Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Organisers:
Michael C Westaway, Archaeology, University of Queensland, Australia, m.westaway@uq.edu.au
Peter Rowley-Conwy, Archaeology, Durham University, UK, p.a.rowley-conwy@durham.ac.uk
Popular books such as the Dawn of Everything and Dark Emu have enjoyed great success in encouraging public engagement in archaeological debates around how we might define hunter gatherers fishers. In this session we explore the diversity of forager systems in both time and space, reevaluating the meaning behind the diverse nature of these food production, trade and exchange and settlement systems. Why was it that in some regions of the world forager systems flourished for millennia without the need to embrace intensive forms of agriculture? What are the implications of labelling all of these systems as part of the forager spectrum? All (we hope) will be revealed in this session reevaluating the forager spectrum.
Papers:
“They Are Not Our People” – Diversity Amongst Holocene Forager Societies in Southern Africa
Judith Sealy, Dept of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
The question of diversity amongst foraging societies across time and space is under-explored in Africa, despite the continent’s long history of human habitation, mostly by hunter-gatherers. Nineteenth and 20th century anthropological studies of African hunter-gatherers have played an important part in shaping our discipline, but—as elsewhere in the world—relate mainly to societies living in regions unsuitable for farming. This presentation explores diversity amongst hunter-gatherer societies in southern Africa over the last 12 000 years. Detailed anthropological information, especially from the Kalahari, provides a rich picture of communities from dryland savannah regions, but what about hunter-fisher-gatherers along major rivers, and on the coast? Archaeology clearly demonstrates that many aspects of material culture were shared across the subcontinent. At least some elements of belief systems appear to be widespread. Settlement patterns, however, differed substantially. Highly productive coastal and riverine regions supported large, settled populations during some time periods, but not all. Why do we see these fluctuations? How does our picture for southern Africa compare with other, ecologically similar parts of the world? These questions are important as we try to interpret not only Holocene, but also Pleistocene archaeological remains, and to understand the emergence of modern humans.
Foragers in the Earth System
Shumon T. Hussain, Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH) & Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
The 21st century has seen the rise of Earth System Science as a new interdisciplinary research paradigm to tackle the complexities of the planet that other approaches and disciplinary ventures have failed to adequately address. The novel scientific sensibilities developed in its wake have been described as a ‘Second Copernican Revolution’ and continue to crystallise in debates on the status of the Anthropocene. This paper argues that the implications of Earth System Thinking (EST) for locating the ‘forager spectrum’ in planetary deep history have largely been overlooked. EST is fundamentally misunderstood merely as a call for big data approaches, but compels us to ask different questions, revise our conceptual apparatus, and interrogate the changing roles of diverse forager peoples in the operation of the Earth system. I probe into this perspective and suggest that it holds a radical critique of present understandings of what foraging people are, what they do, and what their place in human-Earth coevolution is. In particular, I propose that we need to pay more attention to the kinds of ecological services forager people supply and how these are integrated, and so contribute to, the functioning of larger, transregional adaptive systems made up by heterogeneous human social formations.
Every Stone Has a Story: A Survey of Recorded Stone Arrangements on Mithaka Country, Queensland, Providing Inferences as to the Meaning and Function of this Site Type Within the Cultural Landscape
John Siggers, University of Queensland, Australia; Urbis Ltd, Australia
Stone arrangements are a common archaeological site type across the landscape of Mithaka Country, Queensland, yet construction, form and function are not well understood. Whilst investigation of this cultural landscape has provided evidence of an abundance of these sites, no definitive, consolidated review has yet been conducted. Here is reported the results of a digital survey and comparative analysis of form, comprising the development of a classificatory framework, and context. The results indicate that the sample is relatively morphologically and spatially diverse. However, clear patterns exist in the frequency and morphology of certain form types, argued as being linked to ritual or ceremonial function. A potential serpentine totemic motif has been identified and appears relatively consistently. The use of a classificatory framework to categorise diverse stone arrangement form has potential as a recording and descriptive aid. These results begin to provide an insight into the diversity of stone arrangement form and landscape context, with early inferences as to the function of certain constructions within the complex cultural system of Mithaka Country. The results also provide a framework by which to describe the diversity of form, assist with posing more comprehensive questions, and present a relatively comprehensive dataset for further research.
Unpacking Change and Continuity at Roonka, South Australia
Judith Littleton, Harry Allen and Sarah Karstens, University of Auckland
Josh Emmitt, Auckland War Memorial Museum
Fiona Petchey, Waikato University
Keryn Walshe, University of Auckland
River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation
In archaeology we are always coping with issues of scale and time averaging. The reanalysis of Roonka in collaboration with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation has led us to discard a notion of progressive change through the Holocene. Instead, this work suggests that there are some major continuities throughout the site’s use, such as the use of place and the role of children while there are significant changes such as greater inclusivity. All of this is extrapolated from a backdrop of site formation which dictates what is observable.
Increased inclusivity of people and practices at Roonka is a reflection of one aspect of life connected with ideology and notions of what is correct and appropriate in the face of death. It is not indicative of the full gamut of social and economic life at Roonka and may, we argue, be in tension with lived experiences. It is also not reflective of the entire Murray Valley during the Holocene. Instead, it speaks much more of local flexibility in adaptive strategies.
Inside the Sites: Social Boundaries in the Neolithic Hunter-Gatherer Settlements of Korea through Pottery Patterns
Yeji Lee, Dept of Archaeology and Art History, Seoul National University, South Korea
During the Middle Chulmun (Neolithic) period (4000–3000 BC), settlement sizes in central western Korea expanded to 15–60 house pits, an exceptional scale unseen before or after in the Chulmun period. Due to methodological challenges in determining contemporaneous occupation of dwellings, these settlements have typically been assumed to represent larger hunter-gatherer groups. However, the spatial boundaries of a site do not necessarily align with a community, as was likely the case for Chulmun hunter-gatherer groups who shared resource patches across distant islands. I present different types of settlements by examining whether subtle pottery patterns are shared or distinct among dwellings and across separate clusters within each site. For example, some sites show similar patterns across separate clusters, while others exhibit distinct patterns. Unlike other attributes, subtle attributes such as the way lines overlap require direct interaction among pottery makers for transmission. Despite issues of taphonomy and chronological resolution, significant inter-site differences in pottery patterns among dwellings challenge the traditional view that all Chulmun settlements were single communities. This research thus enables a more nuanced understanding of hunter-gatherer aggregation, mobility, and social structures.
The Origins of Amazonian Cuisine: Archaeobotanical Perspectives from Serrania la Lindosa in Colombia
Jose Julian Garay-Vazquez, Dept of Archaeology, HASS, University of Exeter, UK
Gaspar Morcote-Rios, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, University National of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Francisco Javier Aceituno-Bocanegra, Dept of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Mark Robinson and Jose Iriarte, Dept of Archaeology, HASS, University of Exeter, UK
Amazonian rainforests were perceived as a barrier for the early peopling of South America. These environments were regarded as having few sources of calories, hindering human habitation until food production systems were established. Recent research in NW SA by the Last Journey project challenges this claim, with data from 3 sites that span the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The paper presents the systematic flotation plant macrofossil data from these sites in Serrania la Lindosa, Colombia. The results reinforce how palms played a key role for the early colonists of South America. Scanning Electron Microscopy analysis on Amorphous Plant Aggregates attests to some of the earliest meal preparations to be studied in the Amazon. These remains appear to be amalgams of palm endosperm, providing insight into the type of resources targeted by palms. Environmentally, foragers focus on gallery forests up to the middle Holocene when savanna species and pottery first appear. However, foraging remains the main mode of subsistence, for only wild plants are identified well into the Late Holocene. Domesticated crops appear in the record at the advent of colonisation, suggesting a protracted arrival of agriculture. Ultimately, the data demonstrates how human habitation in Amazonian rainforests is possible without agriculture.
Carbs, Clans and Country; Bulur, Ngalingi, Jagun (Bread, Us, Country). Traditional Economic Sustainability of Bandjang Clans of Southeast Queensland
Eleanor Crosby, Griffith University, Australia
Located amongst the Bandjalangic-speaking clans living between the Logan and Richmond Rivers of southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales this paper examines how sustainability is controlled both economically by the available high-carbohydrate food resources and politically by the traditional self-governing method which limits how large clan numbers can be.
This raises a major theoretical issue which may need wider reconsideration concerning the essential role a minimum amount of carbohydrate (or glycogen) must take in all human diets. When considering longer term economic sustainability, it also emphasises the essential socio-political role of the self-governing units to which people belong.
The Veddas: The Last Remnants of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Sri Lanka
Anjana Welikala and Amali Fernando, Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Gamini Adikari, Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
Kamani Tennekoon and Ruwandi Ranasinghe, Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan Veddas are among the few remaining Indigenous foraging societies of South Asia and serve as a crucial case study in forager archaeology. Traditionally linked to the Mesolithic Balangoda culture, they have been characterised as hunter-gatherers. Archaeological evidence from montane and lowland caves, including lithic assemblages, faunal remains and rock art, confirms their deep-rooted presence and resource utilization. However, recent ethnographic studies reveal their adaptation to shifting cultivation, trade and mobility in response to interactions with agricultural societies, colonial influences and modernisation. A recent study on mitochondrial DNA traced their ancestry to an ancient lineage dating back ~35,000 years, associated with island’s Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities. A second migration wave around 10,000 years ago is linked to early Holocene Neolithic pastoralists, followed by continuous interactions with farming populations, leading to genetic drift and admixture. This is reflected in their mitochondrial haplogroup diversity and shared genetic material with other farming populations in Sri Lanka. By integrating archaeological, genetic and ethnographic perspectives, this study highlights the fluidity of forager identities and the socio-economic influences shaping the adaptations of Veddas. These findings call for a broader framework in forager archaeology to account for the dynamic and hybridised nature of Indigenous lifeways.
Immediate and Delayed Return, Adaptation and Progress: Is European Hunter-gatherer Research Relevant to Australia?
Peter Rowley-Conwy, Dept of Archaeology, Durham University, UK
Immediate Return (IR – work now, eat now) and Delayed Return (DR – work now, eat later) are alternative hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) organisations identified by anthropologists. These are probably adaptations to different kinds of environments. However, European Mesolithic archaeologists have often (explicitly or implicitly) assumed that ‘complex’ DR HFGs are later developments from ‘simple’ forms, and the archaeological record offers some superficial support; and from DR, primitive Early Neolithic agriculture is presumed to develop. Recent work has comprehensively disproved this: (a) major DR systems were present in the earliest Mesolithic; and (b) agriculture even in the earliest Neolithic was a complex integrated system, which suggests an immigrant farming population – recently confirmed by archaeogenetics. Our progress view is therefore derailed. From this perspective I will consider recent discussions of the Australian record, such as the ‘Dark Emu’ discussion. I will argue that it is not helpful to seek traces of ‘complex’, quasi-agricultural activities. European agriculture is based on predictable variations between seasons, not the case in much of Australia. From this perspective Australian adaptations are best considered as HFGs not farmers – but among the most complicated (as opposed to complex) on the planet.
Do We Need to Re-think Prey Rank and Diet Breadth?
Tiina Manne, The University of Queensland, Australia
The prey choice model is commonly employed in archaeology when reconstructing food economies of Pleistocene aged populations. The model predicts that people will engage in a narrow diet of high-ranked prey, until they are compelled to broaden their diets to meet their continued subsistence needs, by including lower-ranked prey. This pattern is not the case in arid and semi-arid northern Australia, where early economic faunal records indicate that broad diets were the norm, not the exception and these patterns continued into the Holocene. Importantly, the assemblages do not suggest a scarcity of high-ranked prey or a scarcity of prey in general. Instead, they indicate a subsistence strategy best placed to take advantage of an array of prey with unique characteristics set against a background of unpredictable precipitation. These early and sustained broad diets suggest a need to reframe the concept of prey rank and broad diet. Instead of prey rank being static, prey rank was more fluid with energetic returns of different prey items fluctuating in response to environmental variables. In this region the most advantageous strategy in terms of diet was a highly responsive and flexible one, which collectively presents as a broad diet.
More than a Precursor to Agriculture? 7,000 Years of Foraging in Anatolia’s Konya Basin
Andrew Fairbairn, The University of Queensland, Australia
Louise Martin, The University of Liverpool, UK
Ozlem Saritas, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK
Douglas Baird, Hitit Universitesi, Corum, Turkiye
Anatolia’s Konya Basin is well-known archaeologically as a centre for early agricultural emergence and diversification. Research from the Neolithic mega-site of Catalhoyuk East has framed archaeological understanding of this region in the early Holocene, evidencing the presence of sedentary, farming-focused settlements of permanent rectilinear mudbrick houses from at least c. 7500 BC, the latter replete with elaborate symbolic behaviour. Research at nearby Pinarbasi and Boncuklu show occupation evidence for the preceding 7,000 years, including mobile and sedentary presence on both the wetland plain (Boncuklu) and its margins (Pinarbasi A and D). Intensive recovery and analysis of plant and animal remains has provided a rich history of food procurement practice. Rather than seeing this period as a pre-cursor to farming, this paper considers the evidence for a diverse, economically reliable and adaptive range of food systems, developed by a population at once reproductively isolated from, yet culturally connected to others in the region. We also reflect on implications of the long and selective history of agricultural introductions that once again followed a unique developmental trajectory.
Hunter-gatherers, Hunter-fishers, Hunter-herders: Some Thoughts from Southern Africa
Kefilwe Rammutloa, Dept of Anthropology, Archaeology and Development Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Dept of Anthropology, Yale, USA
Kate Croll, Dept of Anthropology, Archaeology and Development Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Peter Morrissey, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Alex Schoeman, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Challenges to culture-historical approaches to the archaeology of hunter-gatherer, pastoralist/herder and agriculturist communities in the Southern Africa have led to long-standing debates. In these, the revisionist arguments have been supported by archaeological evidence from across the region that demonstrates that some hunter-gatherer communities engaged in a wide range of networks and forms of interaction from the first millennium AD to the historic period. Synchronously, other hunter-gatherer communities remained independent and chose to limit interaction with herders and/or agriculturalist communities, even when living in close proximity to them. We revisit these debates in this paper, starting with a review of the impact of the surprising endurance of early twentieth-century views of culture on the interpretations of the archaeological record in the region, especially when studying hunter-gatherer communities that occupied landscapes on the fringes of agriculturist settlements and lived within these villages. This is followed by proposed ways to work with material culture, ethnographies, and historical sources to understand the hunter-gatherer communities in complex contexts in eastern South Africa. In addition, the paper proposes testable hypotheses that could assist in identifying and understanding the archaeological signatures of hunter-gatherer communities.
Exploring the Diversity of Indigenous Plant Translocation Practices with Genomic Data and Biocultural Knowledge
Monica Fahey, Scientific Officer at Research Centre for Ecosystems Resilience (Botanic Gardens of Sydney); Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Maurizio Rossetto, Head of Research Centre for Ecosystems Resilience (Botanic Gardens of Sydney); Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland, Australia
Over millennia, Indigenous peoples have dispersed the propagules of non-crop plants intentionally or accidentally via trade, seasonal migration or attending ceremonies. This has potentially increased the geographic range or abundance of many ‘wild’ edible plant species. This talk will showcase research that incorporates plant genomics, historical research, and collaboration with Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge holders to investigate evidence that east Australian Indigenous groups assisted the migration of culturally important or edible plant species; both prior to and following European colonisation. We compare findings encompassing different language groups, plant species and time periods to highlight the diversity of protocols surrounding Indigenous plant translocation practices and other ways of looking after Country. These findings suggest that cultural factors such as maintaining kinship networks were equally as important as ecological constraints in determining past human-plant interactions. We argue that Human Niche Construction Theory offers a useful framework for exploring these interactions, leaving space for a nuanced analysis that moves beyond the ‘farmer’ vs ‘forager’ binary. However, separating the influence of natural vs anthropogenic factors on the distribution and genetic diversity of plants remains a challenge, and we invite discussion on how to advance the field with closer collaboration with Indigenous Knowledge holders and archaeologists.
It’s the Pits!: Hunting, Snaring and Trapping Methods of the Hunter-Gatherers in the KiTama Landscape, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Kathryn Croll and Kefilwe Rammutloa, Dept of Anthropology, Archaeology and Development Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Peter Morrissey and Alex Schoeman, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Archaeologists have identified various meat procurement strategies in southern African hunter-gatherer communities. In the Kalahari and the Drakensberg, persistence hunting with bows and arrows was common, whereas communal kite hunting was practiced in parts of the northern Cape. Smaller animals were snared and trapped across the region. Our research focuses on the Lake Chrissie landscape in Mpumalanga, South Africa, which is characterised by open grassland and wetlands. Similar to in the Northern Cape, hunters here adjusted their methods for acquiring meat to compensate for the lack of tree cover. In the first half of the 1900s /Xegwi speaking Tlou-tle in the region, which they called KiTama, told ethnographers that they used pithunting techniques and the wetlands to their advantage, alongside snaring and trapping. In this paper, we present preliminary archaeological data from Welgelegen Shelter, located on the banks of the Vaal River in KiTama, which supports the ethnographic data. We suggest that communal hunting of medium and large bovids occurred in the area around the shelter, and that the protein component of the diet of the hunter-gatherers occupying Welgelegen Shelter also included a variety of aquatic proteins, such as freshwater mussels and fish from the Vaal River.
Wot’s In a Name?: What do the Mines of the Mithaka Say About Traditional Food Production in South West Queensland?
Doug Williams, Access Archaeology, Queensland
Michael C. Westaway, University of Queensland, Australia
Joshua Gorringe, Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
More than 300 sandstone quarries have been recorded across the Mithaka Native Title area, in Channel Country, south west Queensland. Many of these are fairly small, while some are immense, including one which is the largest recorded sandstone quarry in the world attributed to a ‘forager’ society. The number and size of these quarries indicate a scale of grindstone production geared towards producing a surplus of products, which was required to service provisioning not only for everyday needs, but for exploiting harvests of natural abundance. Provisioning and preparation for harvests occurred widely across the continent, as did large gatherings of people co-incident with occurrences of natural abundance. This paper questions whether, in the face of archaeological evidence and ethnographic records of such strategic seasonal exploitation, the terms ‘gatherers’ and ‘foragers’ are adequate descriptors, and what changes to the lexicon may mean for modern Australia’s perceptions of Aboriginal Society.
More than 300 sandstone quarries have been recorded across the Mithaka Native Title area, in Channel Country, South West Queensland. Many of these are fairly small, while some are immense, including one which is the largest recorded sandstone quarry in the world attributed to a ‘forager’ society. The number and size of these quarries indicate a scale of grindstone production geared towards producing a surplus of products, which was required to service provisioning not only for everyday needs, but for exploiting harvests of natural abundance. Provisioning and preparation for harvests occurred widely across the continent, as did large gatherings of people co-incident with occurrences of natural abundance. This paper questions whether, in the face of archaeological evidence and ethnographic records of such strategic seasonal exploitation, the terms ‘gatherers’ and ‘foragers’ are adequate descriptors.
Beyond the Campfire: Rethinking Forager Architecture and Foodways in Mithaka Country
Nathan Wright, Everick Benevolent Institution; University of New England, Australia
Joshua Gorringe and Trudy Gorringe, Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
Cemre Ustunkaya, Wadawurrung Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
Kelsey Lowe, Up and Under; The University of Queensland, Australia
Andrew Fairbairn and Michael C. Westaway, The University of Queensland, Australia
Mithaka guided, collaborative excavations from 2019-2021 of gunyahs (huts) in southwest Queensland challenge entrenched narratives of transient forager architecture. These structures, built using gidgee wood and other local materials, show evidence of longer-term and repeated occupation. They form part of a broader archaeological mosaic rich in evidence for plant use, food processing, and landscape engagement. Extensive radiocarbon dating, including wiggle-matched sequences from gidgee posts, provides a refined chronological framework. While conventional dates offer broad calibrated ranges, the wigglematching significantly improves chronological resolution. Magnetic gradiometry and soil magnetic susceptibility surveys were instrumental in identifying subsurface hearth anomalies, guiding the selection of trench locations and supporting a wider open-area excavation. These features yielded key archaeobotanical remains and microstratigraphic evidence of layered occupation surfaces. Together, these data reveal persistent dwelling use within a complex cultural landscape. This work contributes to a growing body of research—including that from Mithaka Country—that demonstrates durable infrastructure, intensive plant use, and nuanced land management practices. The Durie gunyahs are not outliers, but rather a central part of a rethinking of forager lifeways, resisting rigid binaries and affirming the diversity and longevity of Aboriginal occupation in arid Australia.
Beyond the Binary: Strategic Plant Use and Settlement in Mithaka Country
Makayla Harding, The University of Queensland, Australia
Nathan Wright, Everick Benevolent Institution; University of New England, Australia
Joshua Gorringe and Trudy Gorringe, Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
Andrew Fairbairn, The University of Queensland, Australia
Indigenous plant use in Australia’s arid interior has long been framed by a simplistic forager–farmer dichotomy that overlooks evidence for intermediate strategies. A collaborative archaeobotanical project on Mithaka Country (Channel Country, southwest Queensland) aims to distinguish wild plant collection, management, cultivation and possible domestication in pre-colonial Aboriginal lifeways.
Recent excavations (2019–2023) on a series of open-air camps and a nearby gunyah (hut), conducted in partnership with the Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, recovered a suite of charred plant macroremains through flotation and dry sieving. Preserved seeds of key food taxa were found embedded in hearths and habitation surfaces, indicating plant processing and consumption. Geophysical surveys guided site targeting and revealed subsurface features, while high-precision radiocarbon assays (including wiggle-matched sequences on gidgee (Acacia sp.) wood posts) anchor these occupation deposits chronologically.
This work operates within the values and priorities of the Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation’s Research Framework, centring Indigenous sovereignty in archaeological interpretation. The emerging picture is one of strategic plant use shaping settlement patterns, and long-term land management with nuanced plant-people relationships. By braiding Indigenous knowledge with archaeoscientific data, the findings challenge the forager–farmer binary and contribute a more nuanced narrative of land use in Australia.
Energised Crowding and Aboriginal Village Settlements: Developing a Model from Mithaka Country
Michael C. Westaway and Kelsey Lowe, The University of Queensland, Australia
Doug Williams, Access Archaeology, Australia
Joshua Gorringe, Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
Tiina Manne, The University of Queensland, Australia
Nathan Wright, Everick Heritage Foundation, Australia
Richard Martin, The University of Queensland, Australia
Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation, Australia
The idea that Aboriginal people in ancient Australia lived in villages has been subject to significant criticism. Mithaka country provides an important opportunity to investigate this idea, popularised in more recent years through the best selling book Dark Emu. Of course, it is necessary to use ethnohistoric records with a healthy degree of skepticism, but ignoring these rare glimpses in the past means ignoring valuable guides for archaeological investigations designed to test against ethnographic models. In this paper we outline the nature of research at the site of Thunderpurty lagoon a ‘village’ documented by Native Police in 1871, which we link into the broader archaeological landscape. The ethnohistoric record also discusses long distance trade, particularly at times of abundance, which brought large groups together and it is reasonable to assume that village sites were important hubs for the creation and reinforcement of social network. Potentially, these engagements happened in a similar way to the urbanised crowding that some archaeologists have identified in early urban settlements in other regions of the world. Developing the archaeological method required to test these ideas will require a multidisciplinary approach, but one that is also reliant on contemporary Mithaka knowledge of their country.
An Ethnographic Study of the Kafue Flats and Bangweulu Swamps: Hunting Strategies in Prehistoric Zambian Communities
Martha Nchimunya Kayuni, University of Zambia; Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Germany
Hunting strategies in Zambia reflect a complex interplay of environmental adaptations, technological advancements, and social and political dynamics. Minimal comprehensive documentation of how diverse environmental variables, tools, and political factors influence Indigenous hunting techniques exists. Additionally, limited ethnographic comparisons have hindered a holistic understanding of these practices. This study provides an integrated, holistic analysis of hunting strategies’ social, economic, political, and environmental dimensions. Using an interdisciplinary approach, primarily ethno-archaeology, two study areas were analysed: the Kafue Flats and the Bangweulu Swamps. A targeted sample of 20 Indigenous leaders and hunters was interviewed. Results indicate that hunting strategies evolved due to advanced techniques, environmental changes, and shifts in societal structures. Social organization, mobility patterns, and ecological knowledge played crucial roles in shaping hunting practices. These factors significantly influenced hunting and consumption. Equally, herbal medicines and spiritual beliefs played a vital role in hunting. This study highlights the subsistence practices of prehistoric populations and their adaptive responses to diverse ecological settings. Future multidisciplinary studies could offer specific hunting strategies employed by prehistoric communities in Zambia and the region.
The Tachylyte Trade and Exchange Network in Victoria
Rodney Carter, Dja Dja Wurrung Group, Australia
Rebekah Kurpiel, Archaeology La Trobe University, Australia
Caroline Hawker, Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Michael C. Westaway, The University of Queensland, Australia
There has been exciting and important archaeological work in Sahul identifying the exchange of raw materials and other exotic objects amongst Aboriginal people, which includes greenstone axes from Mount William, Lancefield in South East Australia and pearl shells from the Kimberley in the North West. In Papua New Guinea much emphasis has been on the significance of trade of high-quality obsidian, some of which dates to the Late Pleistocene. The Dja Dja Wurrung people of Djandak (Country) have their homelands in Central Victoria, where they utilised a unique stone in the form of an opaque volcanic glass called tachylite. It is now apparent that this trade has a Pleistocene antiquity. The implications of this work are significant, suggesting that it is not only in the far north of Sahul that we see networks of social relationships linking communities emerging during the Ice Age, but also in Southeast Australia. We provide a review of existing data and in a new analysis, discuss the implications of tachylite trade and what this may suggest for the evolution of cultural interaction spheres in Victoria.
Inhospitable Islands, Desolate Lands and Hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean
Theodora Moutsiou, Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus
This paper uses the case study of the island of Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean, to challenge persisting views of the sea as a barrier to human movement and of the regional insular landscape as resource-limited and, thus, largely inhospitable to mobile hunter-gatherer groups. A recently identified early site (Drouseia Skloinikia) at the westernmost coast of the island requires us to rethink our early ancestors’ adaptive abilities, their interactions with maritime environments and resilience to newly colonised landscapes and climatic shifts. Skloinikia comprises an exceptional case in the archaeology of Cyprus as it is the first early site unearthed in the littoral zone of the remote Akamas region. Reevaluating misconceptions about remoteness, inaccessibility and hunter-gatherers’ skills, this paper presents some preliminary results from the ongoing multi-disciplinary investigations of the site aiming to contribute to debates around early human adaptive responses to coastal habitats, ecological niche creation and, ultimately, island-mainland communication and the organisation of the Eastern Mediterranean social landscape at locally and regionally during a significant transitional period (Pleistocene/Holocene boundary).
The PPNA Hunters of Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, Southeastern Türkiye
Stephanie Emra, NSB-State Collection of Palaeoanatomy Munich, Gruber Str. 64-68, 85586 Poing, Germany
Joris Peters, NSB-State Collection of Palaeoanatomy, Munich, Germany; Institute of Palaeoanatomy, Domestication Research and the History of Veterinary Medicine, Munich, Germany
Nadja Pöllath, NSB-State Collection of Palaeoanatomy, Munich, Germany
Özlem Sarıtaş, Hitit Üniversitesi, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü, Ulukavak, Türkiye; British İnstitute at Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
Archaeozoological research has been conducted at the PPNA-PPNB site of Göbeklitepe in southeastern Türkiye since 2000. The revelation that this large-scale megalithic site was populated by people subsisting through hunter-gathering challenged our understanding of the supposed limitations of scale in a pre-agricultural society. Whilst our understanding of human-animal relationships at the site, both from a subsistence perspective, as well as a symbolic one, has developed over the last 25 years of research, until recently Göbeklitepe has seemed alone as a peerless, spectacular, regional centre. However, in the last few years, several new sites spanning the Epipalaeolithic to PPNB have been excavated under the ‘Taş Tepeler Project’ and have challenged this perspective. This includes the contemporary PPNA-early PPNB site of Karahantepe situated approximately 60km southeast of Göbeklitepe. This site also exhibits the distinctive T-shaped pillars, large ‘special buildings’, and animal iconography known from Göbeklitepe and prompted a re-evaluation of Göbeklitepe as a singular, regional nucleus. Comparison of both the faunal remains and animal iconography from these two sites begins the next stage of analysis in this region, understanding the local variation and distinctive histories of different groups in the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic in southeastern Anatolia.