Article

I must go down to the seas again: Or, what happens when the sea comes to you? Murujuga rock art as an environmental indicator for Australia's north-west

November 2014
Quaternary International 385(in press):1-12

DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.10.056

Authors:

University of Western Australia

The Dampier Archipelago (properly known as Murujuga) is a rich rock art province in north-western Australia which documents an arid-maritime cultural landscape. But this Archipelago of 42 islands has only existed since the mid-Holocene. When people started to engrave art here, the granophyre bedrock was part of an inland range, more than 160 km from the coast. The Pilbara archaeological record demonstrates human responses through over forty thousand years of environmental change. This paper discusses how rock art across Murujuga can give insights to changing dynamics of people in place as well as depicting major environmental change. A predictive model is developed to assist in understanding the social changes which have been wrought by sea-level rise and consequential environmental changes.

The integrated cultural landscape of North Gidley Island: Coastal, intertidal and nearshore archaeology in Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago), Western Australia

Article

Aug 2021

Recent studies conducted in Murujuga Sea Country have confirmed that Indigenous Australian archaeology does not end at the modern shore. Since the earliest peopling of the Australian continent, sea levels have fluctuated significantly, dropping as much as 130 m below modern mean sea-level during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). During this period, the continent (including Australia and New Guinea) represented a landmass one-third larger than present day Australia. As sea levels rose following the LGM, this extensive cultural landscape was inundated. The recent reporting of archaeological remains in a submerged context at Murujuga has enabled an integrated analysis of the archaeological landscape, based on direct evidence from archaeological sites that were originally formed on dry land, but are now located in intertidal and submerged environments. This study applies a landscape analysis centred on the submerged Cape Bruguieres channel site, and the Gidley Islands, where submerged, intertidal and coastal archaeology has been recorded. Aerial, pedestrian, and intertidal archaeological surveys were conducted to investigate the onshore and offshore landscape, providing new evidence with which to place the stone artefacts in the Cape Bruguieres channel into a wider context. Rock art engravings, grinding patches, quarries and upstanding stones – some of which are in the intertidal zone – point to the use of a landscape that is now submerged and to the possibility of discovering new underwater sites. By integrating evidence from subtidal and intertidal contexts with the onshore record, we explore the cultural landscape above and below the ‘waterline’ as a continuum.

A Multi-Scalar Approach to Marine Survey and Underwater Archaeological Site Prospection in Murujuga, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020
QUATERN INT

During the past 20,000 years approximately one-quarter of the continental landmass of Australia was inundated by postglacial sea-level rise, submerging archaeological evidence for use of these landscapes. Underwater archaeological sites can offer substantial insights into past lifeways and adaptations to rapidly changing environments, however the vast scale of inundation presents a range of challenges in discovering such sites. Here we present a suite of methods as a model methodology for locating sites in submerged landscapes. Priority areas for survey were based on palaeoenvironmental contexts determined from the onshore archaeological record. Remote sensing was used to identify seabed composition and indicators of palaeolandscapes where high potential for human occupation and site preservation could be identified in Murujuga (or the Dampier Archipelago), northwestern Australia. Target locations were surveyed by scientific divers to test for the presence of archaeological material. Application of this methodology resulted in the discovery of the first two confirmed sub-tidal ancient Aboriginal archaeological sites on Australia's continental shelf. Survey methods are discussed for their combined value to identify different classes of landscapes and archaeological features to support future underwater site prospection.

Rocky relationships: the petroglyphs of the Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago) in Western Australia

Article

Apr 2019

The petroglyphs of the Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago) in Western Australia are of exceptional cultural value for the nation. It is Australia’s largest and most significant collection of aboriginal rock art essentially as petroglyphs, with the number estimated at more than one million engravings. The Murujuga is a textbook example of ancient and modern times colliding as it also hosts potentially polluting, major industrial complexes such as iron ore and salt ports; liquefied natural gas, liquid ammonia and ammonium nitrate plants; railway lines, pipelines and rock quarries. The work presented in this paper is underpinned by an annual monitoring study of 10 selected sites including two control sites located on Dolphin and Gidley islands and eight test sites located closer to the industrial areas. The main rock types of the Murujuga, gabbro and granophyre, have been affected by weathering consisting of a cm-thick leached zone capped by a skin of orange and red iron and manganese oxides. The petroglyphs were engraved by removing the few top millimetres of the iron oxide-rich layer and the contrast with the paler leached zone clearly showing the carved motifs. Phosphorus is abnormally enriched in the leached zone and the surface coating, with manganese exclusively on the surface coating, demonstrating the impact of bird droppings and ‘desert varnish’ on the rocks. The colour difference and the hematite–goethite ratio, measured with a field portable reflectance spectrometer, between the background and engraving provides a tool to estimate the relative age of the petroglyphs and the selection of the backgrounds. As the fine-grained granophyres were preferentially chosen from the coarser-grained gabbros to host the petroglyphs, the goethitic (or yellower) backgrounds were prepared as canvas before being engraved. Many petroglyphs register the food items of the area, which changed as the last ice age ended and sea levels rose. We hypothesise that based on their locations and colour difference the constraint for the oldest age of the petroglyphs exceeds 17 000 years BP.

To the Islands: The Archaeology of the Archipelagos of NW Australia and its Implications for Drowned Cultural Landscapes

Chapter

Full-text available

May 2017

In this chapter we consider the archaeological records of islands from three archipelagos lying off NW Australia and their implications for the submerged landscapes of which they were once a part. We draw attention to unique human-landscape configurations from circa 42,000 cal BP to 7500 cal BP, for which there may not be analogues in modern cultural landscapes. A holistic understanding of the genesis of maritime cultures is currently based on a truncated record in which the most significant part (the drowned landscapes) is usually missing. Here we make the case for renewed investigation of the drowned landscapes of the NW Shelf, in order to better understand the role of islands, archipelagos and coastlines in human history.

Multidisciplinary approaches to Australian island pasts: Late Pleistocene to historical perspectives on Australian island use

Article

Jul 2015
QUATERN INT

Reflectance Spectroscopy Monitoring of the Petroglyphs of the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia

Conference Paper

Jan 2008

In 2004, the Western Australian Department of Industry and Resources' Burrup Rock Art Management Committee commissioned a number of independent scientific studies to evaluate the condition of rock art in the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha (Western Australia). These studies are evaluating the physico-chemical aspects of the effect of environmental modification on the visible appearance of the rock art. Because of the cultural significance of the sites, the research approach has been to employ non-destructive testing strategies and work in the field has progressed with respect for the importance of the area. This paper only reports the spectral mineralogy monitoring at each of the sites to evaluate whether changes in mineralogy are observed on rock surfaces. Reflectance spectroscopy is a non-destructive, in situ materials characterisation technique that provides information about the mineralogy. The minerals detected include haematite, kaolinite, chlorite, goethite, gibbsite and manganese oxides. Current results indicate that the surface mineralogy of the rock art has not changed in the last four years.

Stone artifacts in the intertidal zone, Dampier Archipelago: Evidence for a submerged coastal site in Northwest Australia

Article

Dec 2019

Stone artifacts recently identified in the intertidal zone at Dolphin Island, Dampier Archipelago, suggest Aboriginal Australian occupation before inundation from early to mid-Holocene sea-level rise. If these artifacts do pre-date inundation, they would be the first evidence for a submerged coastal site on the Dampier Archipelago—substantiating persistent Aboriginal use throughout major environmental changes. The find provides supplementary evidence for Early Holocene settlement patterns, site organization and stone artifact production as documented on the outer islands of the Archipelago. It could be argued that the artifacts in the intertidal zone were washed downslope from nearby terrestrial settings where natural stone sources have been quarried. However, chemical analysis of cobbles and artifacts from both the hillslope and intertidal locations indicate that these two source materials are not the same. Furthermore, there is no evidence for reworking: artifact edges are unrounded. The distribution of suitable tool stone across the tidal flats is extensive (as it is elsewhere across this volcanic landscape). Further investigations, including refitting and taphonomic, geomorphological, and sedimentological studies are underway to test the alternative explanations and to provide more detailed context.

Murujuga Rockshelter: First evidence for Pleistocene occupation on the Burrup Peninsula

Article

Aug 2018
QUATERNARY SCI REV

Stone artefacts on the seabed at a submerged freshwater spring confirm a drowned cultural landscape in Murujuga, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023
QUATERNARY SCI REV

We report the discovery and identification of five ancient stone artefacts associated with a submerged freshwater spring at the underwater archaeological site WH1 in Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago), Western Australia. A limiting date applied to the site based on timing of inundation suggests it was occupied in the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene. The site is situated well below the intertidal zone having been recorded at 14 m depth in Flying Foam Passage. This discovery highlights the high potential of these submerged springs as archaeological survey targets. We discuss results of a recent survey that expands the number of confirmed artefacts located at WH1 and the geomorphological context in a large calcareous depression associated with a freshwater source. This study demonstrates how submerged landscape research using a suite of technologies can reveal archaeological assemblages in this tropical geomorphological environment, and that adapted techniques could be applied to other tropical conditions such as mangrove coasts, large deltaic plains, or reef-building environments. There are likely thousands of drowned archaeological sites on the continental shelf of the tropics, extending from the intertidal zone to the lowest point of the culturally occupied landmass, at approximately 130 m below modern sea level.

The Pico and Santa Maria vineyards: ‘heroic viticulture’ in the Azores

Chapter

Jan 2022

The vineyards in the Azores, and recent attempts at their recovery

How permanent are permanent water pools? investigating the hydrology of waterholes, to inform on human occupation at Murujuga, northwest western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Murujuga, on the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, is one of the world’s largest rock art provinces, with over 1 million engravings (Figure 1). This art spans the duration of human occupation in the region and is a unique record of human responses to climate change. The landscape has undergone extreme climatic and geographic change, notably since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; between 30-18 kya) when sea levels rose ~130 m and transformed Murujuga from an inland range to a coastal archipelago (McDonald, 2015). A high density of rock art and other archaeological evidence is associated with waterholes that may have been important human and ecological refugia, particularly since islandisation during the mid-Holocene. This report details some of our feldwork during 2022 that aims to understand the recharge processes and persistence of the waterholes at Murujuga. This work is part of a larger study to investigate how the climate and landscape of Murujuga have changed over time and to enhance our understanding of how Aboriginal people lived, moved, and created rock art in the landscape over the past ~50,000 years.

Monitoring Rock Art Decay: Archival Image Analysis of Petroglyphs on Murujuga, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

This paper considers the effects of industrialisation upon one of the world’s most significant rock art sites, Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula), located in north-west Western Australia. Photographs of 26 petroglyphs taken prior to or early in the industrialisation of the area were compared with recent photographs to assess whether the presence of industry is accelerating degradation. Fifty per cent of the petroglyphs showed indications of changes, and two showed substantial damage. The bulk of the changes can be attributed directly to industrial activity in the area which commenced in the 1960s. All changed petroglyphs, with two exceptions, were in relative proximity to industry. A reduction in industrial emissions is considered essential if damage to the rock art is to be limited and this iconic cultural place is to remain largely intact for future generations.

Beyond the Barriers: A New Model for the Settlement of Australian Deserts

Article

Feb 2021

This article re-envisages the human settlement of Australia’s deserts. It makes a case for their early occupation at the continental scale (a) by c. 60 ka; (b) during an early wet phase; (c) with rapid expansion of people; (d) relying on water features; and (e) showing changes through time in response to changing regional conditions. It is now well established that Australia’s deserts are as diverse as they are extensive and that ‘behavioural dynamism’ provides a better explanatory framework for arid zone social organization than ‘cultural conservatism’. Conceptual building blocks to explain desert settlement have included the process of human biogeography, the role of cryptic refugia in providing wide-scale foraging networks, and shifts in mobility in response to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and other climatic events. The models which have emphasized different characteristics and scales of change in desert societies include peoples’ responses to ‘glacial refugia’, ‘desert transformations’, ‘water distribution’, and ‘cryptic refugia’. The article synthesizes new archaeological results and climate data from key sites across Australia’s deserts. The authors propose a new model for the settlement of Australia’s arid zone based on new climatic and archaeological data and finer-grained ecological and social approaches.

The Sydney School and the genesis of contemporary Australian rock art research

Chapter

Sep 2022

Jo McDonald

Without them – what then? People, petroglyphs and Murujuga

Chapter

Full-text available

Sep 2022

Ken Mulvaney

Framing Australian Pleistocene coastal occupation and archaeology

Article

Oct 2022
QUATERNARY SCI REV

There are few archaeological sites that contain records for Pleistocene coastal occupation in Australia, as is the case globally. Two major viewpoints seek to explain why so few sites exist. The first is that the Pleistocene coast was a relatively marginal environment where fluctuating sea levels actively inhibited coastal resource productivity until the mid-to-late Holocene. The second position suggests that the Pleistocene coast (and its resources) was variably productive, potentially hosting extensive populations, but that the archaeological evidence for this occupation has been submerged by sea level rise. To help reconcile these perspectives in Australia, this paper provides a review, discussion, and assessment of the evidence for Australian Pleistocene coastal productivity and occupation. In doing so, we find no reason to categorically assume that coastal landscapes were ever unproductive or unoccupied. We demonstrate that the majority of Pleistocene coastal archaeology will be drowned where dense marine faunal assemblages should only be expected close to palaeo-shorelines. Mixed terrestrial and marine assemblages are likely to occur at sites located >2 km from Pleistocene shorelines. Ultimately, the discussions and arguments put forward in this paper provide a basic framework, and a different set of environmental expectations, within which to assess the results of independent coastal research.

Human observations of late Quaternary coastal change: Examples from Australia, Europe and the Pacific Islands

Article

Jul 2022
QUATERN INT

In the aftermath of the last ice age, when sea level rose along most of the world's coastline, the activities of coastal peoples were impacted by coastal submergence, land loss and sometimes isolation as offshore islands formed. In some parts of the world, there is clear evidence that people encoded their observations of postglacial sea-level rise into oral traditions that were communicated across hundreds of generations to reach us today in an intelligible form. In other contexts, people's observations of rising sea level are likely to have formed the foundations of ‘legends’ about undersea places and the peoples inhabiting them. For a selection of coastal sites in Australia and northwest Europe, this study discusses a range of contrasting situations in which culturally-grounded stories about coastal submergence, land loss and isolation plausibly recollect the nature and effects of postglacial sea-level rise. Using science-based histories of postglacial sea-level change, minimum ages are determined for each group of site-specific stories; in the case of Australia, these range from 7000–11,500 BP, for northwest Europe from 5500 to 9500 BP. For selected sites in the Pacific Islands, where human settlement about 3000 years BP post-dated the end of postglacial sea-level rise, localized submergence is recalled in traditional stories of local people. It is argued that studies of late Quaternary coastal evolution can often be filled out by adding details from stories preserved in local cultures, something which leads to a clearer picture of the human-societal impacts of coastal submergence and land loss than can be obtained from palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and geological evidence alone.

The Sustainability of Rock Art: Preservation and Research

Article

Full-text available

May 2022

Rock art is a widespread cultural heritage, representing an immovable element of the material culture created on natural rocky supports. Paintings and petroglyphs can be found within caves and rock shelters or in open-air contexts and for that reason they are not isolated from the processes acting at the Earth surface. Consequently, rock art represents a sort of ecosystem because it is part of the complex and multidirectional interplay between the host rock, pigments, environmental parameters, and microbial communities. Such complexity results in several processes affecting rock art; some of them contribute to its destruction, others to its preservation. To understand the effects of such processes an interdisciplinary scientific approach is needed. In this contribution, we discuss the many processes acting at the rock interface—where rock art is present—and the multifaceted possibilities of scientific investigations—non-invasive or invasive—offered by the STEM disciplines. Finally, we suggest a sustainable approach to investigating rock art allowing to understand its production as well as its preservation and eventually suggest strategies to mitigate the risks threatening its stability.

Was Aboriginal population recovery delayed after the Last Glacial Maximum? A synthesis of a terminal Pleistocene deposit from the Sydney Basin, New South Wales, Australia

Article

Nov 2021
JASR

We present a synthesis of 14 compliance-based investigations of an archaeologically significant sand body on the banks of the Parramatta River. We find the alluvial deposit initially formed ~ 50,000 years ago (50 ka), but with extensive portions reworked between ~ 20-5 ka. There is limited evidence of past visitation, with only three excavations having recovered substantive material culture (i.e. > 20 lithics/m 2 across small areas, ≤35 m 2). Following equivocal evidence of visitation prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), these assemblages generally demonstrate: i) widespread ephemeral, but repeated, activity between ~ 14-6 ka, dominated by indurated mudstone/tuff/chert raw materials (IMTC) and expedient technologies, overprinted by; ii) more extensive occupation of the landscape in the last few thousand years, with increasingly diverse and complex stone assemblages using heat-treated silcrete and additional raw materials from multiple geological sources. Notably, these two different phases are often found in the same locale, potentially suggesting a long continuity and repeated land use over 14,000 years. This synthesis demonstrates expansion away from cryptic refuges occupied during the LGM along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River corridor (some 40 km west of Parramatta) only occurred several thousand years after the height of this major climatic disruption. This timing is suggestive of a delayed recovery from the LGM and is coincident with changing environmental and sea-level conditions, which may have influenced, or been exploited by, people in the past. Our knowledge of Aboriginal societies during the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene transition remains poorly understood in southeast Australia and is crucial to understanding demographic, symbolic and technological changes seen later in the Holocene.

Beneath the Top End: A regional assessment of submerged archaeological potential in the Northern Territory, Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Regional-scale assessments have proven to be invaluable frameworks for research, public engagement and management of submerged archaeological landscapes. Regional-scale approaches have been implemented internationally through a variety of academic or strategic studies. Such studies represent a much-needed next step towards subregional and site-level prospection to support management, engagement and mitigation of the impacts of offshore development. However, these regional studies are largely absent in Australia. In this article, we build on the recent discovery of submerged archaeological sites in Western Australia and produce a novel regional-scale assessment of submerged archaeological and cultural landscape potential in the coastal and island regions of the Northern Territory. This area is of special significance in the peopling of Australia, containing some of the oldest dated archaeological evidence. We collate and synthesise regional data related to sea-level change, ethnography (e.g. oral traditions), geomorphology, and archaeology, also taking account of logistics and existing data availability to identify prospective areas for further study. We highlight the need for a coordinated national program of regional baseline studies to address a legacy of under-representation of submerged landscapes and provide vital baseline data for a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including researchers, policy makers, environmental and heritage managers, developers and Traditional Owners.

The case for continuity of human occupation and rock art production in the Kimberley, Australia

Chapter

Aug 2021

The Kimberley region hosts a large body of figurative and non-figurative rock art, which we argue has changed through time as people have utilised it to interact with social and environmental changes. While the dating of this art is still nascent, preliminary evidence shows that some of the Kimberley’s earliest rock art dates to the terminal Pleistocene. This early art includes cupules as well as naturalistic animal, human, and plant figures. We focus on the continuity of these figurative motif types across styles, as matched to the occupation of archaeological sites and landscapes through time. We present a revised framework for relating style phases to changing social organisation, landscapes, and environments. This framework relies on new dates for rock art and archaeological data sets, as well as improved palaeoclimatic and sea level data. The relationship is explained by deploying a combination of Information Exchange and Group Boundary Formation Theory. This approach allows us plausibly to link changes in art, human occupation, and palaeo-environmental records at longer millennia-increment time scales.

Seeing the Landscape: Multiple Scales of Visualising Terrestrial Heritage on Rosemary Island (Dampier Archipelago)

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020

The Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga) is on Australia’s National Heritage List because of its significant rock art and numerous stone structures. When people first started living in this arid landscape of the north-west coast, 50,000 years ago, the shoreline was 160 kilometres further north-and west. The Archipelago was created around 7,000 years ago, with sea-level rise following the termination of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Photogrammetry and microphotography (using LiDAR, RPA and Dino-Lite™) are used here to demonstrate how this combination of different scales of imaging can be used to better document the terrestrial Murujuga features record. This paper explores the utility of photogrammetry generated by LiDAR and RPA to locate and reconstruct two types of Aboriginal stone structure (standing stones and house structures) which are prevalent across the Archipelago. These combined techniques were deployed to better visualise and understand site distribution with a view to using the landscape scale methods for the detection of similar features in submerged contexts in the adjacent waters. It has been predicted that this more robust site type would be likely to survive being submerged by sea level rise, and hence this was a site type which we were interested in locating remotely. As well as undertaking systematic terrestrial survey and recording of sample areas across Rosemary Island, topographic LiDAR was flown on two occasions (2017, 2018). These flights were separated by a wildfire which burnt most of the spinifex cover across the island. It highlights the potential – and shortcomings – of remote sensing this type of cultural sites in a naturally rocky and spinifex-covered landscape. It makes recommendations about how to better implement LiDAR to assist in the understanding of the landscape context of these hunter-gatherer stone features.

Hidden Sites, Hidden Images, Hidden Meanings: Does the Location and Visibility of Motifsand Sites Correlate to Restricted or Open Access?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020
J ARCHAEOL METHOD TH

Using an ethnographic approach, this research assesses common assumptions in rock art research in terms of their validity for Aboriginal rock art sites in the Barunga region of the Northern Territory, Australia. In particular, we assess the potential and limits of the commonly held assumption that open or restricted access to sites and/or the meaning of motifs can be assessed by determining the visibility of the site or image within the landscape. This research calls into question some assumptions that are core to contemporary archaeological method and theory. Our results challenge the notion that a secluded location, or difficulty of access, is needed to restrict access to a site. “Hidden” sites do not need to be hidden, as site access is controlled by a plethora of cultural rules. Moreover, sites that appear to be hidden within the landscape may be open access sites, although access may be restricted for periods of time. Conversely, sites that are visible and accessible from a landscape perspective can be subject to restricted access, regulated through social rules. In addition, the results question the notion that the control of secret information in rock art sites is determined by the visibility and location of motifs and sites. Hidden meanings are not necessarily related to hidden locations or the low visibility of the art, since cultures can have many other ways of hiding meaning. Finally, the results of this study challenge the commonly held dichotomy between sacred/restricted access and secular/open access.

Aboriginal artefacts on the continental shelf reveal ancient drowned cultural landscapes in northwest Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2020
PLOS ONE

This article reports Australia’s first confirmed ancient underwater archaeological sites from the continental shelf, located off the Murujuga coastline in north-western Australia. Details on two underwater sites are reported: Cape Bruguieres, comprising > 260 recorded lithic artefacts at depths down to −2.4 m below sea level, and Flying Foam Passage where the find spot is associated with a submerged freshwater spring at −14 m. The sites were discovered through a purposeful research strategy designed to identify underwater targets, using an iterative process incorporating a variety of aerial and underwater remote sensing techniques and diver investigation within a predictive framework to map the submerged landscape within a depth range of 0–20 m. The condition and context of the lithic artefacts are analysed in order to unravel their depositional and taphonomic history and to corroborate their in situ position on a pre-inundation land surface, taking account of known geomorphological and climatic processes including cyclone activity that could have caused displacement and transportation from adjacent coasts. Geomorphological data and radiometric dates establish the chronological limits of the sites and demonstrate that they cannot be later than 7000 cal BP and 8500 cal BP respectively, based on the dates when they were finally submerged by sea-level rise. Comparison of underwater and onshore lithic assemblages shows differences that are consistent with this chronological interpretation. This article sets a foundation for the research strategies and technologies needed to identify archaeological targets at greater depth on the Australian continental shelf and elsewhere, building on the results presented. Emphasis is also placed on the need for legislation to better protect and manage underwater cultural heritage on the 2 million square kilometres of drowned landscapes that were once available for occupation in Australia, and where a major part of its human history must lie waiting to be discovered.

Settling the West: 50 000 years in a changing land

Article

Jul 2019
J Roy Soc West Aust

Australia was first colonised more than two thousand human generations ago. In this paper we show how, over this period, ancestors of Western Australia's Aboriginal peoples adapted to changing environments, in tropical savannahs, deserts, woodlands, forests and coastlines. Throughout this history, there is evidence for intra-regional genetic and economic continuities, and exchanges and dynamism in religion, language and art. These relationships are remarkably well-documented in Western Australia, which features many of the oldest sites on the continent. The evidence reviewed here derives from the Kimberley, Western Desert, Pilbara and South West. Each region contains at least one site first occupied c. 50 000 years ago, and numerous other sites first occupied in the late Pleistocene. We describe the archaeological evidence for the early development of a range of complex modern behaviour from each region, including symbolic behaviour, information exchange, ground-stone technology, and ecosystem engineering. We also address the apparent tension between regional continuity and interregional contact and exchange.

A Strategy for Assessing Continuity in Terrestrial and Maritime Landscapes from Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago), North West Shelf, Australia

Article

Oct 2020

Over the last 20,000 years, one third of the continental land mass of Australia, or 2.12 million km 2 , has been drowned by postglacial sea-level rise. Much of this drowned territory is thought to have been occupied by humans. Where archaeological remains have survived inundation, they can be investigated by underwater and airborne remote sensing, survey, and ground-truthing. This study of the Dampier Archipelago of North West Australia is contextualized by a review of the current state of the art of underwater prehistory. In the absence of known sites, we propose terrestrial analogy as a pre-dictive tool for targeting submerged archaeological sites. Geological and topographic contexts are important for assessing preservation potential as is identifying landforms and features around which people may have focused occupation. Analysis of more than 2,500 known archaeological sites from the extraordinarily rich Dampier Archipelago reveals that the vast majority are rock art sites, but these are interspersed by a significant number of artifact scatters, myriad stone structures, shell middens, and quarry and reduction areas. The majority of these sites are focused on coastal and interior valleys, associated uplands, and coastal embayments. While over two thirds of sites occur on granophyre and basalt substrates, the others are located on Quaternary sediments. Regional research on nearby continental islands shows that use of these environments can be expected to pre-date sea-level rise. The most likely submerged sites include: 1) compacted middens associated with rock pools and estuarine features; 2) stone structures with associated middens on limestone pavements or with granophyre and basalt boulder fields; 3) buried midden and other occupation deposits on protected sand sheets; 4) quarry outcrops, extraction pits, and associated reduction debris in areas of fine-grained granophyre and basalt; and 5) mid-dens in consolidated calcarenite shoreline contexts to the north and west of the volcanic suites of the Dampier Archipelago.

Images of animals in rock art not just ‘good to think’

Chapter

Jan 2017

Iain Davidson

Images of animals are among the most frequent marks people made on rock surfaces. They occur around the world in more than 100 countries, in caves, rock shelters, and in open air. They were made as early as about 40,000 years ago until very recently. Between those dates and across those regions, there is much variation in the way images of animals have come down to us. Determining how to interpret images of animals is complicated by that fact that most ethnographic accounts of attitudes to animals and to making images depend on knowledge of the expressed views of the present-day people. It is hazardous to attempt to infer the meanings from the images alone, at least in part because of variation through time and space. Nevertheless, it seems likely that differences between sets of images imply different worldviews, although similarities do not in themselves necessarily signify similar worldviews.

Culture Clash: National Heritage Values, Native Title, and the GDP

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2015

Josephine J McDonald

Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T was a forceful anthem in the sixties: adopted by both the campaign for Civil Rights – and feminism – in the USA. Forty years later R-E-S-P-E-C-T is the acronym embraced by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) proclaiming their aspirations for heritage management of Murujuga. Traditional custodians have articulated seven values as integral to all interactions between humans and this Place: Rock Art, Environment, Sea Country, People, Earth, Culture and Truth. The MAC Land and Sea Ranger program’s motto is “Ngayintharri Gumawwarni Ngurrangga” [we all come together for country] reflecting local Aboriginal people’s desire to protect this place and transmit cultural knowledge across the generations in a landscape that became ‘orphan country’ through the frontier actions of the colonial West.

Culture Clash final17122016

Data

Full-text available

Apr 2016

Josephine J McDonald

Murujuga, Northwestern Australia: When Arid Hunter-Gatherers Became Coastal Foragers

Article

Jan 2016

The Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga) in northwestern Australia is a rich rock art province located in an arid-maritime cultural landscape. The archipelago juts into the Indian Ocean just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. When people started inscribing this rugged granophyre landscape it was an inland range more than 100 km from the coast. Murujuga rock art is contextualized by a 47,000-year-old occupation sequence from the Pilbara, a model for stylistic change, and a predictive model that envisages how people may have adapted to this eventual seascape. Initial testing of an outer island suggests that highly mobile coastal foragers took advantage of interior ranges across the Abydos Plain as sea levels rose after the Last Glacial Maximum. This article describes for the first time evidence for Australia's earliest domestic stone structures (dated to between 8063 and 7355 cal BP) and tests the predictive model. Rosemary Island is an inscribed landscape that reveals the emergence of an arid island and provides insights into the dynamics of mobile arid hunter-fisher-gatherers in the early Holocene. It adds to the body of Australian evidence for island abandonment with insulation, but with minimal evidence for subsequent (re)colonization.

SYMBOLS BY THE SEA: THE FIRST RECORDING OF ATLANTIC COASTAL ROCK ART IN PATAGONIA (PUNTA ODRIOZOLA, RÍO NEGRO, ARGENTINA)

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2015

The recent detection of petroglyphs on the west coast of the San Matías Gulf is the first recording of rock art in the Atlantic littoral of Patagonia. This evidence is discussed in the context of the regional and global information about coastal rock art sites. Techno-morphological and visibility analyses show similarities with motifs located in south Patagonia. These are discussed in terms of visual communication systems in societies with high mobility and open social interaction networks. It is concluded that the singular location of the petroglyphs in a coastal environment is the result of natural and social processes, such as the lower availability of rocks in the Atlantic coastal fringe, the sand-dune dynamics and the selection of specific micro-environments for the production of certain images.

Routledge Handbook of Cultural Landscape Practice

Book

Feb 2023

Cultural landscapes, which in the field of heritage studies and practice relates to caring for and safeguarding heritage landscapes, is a concept embedded in contemporary conservation. Heritage conservation has shifted from an historical focus on buildings, city centres, and archaeological sites to encompass progressively more diverse forms of heritage and increasingly larger geographic areas, embracing both rural and urban landscapes. While the origin of the idea of cultural landscapes can be traced to the late-19th century Euro-American scholarship, it came to global attention after 1992 following its adoption as a category of ‘site’ by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Today, cultural landscape practice has become increasingly complex given the expansion of the values and meanings of heritage, the influence of environmental challenges such as human induced climate change, technological advancements, and the need to better understand and interpret human connections to place and landscapes. The aim of this handbook is to strike a balance between theory and practice, which we see as inseparable, while also seeking to achieve a geographical spread, disciplinary diversity and perspectives, and a mix of authors from academic, practitioner, management, and community backgrounds. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315203119/routledge-handbook-cultural-landscape-practice-cari-goetcheus-steve-brown?refId=4dc82b18-4556-4188-908a-865612445f73&context=ubx

The evolution of Australian island geographies and the emergence and persistence of Indigenous maritime cultures

Article

May 2023
QUATERNARY SCI REV

Cultural landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean

Chapter

Full-text available

Feb 2023

In this chapter, the authors introduce policies relating to cultural landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean. They present five case studies – all World Heritage listed properties – which together illustrate some of the diversity of approaches and challenges to identifying, caring for, and safeguarding landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the World Heritage system, this cultural landscape is classified as a ‘relict or fossil landscape’ and is representative of the memory of slavery in the Americas. The influence of Franco-Haitian culture persists in the toponymy, music, and traditions of eastern Cuba. The future focus of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia (CCLC) is in four major areas: education for competitiveness and strengthening of entrepreneurship in line with the values of the CCLC; promotion of tourism and community-based initiatives; financing for environmental sustainability; and the formulation of public policy for the construction, improvement, and conservation of housing using traditional techniques.

White Paper II: Impacts, vulnerability, and understanding risks of climate change for culture and heritage (ICOMOS)

Research

Full-text available

Sep 2022

ICSM CHC White Paper II: Impacts, vulnerability, and understanding risks of climate change for culture and heritage: Contribution of Impacts Group II to the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change. Discussion Paper. ICOMOS & ISCM CHC, Charenton-le-Pont, France & Paris, France https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/2718/

Seeing and managing rock art at Nganjarli: A tourist destination in Murujuga National Park, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

The Nganjarli site complex, which includes a rich body of rock art, shell middens and artefact scatters, has been identified by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) as the primary location within Murujuga National Park for tourism and interpretation facilities. Murujuga National Park lies on the north-west coast of Western Australia, and within the Dampier Archipelago (including Burrup Peninsula) National Heritage Place. MAC owns and co-manages the National Park with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions. Facilities have been upgraded to accommodate increasing tourist numbers and enhance their cultural experience at Nganjarli. Archaeological evidence was documented ahead of the installation of a boardwalk and concrete walking trails for viewing rock art. The national heritage values of this place are demonstrated, and we outline how existing co-management has mobilised contemporary cultural values and the aspirations of the Murujuga custodians. We document the role of innovative scientific approaches in the interpretive strategy for Nganjarli. New recording techniques and digital imaging demonstrate the diversity of animal motifs in the rock art near the installed boardwalk and identify opportunities for further digital interpretation of this significant landscape. Geochemical testing of surface lithic artefacts using X-ray fluorescence indicates mixed sourcing in the preferred lithics despite this being a tool-stone rich environment. Surface shell derives from targeted harvesting of a single species. The combined archaeological evidence indicates that Nganjarli has functioned as an aggregation locale through time. The rock art assemblage indicates that occupation here began during the earlier phases of art production. All these findings have been incorporated into the interpretative facilities in the tourist area.

The past 50,000 years: an archaeological view

Chapter

Full-text available

Nov 2013

The Cambridge History of Australia offers a comprehensive view of Australian history from its pre-European origins to the present day. Over two volumes, this major work of reference tells the nation's social, political and cultural story. Volume 1 examines Australia's indigenous and colonial history through to the Federation of the colonies in 1901. Volume 2 opens with the birth of the twentieth century, tracing developments in the nation through to the present day. Each volume is divided into two parts. The first part offers a chronological treatment of the period, while the second examines the period in light of key themes, such as law, religion, the economy and the environment. Both volumes feature detailed maps, chronologies and lists of further reading. This is a lively and systematic account of Australia's history, incorporating the work of more than sixty leading historians. It is the ideal work of reference for students, scholars and general readers.

Archaeology and Rock Art of the North-West Arid Zone with a Focus on Animals

Chapter

Full-text available

Aug 2018

In this paper we will focus on the Indigenous archaeology and rock art of the north-west arid zone of Western Australia. This includes the Little Sandy and Great Sandy Deserts (Western Desert) and the Pilbara uplands and arid coastline and archipelagos (Fig. 1). Remarkably, within just the last 5 years, some of the oldest and most comprehensive evidence has emerged for early occupation of Australia’s deserts, including the use of dietary marine resources and production of figurative art (McDonald 2016; Veth et al. 2017a, b; Wood et al. 2016). We provide these new understandings of the art and archaeology of the north-west arid zone from the key sites of Lake Gregory (Parnkupirti), the Canning Stock Route (Kaalpi), the Dampier Archipelago (Murujuga) and Barrow Island. Initial occupation of the desert has been extended back to 50 ka, and we now have a better understanding of the fluctuations in arid zone occupation through the Holocene. Following a 15-year recording programme, Western Desert rock art provinces can now be contrasted with those from the Pilbara and specifically the Dampier Archipelago. We have previously provided a framework for major changes in art production as part of hunter-gatherer responses to climate change in the arid north-west (McDonald and Veth 2013a). Here we focus on the importance of desert fauna to people’s subsistence and social strategies and described how these have been depicted in art through time.

People and fish: Late Holocene rock art at Wulk Lagoon, Arnhem Land

Chapter

Full-text available

Nov 2017

Ballester 2015 - Harpoon Technology and large marine prey hunting in the Atacama Desert Coast (Northern Chile)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2015
Current

Benjamin Ballester

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About time: toward a sequencing of the Dampier Archipelago petroglyphs of the Pilbara region, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2011

Ken Mulvaney

Since the early 1970s the petroglyphs of the Dampier Archipelago have been acknowledged for their National and World heritage status. Part of this recognition of significance is the evident antiquity, stylistic variability and abundance of production that the petroglyphs display. It has been suggested that the oldest of these images are in the order of 15,000 to 18,000 years old. Based on only a few dates, coupled with stylistic and weathering patterns, a three-phase art sequence was first put forward in the early 1980s. These identified art phases were defined on information collected from just two locations toward the southern end of Dampier Island. This paper presents a more comprehensive temporal structure to the Dampier rock art. Unlike previous studies, which focussed on a restricted survey area, this current study draws on knowledge of a larger and more widely distributed sample of the rock art. The results suggest at least five major art phases spanning some 20 to 30,000 years.

Shell beads from Mandu Mandu Creek rock-shelter, Cape Range Peninsula, Western Australia, dated before 30 000 BP

Article

Full-text available

Dec 1993

Kate Morse

This paper reports the recent discovery of shell beads, dated c.32 000 BP., from an archaeological site on the Cape Range Peninsula, Western Australia. These artefacts are the earliest ornamental material yet recovered from the Australasian Region and provide important new evidence for the development of sophisticated behavioural patterns by early Australian populations. The shell beads extend the age of human use of decorative ornaments in Australia to a time comparable with some of the earliest such evidence from Europe. It seems, then, that behavioural patterns commonly thought to be associated with biologically modern human populations were occurring contemporaneously in both the southern and northern hemispheres. -from Author

The Survival of the Murujuga (Burrup) Petroglyphs

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2002

Robert G. Bednarik

The industrial development on Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga) in Western Australia is briefly outlined, and its effects on the large petroglyph corpus present there are described. This includes changes to the atmospheric conditions that are shown to have been detrimental to the survival of the rock art. Effects on the ferruginous accretion and weathering zone substrate on which the rock art depends for its continued existence are defined, and predictions are offered of the effects of greatly increasing pollution levels that have been proposed. The paper concludes with a discussion of recent events and a call for revisions to the planned further industrial development.

Study of the Outstanding Universal Values of The Dampier Archipelago Site, Western Australia

Technical Report

Full-text available

Sep 2011

For a property to be inscribed on the World Heritage List it must be accepted by the World Heritage Committee as being of Outstanding Universal Value. The Operational Guidelines specify the key tests that the World Heritage Committee applies to decide whether a property is of Outstanding Universal Value: *the Committee considers a property as having Outstanding Universal Value if the property meets one or more of the World Heritage criteria; and, *to be deemed of Outstanding Universal Value, a property must also meet the conditions of integrity and/or authenticity, and must have an adequate protection and management system to ensure its safeguarding. There is adequate existing research and data for the Dampier Archipelago to justify Criteria i, iii and iv as meeting the threshold for Outstanding Universal Value. This report to the Australian Heritage Council identifies how this rock art provinces meets the defined OUV criteria and argues for its authenticity and integrity.

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene exploitation of estuarine communities in northwestern Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2015
QUATERN INT

This contribution synthesizes archaeological studies of human economies from the Barrow–Montebello islands and uses the area's archaeological record to determine the effects of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene sea-level rise on regional coastlines. At the height of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Australia's north-western coast extended much further west than the present-day shoreline. During subsequent sea-level rise, the gently prograding continental shelf was inundated, and with it, nearly all archaeological evidence for coastal occupation. The Barrow and Montebello Islands are one of the few exceptions, as they corresponded to inland hinterland ranges during the LGM, with the coastline lying some 50 km to their west. Evidence from all late Pleistocene and Holocene occupation phases of the Barrow–Montebello Islands demonstrate that foragers continued to visit the coast and engage in the exploitation of both terrestrial and marine environments. During the late Pleistocene, when the shoreline was 10–15 km away, coastal exploitation is seen through the presence of transportable estuarine and rocky-shore gastropods. By the early Holocene, when sea-levels were within close proximity of the sites, there is a marked increase in marine fauna including reef fish, estuarine and reef shellfish, crustaceans and estuarine crocodile. Together, this suggests that the nearby muddy, procumbent coastlines were productive, as well as an important component of coastal and hinterland economies.

Dampier Archipelago Petroglyphs: Archaeology, Scientific Values and National Heritage Listing

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2009
ARCHAEOL OCEAN

In 2007 the Dampier Archipelago petroglyph province was included on the National Heritage List. This paper outlines the process of determining the province's scientific values. We briefly describe our findings, which are based on all existing site data lodged with regulatory authorities. We synthesize published and unpublished systematic survey and rock art recording data collected over three decades for research and environmental impact assessment. Based on this synthesis we provide the first thorough analysis and contextualisation of petroglyph sites across the Archipelago. We compare this art province with other art style provinces in the Pilbara.

The Archaeology of Montebello Islands, North-West Australia: Late Quaternary foragers on an arid coastline

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2007

The potential for discovery of new submerged archaeological sites near the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2013
QUATERN INT

The islands of the Dampier Archipelago preserve a probable 30,000 year archaeological record that reflects the change from a continental to an island environment following post-glacial sea-level rise. The geomorphological history of the Dampier Archipelago region in combination with preliminary hydrodynamic modelling of past tidal regimes provides the basis for a new model of how the shelf landscape may have developed between the Last Glacial Maximum (c. 20 ka BP), through the Holocene marine transgression and up to the present day. Using first-order geomorphological principles, an assessment is made of the key Late Pleistocene and Holocene sediment bodies that may preserve archaeological deposits. We show that archaeology is most likely to be present in deposits associated with the early phases of inundation of the Dampier Archipelago, dating from around 9-7 ka BP. At this time relative sea levels were around -30 m to -15 m, which was when coastal configuration was complex and the variety and scale of intertidal and shallow sub-tidal environments wide. In contrast, we anticipate that coastal archaeology older than similar to 12 ka BP, when the post-glacial sea levels were below similar to 50 m, will have been exposed to a phase of faster tidal currents on the continental shelf, and hence eroded or poorly preserved. Our study aims to improve prospection for and later management of the as yet-unknown submerged elements of West Australia's rich archaeological heritage.

Ritual Engines and the Archaeology of Territorial Ascendancy

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2002

In the early years of the twentieth century, anthropologists recorded evidence for the movement of the circumcision rite into the non-circumcising southwest region of Western Australia. Archaeological and linguistic evidence from central Australia suggests that this may have been a continuation of an expansion of the boundaries of the Western Desert 'cultural group' which began almost 1,500 years ago. This paper considers how the sorts of social mechanisms recorded during the historic period for the push of circumcision into the southwest, what we will characterise here as 'ritual engines', may well inform on much wider processes responsible for the remarkable geographic spread and speed of the transmission of the Western Desert culture group. Introduction Australian archaeologists have frequently alluded to long-term cultural change as an explanation for shifts in artefact types, raw material distributions and graphic vocabularies. It is presumed that these transitions in the archaeological record are in many instances indicative of wider transformations in social, economic and ritual relationships across various kinds of cultural boundaries. However, the reality is that once we stray away from environmental determinism we have almost no genuine examples or models of why or how such changes have occurred in Australia. One of the major and most widely recognised 'boundaries' in Aboriginal Australia is the so-called 'circumcision/subincision line', demarcating the division between major ritual and cultural traditions, namely the inland Western Desert culture bloc versus a number of other culture areas ranged along the coastal fringe (Figure 1). The presence of this border on Tindale's (1974) and other maps has lent it an air of immutability. However, in this paper we will argue that this line represents not a boundary, but a rapidly moving frontier of cultural change. Specifically, we attempt to connect archaeological evidence for the emergence and spread of 'Western Desert' cultural practices over the last 1,500 years to the historically-documented processes of the introduction of the circumcision rite into central and southwest Western Australia within the last 160 years. In particular, we will argue that the remarkable geographic spread and speed of transmission was driven by a set of social imperatives that we will characterise here as 'ritual engines'. The Emergence and Spread of 'Western Desert' Culture From an archaeological perspective, earlier characterisations of the Western Desert culture bloc have

Rock Art In Arid Landscapes: Pilbara And Western Desert Petroglyphs

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2013

This paper develops a testable model for understanding rock art within archaeological phases of the arid northwest Pilbara and Western Desert bioregions. It also presents the first multivariate analysis of foundational recording work undertaken almost 50 years ago, and deploys more recently recorded assemblages from the Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga) and the Western Desert. It establishes a framework for testable hypotheses about how art production in these adjacent bioregions through deep-time reflects information systems, emergent territoriality, group identity and signalling behaviour against a backdrop of climatic oscillations, including the LGM (23–18 ka), Antarctic Cold Reversal (14.5–12.5 ka) and intensification of ENSO (3.8–2 ka). The Pilbara piedmont has clearly defined gorges with major water sources; the Western Desert has uncoordinated drainage punctuated by well-watered but subdued ranges. We argue that rock art has been used to negotiate social identity in both contexts since each was first colonised. The role that art may have played in the formation of social networks in these different landscapes through time is the key focus of this paper. We hypothesise that the episodic use of art as signalling behaviour in the Australian arid zone can be linked to behavioural correlates and major archaeological phases with discrete signatures that can be tested from myriad sites.

Cycles of Aridity and Human Mobility: Risk Minimization Among Late Pleistocene Foragers of the Western Desert, Australia

Chapter

Full-text available

Feb 2008

Peter Veth

IntroductionRisk Minimization and the Role of Mobility in the Australian DesertsPleistocene Sites of the Western DesertAn Independent Index of StressArchaeological Indices of High Residential MobilityImplications of Mobility IndicatorsReferences

Djadjiling Rockshelter: 35,000 ¹⁴C Years of Aboriginal Occupation in the Pilbara, Western Australia

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2010

The Pleistocene settlement of the arid zone is a prominent research theme in Australian archaeology (Hiscock 2008:45- 62; Hiscock and Wallis 2004; Marwick 2002a, 2002b; O’Connor et al. 1998; Smith 1987, 2005; Thorley 1998; Veth 1993, 1995, 2005). Of particular interest is the inland Pilbara region of the western arid zone, which until recently was reported to have been first occupied between c.20,000 BP and c.26,000 BP (Brown 1987:27; Edwards and Murphy 2003:45; Maynard 1980:7). The recent test excavations at Juukan-1 rockshelter suggest the region was occupied before 32,920±270 BP (Slack et al. 2009:34). Our research at Djadjiling rockshelter supports this result by demonstrating an Aboriginal presence at the site c.35,000 years ago. Not only is the site unique for its antiquity, but excavations have recovered a large flaked stone assemblage from the earliest occupational phase. The evidence demonstrates repeated early site use, and a sequence of intermittent occupation throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The preliminary findings are presented below.

The social dynamics of aggregation and dispersal in the Western Desert

Article

Jan 2012

Archaeology of Ancient Australia

Article

Dec 2007

Peter Hiscock

This book is an introduction to the archaeology of Australia from prehistoric times to the eighteenth century AD. It is the only up-to-date textbook on the subject and is designed for undergraduate courses, based on the author's considerable experience of teaching at the Australian National University. Lucidly written, it shows the diversity and colourfulness of the history of humanity in the southern continent. The Archaeology of Ancient Australia demonstrates with an array of illustrations and clear descriptions of key archaeological evidence from Australia a thorough evaluation of Australian prehistory. Readers are shown how this human past can be reconstructed from archaeological evidence, supplemented by information from genetics, environmental sciences, anthropology, and history. The result is a challenging view about how varied human life in the ancient past has been.

Three Tribes of Western Australia

Article

Jan 1913

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

Petroglyphs of the Dampier Archipelago: Background to Development and Descriptive Analysis

Article

Jan 2002

P. Vinnicombe

Myth, Ritual and Rock Art

Article

Apr 1977
ARCHAEOL OCEAN

Kingsley Palmer

Facial representation in Pilbara rock engravings

Article

Jan 1977

W.C. Dix

Islands in the Interior: The Dynamics of Prehistoric Adaptations within the Arid Zone of Australia

Article

Jul 1995

A Companion to Rock Art

Chapter

Jul 2012

Style as Social StrategyWestern Desert Aggregation and Dispersion PatternsWhy did Western Desert People Produce Rock Art?Archaeological Test ImplicationsConclusions References

SHORT REPORTS Dates from archaeological excavations on the Pilbara coastline and islands of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Article

Jan 1995

Elizabeth Bradshaw

A medium sized cave in banded ironstone, located 6 km from the present coastline. It contains a very sparse but deep cultural deposit of shell, bone, grinding material, ochre and stone artefacts. Burnt terrestrial fauna and stone artehcts continue for approximately 1 m beneath the lowest date. Anadara Mound MiddedShelter A mound midden and small rockshelter, southem Burrup Peninsula Both deposits contain densely packed Anadara granosa in their upper levels, overlying highly fragmented Terebralia palustris. Nickol River Mound Midden An extensive mound midden complex at the mouth of the Nickol River. The mounds range in length from 10 to 40 m and up to 4 m in height. The excavated deposit is solid Anadara granosa with a matrix of fine, black organics. Not-so-Secre t Shelter A small rockshelter on the west coast of the Burmp Penin-sula. The upper and middle layers of the fauna1 assemblage are dominated by rocky shore species, with mangal in the earliest levels.

Indigenous Perceptions of Contact at Inthanoona, Northwest Western Australia

Article

Dec 2009
ARCHAEOL OCEAN

Inthanoona, a pastoral head station in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which functioned from the 1860s to the 1890s includes an assemblage of more than 250 rock engravings of which 20% are identifiable contact period motifs. These include images of clothed men and women, guns, horses, sheep, wheeled vehicles, houses and ships. Spatial analysis of the structures, artefacts and engravings on the site supports the conclusion that the contact motifs demonstrate continuity in Indigenous modes of representation and innovation in subjects. They provide direct evidence of Aboriginal participation in, and perceptions of, the pastoral and pearl shell industries of the Pilbara.

Emerging from the abyss — archaeology in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Article

Dec 2009
ARCHAEOL OCEAN

Kate Morse

Reply to Watchman, Taçon and Aubert

Article

May 2014

Post-glacial sea-level changes around the Australian margin: A review

Article

Aug 2013
QUATERNARY SCI REV

It has been known since Rhodes Fairbridge’s first attempt to establish a global pattern of Holocene sea-level change by combining evidence from Western Australia and from sites in the northern hemisphere that the details of sea-level history since the Last Glacial Maximum vary considerably across the globe. The Australian region is relatively stable tectonically and is situated in the ‘far-field’ of former ice sheets. It therefore preserves important records of post-glacial sea levels that are less complicated by neotectonics or glacio-isostatic adjustments. Accordingly, the relative sea-level record of this region is dominantly one of glacio-eustatic (ice equivalent) sea-level changes. The broader Australasian region has provided critical information on the nature of post-glacial sea level, including the termination of the Last Glacial Maximum when sea level was approximately 125 m lower than present around 21,000–19,000 years BP, and insights into meltwater pulse 1A between 14,600 and 14,300 cal. yr BP. Although most parts of the Australian continent reveals a high degree of tectonic stability, research conducted since the 1970s has shown that the timing and elevation of a Holocene highstand varies systematically around its margin. This is attributed primarily to variations in the timing of the response of the ocean basins and shallow continental shelves to the increased ocean volumes following ice-melt, including a process known as ocean siphoning (i.e. glacio-hydro-isostatic adjustment processes).

Erosion rates and weathering history of rock surfaces associated with Aboriginal rock art engravings (petroglyphs) on Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia, from cosmogenic nuclide measurements Reply

Article

Jun 2013
QUATERNARY SCI REV

The Burrup Peninsula and surrounding Dampier Archipelago, in Western Australia, contain the world's largest known gallery of rock art engravings (petroglyphs), estimated to number up to 1 million images. The peninsula is also the site of major industrial development and there are concerns that industrial emissions may adversely affect the stability and longevity of the rock art. We have studied the natural processes and rates of weathering and erosion, including the effects of fire, that affect the stability of rock surfaces and hence the longevity of the rock art, using cosmogenic nuclides. The concentration of 10Be in quartz yields erosion rates in the range 0.15-0.48 mm/1000 years on horizontal rock surfaces and 0.34-2.30 mm/1000 years on vertical rock faces. The former, largely caused by mm-scale surface flaking, are amongst the lowest erosion rates measured by cosmogenic nuclides anywhere in the world. The latter are inferred to represent a combination of mm-scale flaking and very rare centimetre- to metre-scale block falls, controlled by failure along joint planes. Such low erosion rates result from a combination of resistant rocks, low relief and low rainfall, favouring long-term preservation of the petroglyphs - long enough to encompass the known period of human settlement in Australia.

Iconic imagery: Pleistocene rock art development across northern Australia

Article

Feb 2013
QUATERN INT

Ken Mulvaney

There is general agreement that the peopling of Sahul was achieved sometime before 45,000 years ago, with most parts of the continent colonised by 30,000. Rock art, both engraved and painted, is present in all areas where these early people left their mark. Did this artistic endeavour come with these people or was this an expression of being in Sahul? Certainly there are aspects, like the cupules and hand stencils, which have parallels outside the continent. However, there are many features that suggest separate artistic traditions and conventions that were present and have continued since these early times. Spread over an area greater than one million sq km (386,000 sq miles), stretching in an arc over 2,000 km from the Pilbara coast, through the Kimberley and into Arnhem Land, is a vast body of rock art that demonstrates there to be differentiation in the symbolic structuring of people’s lives relatively early after colonisation. This supports the notion that regionalisation within Sahul is not simply a Holocene expression.

The Pilbara Coast: a riverine coastal plain in a tropical arid setting, northwestern Australia

Article

Mar 1993
SEDIMENT GEOL

V. Semeniuk

The unifying feature of the Pilbara Coast of northwestern Australia is that it is a sedimentary repository for a range of rivers that drains a high-relief Precambrian rocky hinterland and discharges sediments along a coastal plain which fronts a wave-dominated environment in a tropical arid climate. The combination of fluvial and shoreline accretion processes, coastal cementation, coastal erosion, and ancestral landform architecture, such as residual Pleistocene limestone ridges and large outcrops of Precambrian bedrock, has produced a complex coastal system during the Quaternary. As a result, the coast is dominated by active deltas, beach/dune shores, inactive, eroding parts of deltas and their barriers, limestone barrier coasts, bays associated with eroded limestone barriers, and archipelago/ria coasts. Quaternary sediments throughout the area, while varied in their distribution and history at the smaller scales, exhibit a recurring pattern of lithotopes and lithologies in the region. There are three main Quaternary suites: Pleistocene red siliciclastic sediments (alluvium, deltaic sediments, and aeolian sand) that form an inland zone; Pleistocene limestones that form local barriers; and a Holocene system, within which are the sedimentary suites of deltas, beach/dunes, tidal-flats, and tidal-embayments.

The Identification of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Aggregation Sites: The Case of Altamira

Article

Oct 1980

Margaret W. Conkey

It is a common assumption that an aggregation-and-dispersion pattern characterizes most of the world's hunter-gatherers, both past and present. A clarification of the pattern is put forth in support of the view that there is more to it than factors of subsistence ecology. Because there are many variants of hunter-gatherer aggregations, in terms of both activities and the factors that promote and effect them, it is clear that there will also be variation in their duration, location, cyclicity, and extent and the number and kinds of personnel involved. The implications of this variability for archeologists are discussed, and the need for establishing specific archeological test implications for the identification of each variant of prehistoric aggregation sites is emphasized. Data from one hypothesized aggregation locale, the Early Magdalenian site of Altamira (Cantabria, Spain), are drawn upon for a better understanding of the kinds of analytical questions we must frame and the kinds of data and analysis we need in the attempt to identify aggregation sites. -Author

Development of widespread mangrove swamps in mid-Holocene times in Northern Australia

Article

Oct 1985

Mangrove forests in northern Australia typically occur as fringes along tidal estuaries and relatively sheltered coasts. Radiocarbon dating evidence from the South Alligator River, presented here, suggests that extensive mangrove swamps developed between 6,500 and 7,000 yr ago and flourished for about 1,000 yr. Pollen analysis of a stratigraphic core at a mid-plains site links the growth of these forests with the interaction of sea-level change and sedimentation. This was succeeded by the development of flood-plains with tidal river channels, a dramatic ecological change that has implications for all coastal and nearshore systems.

Pleistocene Settlement of Deserts from an Australian Perspective

Chapter

Feb 2008

This chapter contains section titled:

Long‐Term Transitions in Hunter‐Gatherers of Coastal Northwestern Australia

Chapter

Feb 2008

Kathryn Przywolnik

This chapter contains section titled:

Archaic Faces to Headdresses: The Changing Role of Rock Art Across the Arid Zone

Chapter

Feb 2008

Josephine J McDonald

IntroductionThe Arid Zone Art GraphicArid Zone Rock Art ResearchRock Art ChronologyCorrelating Rock Art with Other Arid Zone Land Use PatternsArchaic FacesNoteReferences

Glacial and deglacial climatic patterns in Australia and surrounding regions from 35 000 to 10 000 years ago reconstructed from terrestrial and near-shore proxy data

Article

Apr 2009
QUATERNARY SCI REV

This study forms part of a wider investigation of late Quaternary environments in the Southern Hemisphere. We here review the terrestrial and near-shore proxy data from Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), New Zealand and surrounding oceans during 35–10 ka, an interval spanning the lead-up to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the LGM proper (21 ± 2 ka), and the ensuing deglaciation. Sites selected for detailed discussion have a continuous or near continuous sedimentary record for this time interval, a stratigraphically consistent chronology, and one or more sources of proxy climatic data. Tropical Australia, Indonesia and PNG had LGM mean annual temperatures 3–7 °C below present values and summer precipitation reduced by at least 30%, consistent with a weaker summer monsoon and a northward displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The summer monsoon was re-established in northwest Australia by 14 ka. Precipitation in northeast Australia was reduced to less than 50% of present values until warmer and wetter conditions resumed at 17–16 ka, followed by a second warmer, wetter phase at 15–14 ka. LGM temperatures were up to 8 °C lower than today in mainland southeast Australia and up to 4 °C cooler in Tasmania. Winter rainfall was much reduced throughout much of southern Australia although periodic extreme flood events are evident in the fluvial record. Glacial advances in southeast Australia are dated to 32 ± 2.5, 19.1 ± 1.6 and 16.8 ± 1.4 ka, with periglacial activity concentrated towards 23–16 ka. Deglaciation was rapid in the Snowy Mountains, which were ice-free by 15.8 ka. Minimum effective precipitation in southern Australia was from 14 to 12 ka. In New Zealand the glacial advances date to ∼28, 21.5 and 19 ka, with the onset of major cooling at ∼28 ka, or well before the LGM. There is no convincing evidence for a Younger Dryas cooling event in or around New Zealand, but there are signs of the Antarctic Cold Reversal in and around New Zealand and off southern Australia. There remain unresolved discrepancies between the climates inferred from pollen and those inferred from the beetle and chironomid fauna at a number of New Zealand sites. One explanation may be that pollen provides a generalised regional climatic signal in contrast to the finer local resolution offered by beetles and chironomids. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were up to 5 °C cooler during the LGM with rapid warming after 20 ka to attain present values by 15 ka. The increase in summer monsoonal precipitation at or before 15 ka reflects higher insolation, warmer SSTs and steeper thermal gradients between land and sea. The postglacial increase in winter rainfall in southern Australia is probably related to the southward displacement of the westerlies as SSTs around Antarctica became warmer and the winter pack ice and Antarctic Convergence Zone retreated to the south.

Coastal shell middens of the Abydos Coastal plain, Western Australia

Article

Dec 2009
ARCHAEOL OCEAN

Middens and mounds dominated by Anadara granosa began to be formed on the Abydos Coastal Plain sometime between 4400 and 5300 calibrated years before present, and while mounds appear to have ceased forming some 1800–1600 years ago, middens continued to form until the early twentieth century or later. In some cases, the earliest of these middens and shell mounds formed on top of older middens from which Anadara granosa is totally absent, and in which Terebralia spp.(while occurring in relatively low concentrations)is the dominant shell species. Anadara granosa dominated middens (sensu lato) occur in a variety of forms across the landscape, including large shell mounds, earth mounds (or mounded shell middens), lenses of shell eroding out of well-developed dunes, and undifferentiated surface shell scatters. The large number of middens which occur throughout the region from the mid Holocene, and the volume of shell represented by these sites, point to the occurrence of significant economic and social changes from the mid to late Holocene. The Abydos Coastal Plain experienced increasing aridity, and, as a result, increased resource stress during the mid-Holocene. We suggest that the large, single species Anadara granosa middens were occupied during regular periods when large groups of Aboriginal people undertook ceremonial activities after the wet season, when resources were abundant. Changes apparent in the archaeological record, including the occurrence of large numbers of Anadara granosa dominated middens and shell mounds, increased establishment of archaeological sites and increased complexity and distance of exchange systems, came about as a result of social, economic and logistical restructuring. This in turn was the result of the effects of resource stress on local Aboriginal people over the course of the mid to late Holocene.

Report on the Archaeological and Ethnographic Site Identification Survey under the BMIEA for Report on the Archaeological and Ethnographic Site Identification Survey under the BIMEA for Withnell East

Jan 2006

Burrup South
Burrup Peninsula
Wa

Australian Interaction Consultants (AIC), 2006a. Report on the Archaeological and Ethnographic Site Identification Survey under the BMIEA for Burrup South, Burrup Peninsula, WA. Confidential Report to Department of Industry and Resources. Australian Interaction Consultants (AIC), 2006b. Report on the Archaeological and Ethnographic Site Identification Survey under the BIMEA for Withnell East, Burrup Peninsula, WA, 2 Volumes. Confidential Report to Department of In-dustry and Resources. Australian Interaction Consultants (AIC), 2007. Report on the Archaeological and Ethnographic Site Identification Survey under the BMIEA for Lot 575, Burrup Peninsula, WA, 2 Volumes. Confidential Report to Department of Industry and Resources.

Facial representations in Pilbara rock engravings Form in Indigenous Art: Schematisation in the Art of Aboriginal Australia and Prehistoric Europe The Flying Foam Massacre: an incident on the north-west frontier, Western Australia

Jan 1977

W Dix
T J Gara

Dix, W., 1977. Facial representations in Pilbara rock engravings. In: Ucko, P.J. (Ed.), Form in Indigenous Art: Schematisation in the Art of Aboriginal Australia and Prehistoric Europe. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, pp. 227e285. Gara, T.J., 1983. The Flying Foam Massacre: an incident on the north-west frontier, Western Australia. In: Smith, M. (Ed.), Archaeology at ANZAAS, 1983. WA Museum, Perth.

Parker Point Upgrade Project

Jan 2004

R G Gunn

Gunn, R.G., 2004. Parker Point Upgrade Project, Dampier Western Australia: Archaeological Survey. Unpublished report to Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, Dampier. DIA, Perth.

Archaeology of Ancient Australia 1e12 11 Please cite this article in press as: McDonald, J., I must go down to the seas again: Or, what happens when the sea comes to you? Murujuga rock art as an environmental indicator for Australia's north-west

Jan 2008

P Hiscock

Hiscock, P., 2008. Archaeology of Ancient Australia. Routledge, Oxford. J. McDonald / Quaternary International xxx (2014) 1e12 11 Please cite this article in press as: McDonald, J., I must go down to the seas again: Or, what happens when the sea comes to you? Murujuga rock art as an environmental indicator for Australia's north-west, Quaternary International (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.10.056

Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia, Performed between the Years 1818 and 1822 (2 volumes)

Jan 1827

P King

King, P., 1827. Narrative of a Survey of the Inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia, Performed between the Years 1818 and 1822 (2 volumes). John Murray, London. Facsimile reprint-Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1969.

The rock engravings of gum tree valley and skew valley, Dampier, Western Australia: chronology and functions of sites

Jan 1992

Lorblanchet

Lorblanchet, M., 1992. The rock engravings of gum tree valley and skew valley, Dampier, Western Australia: chronology and functions of sites. In: McDonald, J., Haskovec, I. (Eds.), 1992 State of the Art: Regional Rock Art Studies in Australia and Melanesia. AURA, Melbourne.

A Study of the Distribution of Rock Art and Stone Structures on the Dampier Archipelago. Report to the Department of Environment and Heritage

Jan 2006

J J Mcdonald
P M Veth

McDonald, J.J., Veth, P.M., 2006. A Study of the Distribution of Rock Art and Stone Structures on the Dampier Archipelago. Report to the Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra. (JMcD CHM 2006).

Art graphics in arid landscapes: Pilbara and Western Desert petroglyphs Late Pleistocene and early Holocene exploitation of estuarine communities in northwestern Australia

Jan 2013

J J Mcdonald
P M Veth

McDonald, J.J., Veth, P.M., 2013. Art graphics in arid landscapes: Pilbara and Western Desert petroglyphs. Australian Archaeology 77, 66e81. Manne, T., Veth, P.M., 2014. Late Pleistocene and early Holocene exploitation of estuarine communities in northwestern Australia. Quaternary International (in this volume).

Unpublished Nomination for Burrup Peninsula, Islands of the Dampier Archipelago and Dampier Coast, to the National Heritage List. Nomination held by the Department for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Jan 2004

Mardudhunera Yaburara

Mardudhunera Yaburara, 2004. Unpublished Nomination for Burrup Peninsula, Islands of the Dampier Archipelago and Dampier Coast, to the National Heritage List. Nomination held by the Department for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra.

The archaeology of Australian Aboriginal art

Jan 1979
83

Maynard

Maynard, L., 1979. The archaeology of Australian Aboriginal art. In: Mead, S.M. (Ed.), Exploring the Visual Art of Oceania. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp. 83e110.

Shell beads from Mandu Mandu Creek rock-shelter, Cape Range peninsula, Western Australia Emerging from the abyss e archaeology in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Jan 1982

B Meehan

Meehan, B., 1982. Shell Bed to Shell Midden. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. Morse, K., 1993. Shell beads from Mandu Mandu Creek rock-shelter, Cape Range peninsula, Western Australia, dated before 30,000 b.p. Antiquity 67, 877e883. Morse, K., 2009. Emerging from the abyss e archaeology in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Archaeology in Oceania 44 (Suppl.), 1e5. Mulvaney, K.J., 2010. Murujuga Marni e Dampier Petroglyphs: Shadows in the Landscape Echoes across Time (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of New England.

The Nickel Bay Tribe

Jan 1886
296

Richardson

Richardson, A.K., 1886. The Nickel Bay Tribe. In: Curr, E.M. (Ed.), The Australian Race, vol I. Government Printer, Melbourne, pp. 296e301.

Hamersley Iron Ethnographic Survey: Report of Field Inspection Unpublished report to West Pilbara Land Council for Hamersley Iron. AAD, Perth. Semeniuk, V., 1983. The Pilbara Coast: a riverine coastal plain in a tropical arid setting, northwestern Australia

Jan 1993

M Robinson

Robinson, M., 1997. Hamersley Iron Ethnographic Survey: Report of Field Inspection. Unpublished report to West Pilbara Land Council for Hamersley Iron. AAD, Perth. Semeniuk, V., 1983. The Pilbara Coast: a riverine coastal plain in a tropical arid setting, northwestern Australia. Sedimentary Geology 83, 235e256. Veth, P.M., 1993. Islands in the Interior: the Dynamics of Prehistoric Adaptations within the Arid Zone of Australia. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeology Series no.

Late Quaternary Foragers on Arid Coastlines: Archaeology of the Montebello Islands, Northwest Australia Burrup Peninsula Aboriginal Heritage Project. Unpublished report to the Department of Conservation and Land Management

Jan 1993

P M Veth
K Aplin
L Wallis
T Manne
T Pulsford
A Chappell
Oxford
P M Veth
E Bradshaw
T Gara
N Hall
P Haydock
P Kendrick

Veth, P.M., Aplin, K., Wallis, L., Manne, T., Pulsford, T., Chappell, A., 2007. Late Quaternary Foragers on Arid Coastlines: Archaeology of the Montebello Islands, Northwest Australia. In: British Archaeological Reviews. International Series, Oxford. Veth, P.M., Bradshaw, E., Gara, T., Hall, N., Haydock, P., Kendrick, P., 1993. Burrup Peninsula Aboriginal Heritage Project. Unpublished report to the Department of Conservation and Land Management, Perth. Veth, P.M., Ditchfield, K., Hook, F., 2014. Maritime Deserts of the Australian Northwest. Festschrift for Charlie Dortch to be published in Australian Archaeology (in press).

Form in Indigenous Art: Schematisation in the Art of Aboriginal Australia and Prehistoric Europe

Jan 1977
227-285

W Dix

I must go down to the seas again: Or, what happens when the sea comes to you? Murujuga rock art as an environmental indicator for Australia's north-west

Abstract

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