Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Gwen Ferguson, Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia, Gwen.Ferguson@flinders.edu.au
Ian Moffat, Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia, Ian.Moffat@Flinders.edu.au
Peter Veth, Archaeology, School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia., Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Peter.Veth@uwa.edu.au
Australia is the driest inhabited continent. with 70% of its land mass classified as arid or semi-arid. The landforms of the 10 Australian deserts are highly diverse and include ranges, dune fields, gibber plains and rocky plateaux. Recent research within these landforms on paleoclimate and human mobility patterns has shown that the arid interior was potentially more conducive to habitation during the late Pleistocene than conditions today. In the last decade archaeological research in desert regions has produced evidence of occupation of 50–45,000 years. Despite these significant findings there are many challenges remaining in conducting desert archaeology in Australia today.
Historically, the focus of archaeological studies in Australia has been the coastal fringes, hinterlands and inlands of the tropical and temperate zones. The limitations of investigation in the arid zone are due, in part, to the large size and inaccessibility of many areas in the interior. As a result, the archaeological record in Australia still lacks a detailed understanding of how people occupied ‘marginal’ environments of the arid zone and how peoples’ habitation patterns responded to the changing climate of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.
These issues are now being rapidly addressed by novel landscape and archaeological techniques. Remote sensing technology, ground survey of very remote areas, modelling, sub-surface imaging, luminescence dating, geochemistry and finer-scaled environmental records in site catchments are a few of the techniques being used to address these gaps in desert archaeology in Australia today.
This session will look at critical questions in Australian desert archaeology today and discuss how these new approaches might contribute to solutions and address these questions. In addition, the session will examine new possibilities and problems that may emerge in the next era of Australian desert archaeology.
Papers:
A Second Cache of Tulas from the Boulia District, Western Queensland
Yinika Perston, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Lynley Wallis, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Dr Justine Kemp, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Heather Burke, Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Lorna Bogdanek, Pitta Pitta Aboriginal Corporation
Trevina Rogers, Pitta Pitta Aboriginal Corporation
This paper describes the recent excavation of a cache of 60 tula adzes in the Boulia region of western Queensland. This buried cache is only the second known of its kind in the country, and the largest. The cache contained nothing but 60 chert tulas, all of which are exceptionally large and unused, which we argue suggests that the artefacts were intended for trade, rather than stored for personal use or as a discard pile. Thus, this can in turn provide insights into the great north-south trade route of goods, including narcotic pituri, ground axes, grindstones, and ochre, and symbolic aspects such as ceremony and song. This paper will also discuss attempts to determine when the artefacts were cached, and what this might tell us about the social climate at the time.
What Plant Genetics Can Tell Us About Networks of Exchange and Mobility in the Western Desert
Rebecca Bliege Bird, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Douglas W. Bird, Pennsylvania State University, USA
This study combines archaeology, ethnography, landscape genetics, and historical ecology to examine how patterns of mobility and burning past and present shaped the distribution and genetic diversity of bush tomatoes (Solanum diversiflorum) in Australia’s Western Desert. Using a random forest approach, we first model habitat suitability for people as a function of both ecological and social variables. We then use a hybrid circuit-theory/least cost path method implemented in Linkage Mapper to generate resistance surfaces that represent alternative hypotheses about movement corridors. By comparing patterns of genetic diversity and population structure in bush tomato populations to these resistance surfaces, we can evaluate how different mobility patterns may have influenced plant gene flow across the landscape. Our preliminary results suggest that plant genetic diversity is a function of human mobility in both the past and present and that the core-periphery pattern of diversity in bush tomatoes (with core areas showing local differentiation and peripheral regions exhibiting more admixture) aligns almost perfectly with contact-era linguistic regions, suggesting the potential for the species, which is widespread in the tropical arid zone, to reconstruct the deep history of exchange and mobility across the region.
A Review of the Evidence for Early Settling of the Australian Deserts
Peter Veth, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Tiina Manne, University of Queensland, Australia
Nathan Jankowski, University of Wollongong, Australia
In this paper the theoretical case for early settlement of the Australian deserts by Aboriginal people will be outlined. Current research on rockshelter and cave sites from the north-west of Australia will be discussed, with updates on current dating initiatives. While a suite of biogeographic regions across Australia register occupation before 40 kyr, the number of sites with unequivocal evidence before 45 kyr is more limited. This is most likely due to issues of sampling, methodological challenges and the nature of the earliest cultural assemblages which are preserved. It will be argued that southern Sahul has a suite of early occupation sites from the arid (semi) arid zone which are globally significant and founded on broad spectrum economies. The early reliance on lower ranked plants and animals runs contrary to previous optimal foraging models which saw the impetus for dispersal and settlement of ‘marginal’ environments as due to depletion of high ranked species. A generalist adaptation is seen to be a defining attribute of Australian desert people.
Fleeting, Ephemeral and Brief: Aggregate Data and the Archaeological Lens
Kathryn Przywolnik, Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
Desert interiors are often portrayed as marginal to human history—archaeologically subdued, with intermittent and fleeting use. Yet, there is a quiet archaeological renaissance in the northwest of Western Australia. Fuelled by increased research attention, investment in new techniques and demand for compliance-driven investigation, archarchaeologists across the region are calibrating new and different deep time desert narratives.
In the Pilbara uplands, long considered a stable regional refugium, we are uncovering a record of both continuity and striking variability. Few rockshelter sites share identical occupational sequences; some contain rich cultural deposits with exceptional preservation, while others are shallow and artefactually sparse. Rather than viewing the less than exceptional sites as insignificant, we ask: what role do they play in the broader human story?
This paper explores how aggregating diverse archaeological datasets, old and new, can shift our focus from isolated site narratives to a more connected perspective across landscapes and cultural precincts. Aggregate data and modelling allow us to examine the relationship between topographical, hydrological, and ecological affordances and how people chose to use and reuse the Hamersley Ranges landscape through the shifts of the Pleistocene and Holocene.
Geoarchaeological Insights into Pilbara Rockshelters: Refining Site Formation Models in Australia’s Arid Zone
Nikolajs Svede, Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia
The Pilbara region, a dynamic yet heavily impacted cultural landscape, presents significant challenges for archaeological interpretation due to extensive mining activities and compliance-driven excavation practices. Rockshelters, the primary focus of archaeological investigation in the region, hold immense potential for reconstructing past environments and human adaptation strategies. However, conventional excavation methods often overlook key geoarchaeological data that can refine our understanding of site formation processes and long-term human-environment interactions.
This study applies particle size analysis, magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition (LOI), pH testing, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), AMS radiocarbon dating, and Bayesian outlier modelling to examine three Pilbara rockshelters. Results reveal significant variations in depositional processes, preservation conditions, and occupation histories that compliance archaeology alone does not capture. By integrating sedimentological analyses and refining excavation methodologies, this research reconstructs nuanced environmental and cultural narratives from the pre-glacial period through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the Holocene.
Findings highlight the value of geoarchaeology in Australian desert archaeology, demonstrating how sediment analysis refines chronologies and enhances interpretations of human resilience in arid landscapes. This research advocates for broader geoarchaeological integration to improve excavation practices, reassess legacy collections, and deepen understanding of human-environment interactions across Australia’s arid interior.
Finding Balance: Approaches to Australian Desert Research
Emma Beckett, University of Western Australia, Australia
The Western Australian arid zone is one of dualities. Coastal and inland. Harsh climatic conditions, yet exceptional biodiversity. Remote, sparsely populated regions with rich and varied archaeological assemblage demonstrating extensive use and reuse through time. Unsurprising then, that these ancient landscapes are an ideal setting for the adoption and development of new technological approaches to archaeological analyses.
Remote sensing and photogrammetric modelling of landscapes, places and features provide scaffolding and a perpetual reference to contextualise on ground observations. These approaches provided a useful way to reframe stone structure research in Murujuga (Dampier Archipelago, North-West Western Australia) and provided important nuance for observations at these places at a variety of scales.
New technologies create a variety of additional outputs that can assist in communication, interpretation and access to those unable to be on-country. These methods are readily adaptable but require constant development, ground-truthing and adaption to ensure relevance and applicability across multiple landforms and site types across the arid zone.
50,000 Years of Technological Change at Juukan 2 Rockshelter
Liam Neill, Scarp Archaeology, Australia
Michael Slack, Scarp Archaeology; James Cook University, Australia
This paper presents the results of the analysis of the flaked stone assemblage recovered from excavations at the 50,000 year old Juukan 2 rockshelter in the central Pilbara Western Australia. The lithic sequence from Juukan 2 rockshelter offers a rare opportunity to trace the emergence and persistence of key technological innovations in the Pilbara over deep time. Preliminary analysis of our recent excavations highlights the use of composite tools evidenced by hafting mastic in the Holocene, the adoption of prismatic blade reduction during the mid-Holocene, and the early appearance of backed artefacts in Terminal Pleistocene contexts. In contrast, the LGM toolkit reflects expedient strategies and local raw material use during periods of environmental stress. The earlier Pre-LGM assemblage, while smaller in volume, is marked by high retouch frequencies and the curated use of more regionally exotic fine-grained materials such as chalcedony—suggesting mobile foraging strategies and an emphasis on tool maintenance. Together, these patterns reveal a dynamic record of innovation, continuity, and adaptation, refining our understanding of technological change in arid Australia.
Shell Tools, Mangrove Use, and Coastal Mobility in Late Pleistocene Australia: New Evidence from Boodie Cave
Fiona Hook, University of Western Australia; Archae-aus, Australia
Coastal environments are widely considered key pathways in the dispersal of modern humans from Africa to Australia, yet direct archaeological evidence of early coastal resource use along this vast route remains scarce before 50,000 years ago. Boodie Cave, located on the arid coastline of Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Australia, offers critical new insights into this issue. First occupied by Aboriginal people around 51,100 years ago, the site preserves one of the earliest and most extensive records of marine resource exploitation outside Africa. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the marine invertebrate assemblage from Boodie Cave, comprising 37,697 fragments representing over 40 taxa. These remains document a long-term and dynamic relationship between people and a productive arid coastal landscape, shaped by dramatic sea level changes. The evidence from Boodie Cave—alongside broader patterns seen in the other nearby arid coastal sites on the Montebello Islands and Cape Range—demonstrates that such environments were significant for human occupation for over 50,000 years. Remarkably, Boodie Cave provides the earliest unequivocal evidence for the use of mangrove environments in Australia at initial occupation (51.1–46.2 ka), until the site’s abandonment around 6.5 ka. The assemblage also reveals long-distance (~20 km) transport of both subsistence and utilitarian marine invertebrates, occurring before and after the Last Glacial Maximum. Notably, evidence of a shell tool tradition at the site spans over 46,000 years, making it one of the longest continuous shell-working traditions known globally.
No Longer ‘Undated, Unattractive, Redundant’. A Quantitative Spatial Analysis of a Grindstone Quarry Assemblage in the Arid Zone
Kieran McGee, The University of Sydney, Australia
Grindstones have long been associated with enabling the survival and growth of populations within the arid zone. Grindstones were a valued trade item, and groups travelled long distances to obtain them. However, their method of production and sourcing remains generally understudied.
This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the Brumby Yard Quarry, a Grindstone quarry located on the traditional lands of the Mithaka people in the Channel Country Region of Queensland. Through the use of drone mapping, multi-scale photogrammetric modelling, machine learning classification, and automated grain analysis this paper presents an analysis of the amount of material quarried, the type of material targeted and the grindstone production process. By integrating these results with OSL dating of the quarry, a fuller picture of the arid zone economy in the late Holocene is presented.