://eartharxiv.org/ru84f/ Surface artefacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo-Arabian belt, a pivotal region in dispersals out of Africa. Discarded by hominins, these artefacts are key to understanding past landscape use and dispersals, yet behavioural...

Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulatio...

p>Shell mounds located on the coastal and estuarine fringes are the best-known archaeological feature in the Weipa region, northwestern Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Other archaeological deposits have received less attention, with stone artefacts thought to be all but absent reflecting the lack of raw material suitable for flaking in the region....

We report the results of 212 radiocarbon determinations from the archaeological excavation of 70 shell mound deposits in the Wathayn region of Albatross Bay, Australia. This is an intensive study of a closely co-located group of mounds within a geographically restricted area in a wider region where many more shell mounds have been reported. Valves...

Rates of accumulation calculations for Wathayn shell mounds. (XLSX)

Silcrete flakes and cores are abundant in the surface assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia but retouched tools made from silcrete are much less frequent, especially the heavily retouched forms like flake adzes. The distribution and abundance of these forms together with other silcrete retouched tools is investigated. While heavily re...

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/691436 A case study from western New South Wales, Australia, illustrates the age, preservation, and distribution of late Holocene heat-retainer hearths that are abundant in the semiarid archaeological record in the region. These hearths were constructed as underground ovens with stone heat retainers....

Large mounded deposits of shell are prominent archaeological features across much of the north Australian tropical coast. Many of the shell mounds are composed almost entirely of the bivalve Anadara granosa (Linnaeus 1758), a food source for Aboriginal people in the past. A relatively long history of inquiry into the nature and significance of the...

Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit m...

Both quartz and silcrete cobbles are abundant in the stony desert regions of western New South Wales, Australia and were used by Aboriginal people who occupied these regions from the mid to late Holocene. Archaeologists often characterise quartz as an inferior material for flaking when compared to silcrete, but Aboriginal people made intensive use...

Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) is a laser-based surveying system that enables rapid measurement of x,y,z coordinate points, creating an accurate representation of objects in three-dimensional space. We apply this technique to the survey and analysis of mounded shell matrix deposits (SMDs) near Weipa in far north Queensland, Australia. Eleven para...

We match stone artefact distributions and assemblage compositions at the local geographical scale to measures of both complex topography and environmental history, as suggested by the work of Bailey and King. By comparing two study regions that have different topographic complexity measures, one in western New South Wales, Australia, and the other...

Here is a paper of pivotal importance to all prehistorians attempting to reconstruct societies from assemblages of shells or stone artefacts in dispersed sites deposited over tens of thousands of years. The authors demonstrate the perilous connections between the distribution and content of sites, their geomorphic formation process and the models u...

This book provides readers with a unique understanding of the ways in which Aboriginal people interacted with their environment in the past at one particular location in western New South Wales, Australia. It also provides a statement showing how geoarchaeology should be conducted in a wide range of locations throughout Australia. One of the key di...

Twenty years ago, Stafford-Smith and Morton (1990) published an ecological assessment of Australia as a series of propositions that illustrated why the continent stood apart ecologically from other arid areas around the world. The assessment has now been updated in the light of recent work (Morton et al. 2011). Both studies provide an opportunity t...

p>The Weipa shell mounds have a long history of archaeological research that has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the emergence of late Holocene coastal economies in northern Australia. However, much of this work has focused on broad comparisons of mounds between multiple locations rather than detailed studies of multiple mou...

This volume contains thirty-five papers from a 2010 conference on landscape archaeology focusing on the definition of landscape as used by processual archaeologists, earth scientists, and most historical geographers, in contrast to the definition favored by postprocessual archaeologists, cultural geographers, and anthropologists. This tension provi...

The surface archaeological record is abundant in some parts of arid Australia and, if analysed with attention to the history of deposition, it provides an accessible resource with which to assess past landscape use. Here, we report results of studies of the mid-late Holocene Aboriginal occupants of one part of the Australian arid zone, based on ana...

Western Cape York Peninsula, particularly the Weipa region, has seen sustained archaeological investigation since the 1960s. These studies primarily concentrated on the shell mounds associated with coastal environments first observed at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite claims that the shell mounds were of natural origin, archaeological in...

A 20m thick sequence of aeolian deposits and palaeosols, deposited above Neogene marine sediments adjacent to the shallow saline ephemeral Lake Arturo in interior Tierra del Fuego, is described. A deposit of archaeological stone artifacts and bones, the Lake Arturo 1 archaeological site, is located in a deflation hollow near the top of the aeolian...

This paper reviews the long history of interaction between scientists working in geomorphology, stratigraphy, sedimentology and chronology and those working in archaeology to understand past human–environment interactions in Australia. Despite this close collaboration, differentiating environmental impacts from the influence of human behaviour has...

Investigating past human-environment interactions requires not only suitable environmental proxies and well-dated archaeological records, but also a uniform temporal resolution between the two. In the arid interior of Australia, the archaeological record of human occupation is known only from relatively few locations, and palaeoenvironmental record...

The conventional approach to assessing the archaeological record in semi-arid regions of many parts of the world involves extensive survey of surface deposits thought to indicate the use of space by past peoples. However, such interpretations require a detailed understanding not only of how these deposits formed but also why they have survived. In...

Research conducted by the Western New South Wales Archaeology Program (WNSWAP) provides the opportunity to assess the reliability of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial sediments and burnt stone samples from arid zone geoarchaeological contexts. A large number of radiocarbon age determinations of...

The conventional approach to assessing the archaeological record in most parts of the world involves a combination of excavation of stratified deposits and extensive survey of surface deposits. Although widely applied in Australia, in both research-based and management archaeology, the method does not conform well to the nature of the surface archa...

Surface deposits of stone artefacts are the most common feature of the Australian Aboriginal archaeological record, but they remain difficult for archaeologists to interpret. Among the many reasons is a lack of understanding of geomorphic processes that have exposed the artefacts at the surface. We describe research on the geomorphic environments i...

We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a rep...

We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a rep...

In Australia, geomorphological change since the late nineteenth century ensures surface artifact visibility but the contribution of full coverage regional survey to an understanding of past landscape use is limited by the lack of easily datable artifacts. Here, we describe a multi-stage survey strategy based around intensive archaeological, geomorp...

An intensification theory was developed in Australian archaeology in the early 1980s from a desire to make the study of Australian hunter-gatherers closer to theoretical developments in hunter-gatherer studies elsewhere. An apparent increase in the quantity and range of archaeological deposits was interpreted as demonstrating a combination of popul...

Quarries are often defined as locations where people in the past gained access to raw material. Here we consider the definition of quarries in a raw material-rich environment. Stone artifacts found adjacent to two silcrete outcrops that might be labeled as "quarries" are compared with those found at a creek-side "occupation" location in western New...

We present data from Australian study areas that support episodic nonequilibrium as a suitable model for developing a theoretical and methodological framework for interpreting the surface archaeological record. According to this model, long periods of little or no geomorphic activity are punctuated by catastrophic events that erode or deposit sedim...

Past changes in East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) volume are poorly known and difficult to measure, yet are critical for predicting the response of the ice sheet to modern climate change. In particular, it is important to identify the sources of sea-level rise since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and ascertain the present-day stability of the world'...

In 1970, Harry Allen excavated a small section of creek terrace adjacent to Burkes Cave in the Scope Range of western New South Wales, revealing a stratified deposit dated by a single radiocarbon determination to c.2000 BP. An analysis of the stone artefact assemblage was never fully published. In this paper we present a description of the technolo...

This report provides a preliminary statement of the scientific (archaeological) significance of Aboriginal stone artefact scatters and associated heat-retainer hearths at three locations in Paroo-Darling National Park in western NSW, by undertaking reconnaissance geoarchaeological surveys and analyses of artefact assemblages at these locations. It...

Changes in East Antarctic Ice Sheet volume exert a fundamental control on eustatic sea level, but ice sheet fluctuations are poorly documented since the Last Glacial Maximum. 10-Be and 26-Al exposure dating of 21 glacial erratic boulders from the Framnes Mountains, Mac.Robertson Land enables us to test whether the East Antarctic Ice Sheet was the s...

Radiocarbon determinations obtained from heat retainer hearths in four sampling locations in western New South Wales, Australia are reported, with age estimates ranging from the mid Holocene until the last few centuries BP. Hearths are first considered in their geomorphic setting to determine the likely age of the surfaces into which they were dug...

An analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the las...

Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analys...

This thesis is an examination of deliberately discarded watercraft in Australia. It represents a comparative, non-particularist approach that seeks to understand abandoned vessels within a diverse theoretical framework. This view sees the remains of abandoned watercraft as an important component of Australian maritime heritage with the potential to...

Analysis of 28 radiocarbon determinations obtained from the excavation of heat retainer hearths from Sturt National Park in western New South Wales, indicates Aboriginal occupation of the arid margin of Australia during the last 1700 years. The determinations show two phases of hearth construction separated by a period of at least 200 years, and po...

Surface scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts have been exposed in many parts of inland Australia by accelerated erosion that followed the introduction of pastoralism by European settlers in the 19th century. This paper reports on a set of techniques developed to investigate and quantify the effects of these post-discard disturbance processes in S...

Recent erasion in arid regions of western NSW has exposed large areas that are scattered with stone artefacts manufactured by Aboriginal people in prehistory. These exposures offer an opportunity for archaeologists to study the artefacts abandoned by Aboriginal people through time and to compare those artefacts that accumulate in different parts of...

Vegetation arcs are near parallel bands of denser vegetation aligned perpendicular to slope and separated by barer inter-arc zones. These patterns occur in arid and semi-arid areas of gentle to very gentle gradient. Similar, but much smaller scale patterns, here referred to as `litter dams and microterraces', occur in a variety of climatic regions,...

Accelerated erosion by wind and water has taken place in arid western New South Wales, Australia, since the introduction of domestic and feral herbivores by Europeans in the nineteenth century. This action led to widespread soil loss by sheetwash, rilling, gullying, and aeolian deflation. Upland creek systems, formerly comprising shallow sinuous ch...

Surface scatters of stone artefacts are ubiquitous in the Australian landscape and form the basis for the majority of archaeological conservation decisions. The research reported here proposes a distributional approach for analysing this record founded on the artefact as the minimal recording unit rather than the site. A method of assemblage defini...

Rates of soil loss were determined using erosion pins on a severely eroded surface in a small (19 km2) arid rangelands catchment in western New South Wales, Australia, over a 10-year period. Rates of up to 209 t ha−1 year−1 on rilled surfaces, 59·5 t ha−1 year−1 on flat surfaces, and 30·6 t ha−1 year−1 on vegetated hummocky surfaces were calculated...

Broad vegetation banding in the Wiluna-Meekatharra area exhibits similar controls to comparable patterns elsewhere, namely the interception of sheetflow on smooth plainlands. Special features include narrower banding on finer-textured soils derived from metamorphic rocks and a siliceous hardpan which varies in depth with the vegetation pattern. The...