We investigate archaeological evidence for the early production of Melo (or commonly named 'baler') shell knives recovered from Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits in Boodie Cave, Barrow Island. The site is in the Country of Thalanyji people in northwestern Western Australia. The oldest shell knife fragments were recovered from units dated to 46.2-42.6 ka, making this one of the oldest Homo sapiens sapiens shell tool technologies currently described. We situate this early and ongoing tradition of shell tool manufacture within recent discussions of the early development of shell industries from both Island Southeast Asia and globally. Although shell knives have been previously reported from Pilbara and Gulf of Carpentaria surface middens in northern Australia, systematic analysis of the manufacturing process and associated debris, and especially from pre-Holocene contexts, has not been previously conducted. This research explores the shell knife chaine operatoire through the integration of three data sets derived from archaeology, ethnography, and experimental archaeology. This study highlights the significance of shell tool industries in the northwest of Australia, and globally, from the Pleistocene and into the Late Holocene in areas with limited access to hard rock geology where shell reduction represents a unique technological strategy.

The extent to which fibre technology was used in the past is difficult to assess because soft organic remains rarely preserve well. The oldest direct evidence for twisted fibre cordage is dated to between 41 and 52 ka in western Eurasia but indirect evidence suggests that it may have a much greater antiquity. The diverse use of string made from fibres of plants, animal and human hair by Indigenous Australians is well documented but poorly represented in archaeological sites. No fibre remains have been recovered from Pleistocene contexts and they are only rarely recorded in later deposits, usually as isolated fragments. Nineteen pieces of twisted fibre recovered from deposits in two limestone caves, Carpenter's Gap 1 and Riwi in the southern Kimberley, are made from a variety of raw materials and manufacturing techniques. These same techniques and raw materials are documented in anthropological and historical records and in museum collections, demonstrating a continuity of spun fibre practice from the Mid-to-Late Holocene to the present. A comparison of the archaeological twisted fibres with Kimberley objects incorporating string held in the Western Australian Museum, provides further insight into the technology used by Indigenous Australians before the arrival of Europeans.

The Yodda is a large flaked stone artefact found across Australia in rare, isolated contexts, subject to almost no archaeological study. Yoddas are rare artefacts, which to date have only been collected as isolated surface finds. In an attempt to move towards an understanding of these enigmatic objects, we present an analysis of Yoddas (n = 27) known to us from Australian collections, and review early collector observations from Australia. While their original cultural significance remains obscure, we suggest esoteric trade values are likely uses, underlying the production of these large, non-optimal, yet pan-continental, stone artefacts.

This paper explores identity and the recursive impacts of cross-cultural colonial encounters on individuals, cultural materials, and cultural practices in 20th-century northern Australia. We focus on an assemblage of cached metal objects and associated cultural materials that embody both Aboriginal tradition and innovation. These cultural materials were wrapped in paperbark and placed within a ring of stones, a bundling practice also seen in human burials in this region. This ‘cache' is located in close proximity to rockshelters with rich, superimposed Aboriginal rock art compositions. However, the cache shelter has no visible art, despite available wall space. The site shows the utilisation of metal objects as new raw materials that use traditional techniques to manufacture a ground edge metal axe and to sharpen metal rods into spears. We contextualise these objects and their hypothesised owner(s) within narratives of invasion/contact and the ensuing pastoral history of this region. Assemblage theory affords us an appropriate theoretical lens through which to bring people, places, objects, and time into conversation.

Artefacts of stone are the most enduring relics that provide evidence for the existence of human activity in time and space. Tools, weapons, utensils and ornaments made from organic materials usually disappear from the archaeological record, and, consequently, the possibility of their existence may be ignored. The importance of artefacts made from organic materials such as bone, shell, teeth, fur, hair and skin in Australian Indigenous technology has tended to be minimised, as prehistorians concentrate on other aspects of their investigations. Early rock art styles, in both the Kimberley and Arnhem Land, record complex suites of material objects made of organic materials, the existence of which would not necessarily be inferred from examination of excavated materials. This chapter seeks to examine the widespread use of bone, shell and teeth by Indigenous Australians as ornaments, articles of dress and items that reflect the aesthetic nature of their societies. Important archaeological finds made from these materials, many of which are unique, emphasise the need to view Australian societies and their material culture as creative and dynamic rather than conservative or static. Note: unreferenced data relates to the author's own research or observations.

Unlike the majority of spears used by Australian Aboriginal people, reed spears were a lightweight form that made optimal use of spearthrower technology. In the Kimberleys, reed spears were mounted with small pressure-flaked stone projectile points. Small projectile points occur in the archaeological record of both the Kimberleys and western Arnhem Land. Outside the Kimberleys, however, there is no record of how these were mounted and used. This paper reviews the evidence for reed spears and small projectile points across the Northern Territory and north-western Western Australia, concluding that they represent associated technologies the primary role of which lay in feuding and conflicts.

In 1972 Charlie Dortch reported the discovery of grooved, ground-edge stone hatchet-heads in an archaeological site at Stonewall Creek in the east Kimberley in Western Australia (WA). This discovery was completely unexpected and considerably extended the known distribution of grooved and/or waisted stone hatchets in Australia. Observations made by the author over the past 40 years show that such axes have an even wider range within WA and are likely to be from an early, but as yet undated, period in Australia's past. They probably also had a much greater cultural significance than their possible roles in wood-procurement, woodworking or contributing to the food quest would suggest.

Until very recently the investigation of the material culture of Australian Aboriginals was seen as peripheral to other areas of anthropology, particularly those focused on social organisation, religion, economics and the arts. This study presents insights into the nature of the contemporary 'traditional' material culture of the Iwaidja people of the northern Territory of Australia.

Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (eds) 2011 ANU E Press, Canberra, xvi, 471pp.: ill. (some col.), maps, ports.; 25cm, ISBN 9781921666445 (pbk), 9781921666452 (eBook) As a person interested in the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land from a very young age--first introduced to the topic via Colin Simpson's (1952) account Adam in Ochre--in 1967 I purchased Anthropology and Nutrition, volume 2 of the Records of the Expedition (Mountford 1960). A complete set was to follow by 1969. In 1980 I had my first opportunity to visit western Arnhem Land and this was followed with very brief periods of fieldwork in the area between the East Alligator River and Maningrida in 1985-87, 1989 and 2008. Needless to say, in my early days in the area I took the opportunity to familiarise myself with archaeological, rock art and other locations and sites around Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) that I had long been aware of through my reading. Later, while at the National Museum of Australia (1987-89) I also had the opportunity to see artefacts and works of art collected during the expedition--tangibles that linked a meeting of cultures in the past with my own present. In 2000 I was introduced via Richard Fullagar to Peter Bassett-Smith, cinematographer on the expedition, with whom I enjoyed a number of fine conversations and who generously gave me copies of material that he had relating to the trip. At that stage I brought the fact that Peter was alive and well to staff in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University, hoping there would be follow up. In my formative years the Records of the Expedition were of great importance and it is a pleasure to see that the expedition itself has continued to resonate through time. The National Museum is to be congratulated in initiating the 2009 symposium Barks, Birds and Billabongs, from which this collection of papers is drawn. For the first time the expedition is treated in its entirety. Within the covers of Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, the history of the events leading to its creation, the internal politics and problems of infrastructure, recording and communication, as well as detailed examination of the various scientific quests and their results are all examined in minute detail. More importantly, the convenors and the editors have seen the importance of presenting the Indigenous viewpoints and engagements at both the time of the expedition and the current period. One important result of the seminar was the return of the last of the human remains collected by the expedition from the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The book itself is broken into three broad parts bracketed between the introduction by Martin Thomas and an epilogue by Margo Neale, which place the expedition and seminar in context. The three parts are: * Part 1 Engagements with Aboriginal Cultures, incorporating eight essays * Part 2 Collectors and Collections, incorporating six essays * Part 3 Aboriginal Engagements with the Expedition, incorporating five essays. Each essay is written in an informative, well-researched narrative style that reveals the often deep attachments that the authors have with the region and its people. The one exception is the paper 'Nation building or cold war: Political settings for the Arnhem Land Expedition' by Kim Beazley. Rather than the focus being situated within Arnhem Land, Beazley presents a fascinating account of the politics of the period, and the political rationale for the expedition itself. The revelation that archaeologist Frank Setzler and politician Arthur Calwell had such a long and enduring correspondence after the conclusion of the expedition was most enlightening and reminds one that scientists may have other lives and interests apart from their research. …

In a recent article, Rodney Harrison presented an interesting view on the role glass Kimberley points played in the lives of the Aborigines who made and used them. Harrison employed ethnographic and historical data to argue that glass Kimberley points were not part of the normal suite of post-contact artefacts used primarily for hunting and fighting or Indigenous exchange purposes, but primarily were created to service a non-Indigenous market for aesthetically pleasing artefacts. Harrison asserted that this market determined the form that these points took. A critical analysis of the data does not substantiate either of these claims. Here I do not deal with Harrison's theoretical material or arguments; I focus on the ethnographic and historical material that he has either omitted or failed to appreciate in developing his thesis and which, in turn, renders it invalid.

Long macroblades, generally known in Australia as 'leilira' blades and created by direct percussion, were used as knives and spear points in many parts of northern and Central Australia until very recently. By the 1960s, however, it is clear that there were no Indigenous knappers remaining who could produce such blades in a regular and consistent manner. There are very few ethnographic accounts of the manufacture of these blades and those that do exist generally lack technological detail that is useful to those wishing to understand the reduction processes involved in their creation. More recent studies involving Indigenous knappers have provided important insights into many concepts relating to stone as a 'living entity', focusing on power, the significance of the blades, access to quarries and other social phenomena rather than successfully demonstrating the technology itself. It is apparent that, dependent on the form of the raw material, a number of different techniques were used to produce these blades. This paper seeks to examine the Australian literature relevant to the production of leilira blades and, drawing on experimental work, to consider the technological factors relevant to the knapping process.

Large earth mounds located next to the vast floodplains of the lower Adelaide River, one of the major tropical rivers draining the flat coastal plains of northern Australia, contain cultural material, including bone points. The floodplains of the north underwent dynamic environmental change from extensive mangrove swamps in the mid-Holocene; through a transition Phase of variable estuarine and freshwater mosaic environments, to the freshwater environment that exists today. This geomorphological framework provides a background for the interpretation of the archaeology, which spans some 4000 years.

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussionOn Kimberley Points and the Politics of EnchantmentKim AkermanKim Akerman4 Dorset St., Moonah, Tasmania 7009, Australia ([email protected]). 18 VIII 06 Search for more articles by this author 4 Dorset St., Moonah, Tasmania 7009, Australia ([email protected]). 18 VIII 06PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 48, Number 1February 2007 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/510461 Views: 37Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Simon Munt, Timothy D. Owen Aboriginal uses for introduced glass, ceramic and flint from the former Schofields Aerodrome, Western Sydney (Darug Country), New South Wales, Australian Archaeology 88, no.11 (Aug 2021): 49–64.https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2021.1955597Anders Högberg, Marlize Lombard ‘I Can Do It’ Becomes ‘We Do It’: Kimberley (Australia) and Still Bay (South Africa) Points Through a Socio-technical Framework Lens, Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 3, no.44 (Dec 2019): 633–663.https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-019-00042-4Billy Ó Foghlú, Daryl Wesley, Sally Brockwell, Helen Cooke Implications for culture contact history from a glass artefact on a Diingwulung earth mound in Weipa, Queensland Archaeological Research 19 (Dec 2016): 1.https://doi.org/10.25120/qar.19.2016.3499

Apart from a single brief paper written by DS Davidson and published in 1947, and a detailed description of bark sandals from the Tanami desert region by DF Thomson in 1960, most attention in relation to Aboriginal Australian footwear has focused on the emufeather and hairstring kadaitcha shoes or slippers of Central Australia. While footwear was lacking among most indigenous Australians, at least five different forms of indigenous footwear or foot protection have been recorded. A revised distribution of Aboriginal footwear is presented here. Early records draw attention to the use of footwear among the Tasmanian Aborigines and offer insights into the possible origins of the use of footwear. While traditionally footwear had a limited distribution on the continent, the use of at least one form intimately associated with magical killing and sorcery, the kadaitcha shoe, seems to have been spreading in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is suggested here that internal disruption caused by the impact of Western and Asian societies in the nineteenth century led to an increase in aberrant behaviour, including sorcery that may account for the spread of this particular type of footwear.

Yodda-like stone artefacts from the coastal Pilbara region of Western Australia differ markedly from recorded yoddas and constitute a hitherto unrecorded Aboriginal Australian stone implement. I suggest that the implements were possibly used as missiles for killing or stunning fish.