Honours Students Presentations

Welcome to week 13 of the UQ Archaeology Working Papers. This week we have some of our Honours Cohort presenting short 10-15 minute presentations on their projects. Please see their abstracts below:

Analysis of an Archaeobotanical Assemblage from Mithaka Country, Far Western Queensland 
By Samuel Cope 

This project analyses an archaeobotanical assemblage recovered from 13 hearths on Mithaka Country in far western Queensland, with a focus on understanding the formation processes of plant remains in arid and semi-arid environments. The project aims to disentangle cultural from non-cultural plant deposits and contribute to broader discussions of Indigenous land management and subsistence strategies in Australia.

Late Holocene subsistence economies and site use at Joorla Marngooda Rock Shelter, Western Australia.
By Charlotte Evans

This study examines the effects of late Holocene climatic variability on subsistence practices and site use in Cape Range, Western Australia, through zooarchaeological analysis of a faunal assemblage from Joorla Marngooda Rock Shelter. Evidence from several late Pleistocene and early Holocene sites in Cape Range suggest a regional shift in subsistence practices and diet breadth associated with significant periods of climatic and environmental change, including the Last Glacial Maximum and Big Swamp Phase. Such patterns in the late Holocene, however, have remained comparatively under-examined, despite the emergence of ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle). Using taxonomic and taphonomic analysis informed by historical ecology, this research investigates how Aboriginal Australians exploited the landscape in response to environmental change during the late Holocene. 

The traits that bind us: Ngandong Homo Erectus and Homo Longi Introgression
By Ellie Bowen

With the discovery of the Harbin skull in 2021, our understanding of the species previously known as the ‘Denisovans’ has been forever changed, due to the possibility of identifying introgression events between Homo longi and other extinct hominins without relying on DNA. The Harbin Skull will be compared to the unique crania of Ngandong Homo erectus of Java, Indonesia, using casts and 3-D scans. Due to the fact Homo longi is known to have been present in the region at the time, it is possible that Ngandong Homo erectus gained their unique traits through introgression between Homo longi.

Stone tool manufacture on the Macleay River Coastal Plain
By Rod Bligh

The Macleay River coastal plain, holds in its complex of shell middens, a rich record of human subsistence and adaptation to environmental change. The lithic record  associated with midden studies, is however, inconsistent and subject to unsubstantiated geological identification. Isabel McBryde’s 1960-70s work in the Clarence Valley, found water-worn pebbles to be an important stone source through all stages of occupation. She does not however distinguish between coastal and riverine pebble sources. Knuckey’s 1999 summary of studies based on Graham Connor’s 1970s Clybucca-Stuarts Point midden excavations, creates further lack of clarity around the importance of coastal pebble sources; with him favouring inland quarry sources.

At the 2024 University of Queensland Archaeology Field School, Dunghutti Elders introduced students to Pebbly Beach, Crescent Head, as a source of stone for manufacturing tools. Crescent Head lies at the south end of the Macleay River coastal plain. Cobbles which erode out of the sedimentary strata of its headlands, are tumbled and worn to provide a vast source of raw material, well suited to tool manufacture.  My project responds to the interest of the Dunghutti People, in the context of many of their cultural sites being lost to sandmining and development, in building a greater understanding of the regional significance of Pebbly Beach and the importance of the raw material and its distribution pattern.

Using a 50x magnification ‘stereo’ microscope for petrological analysis , I am working to answer the questions:

• Are the products of a beach pebble industry at Crescent Head distributed throughout the Macleay River coastal plain?
• Is there a material preference for stone tool manufacture?
• What lithic reduction strategies are engaged with in the movement of cobble material across the coastal plain?