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Monsoon extremes, environmental shifts, and catastrophic volcanic eruptions: quantifying impacts on the early human history of southern Australasia. The coincidence of a long, diverse Australasian human history with Earth's greatest climate systems presents the Australian and Indonesian communities with unrivalled opportunities for scientific discovery. Our study will improve understanding of global climate change, environmental shifts, volcanic catastrophes, and their role in early human disper ....Monsoon extremes, environmental shifts, and catastrophic volcanic eruptions: quantifying impacts on the early human history of southern Australasia. The coincidence of a long, diverse Australasian human history with Earth's greatest climate systems presents the Australian and Indonesian communities with unrivalled opportunities for scientific discovery. Our study will improve understanding of global climate change, environmental shifts, volcanic catastrophes, and their role in early human dispersal, and extinction, in Australasia. The significance of the results will extend to the modern world, where human behaviour modifies, and is modified by, climate and environment. Integration of research strengths in Australia and Indonesia will contribute to an improved bilateral relationship in science, education, and training, and engage the public in the excitement of scientific discovery.Read moreRead less
Palaeoenvironmental change, resource exploitation and land use relating to a 72,000 year cultural sequence at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. This project, involving international collaborative links between Australian universities and Indonesian universities and institutions, is at the cutting edge of palaeoenvironmental research and will provide valuable training as well as information which will be of great benefit to other researchers in the region. Being focused on prehistoric patterns of res ....Palaeoenvironmental change, resource exploitation and land use relating to a 72,000 year cultural sequence at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. This project, involving international collaborative links between Australian universities and Indonesian universities and institutions, is at the cutting edge of palaeoenvironmental research and will provide valuable training as well as information which will be of great benefit to other researchers in the region. Being focused on prehistoric patterns of resource exploitation, land use and management issues, it is relevant to current important issues about the environment, human impact and sustainability, and will help promote awareness of these issues in the Australian and Indonesian communities.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0567201
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$77,428.00
Summary
e-Archaeology: Towards an Australian Archaeological Data Grid. The central goal of this pilot project is the development and implementation of an Australian archaeological digital collection platform based on existing High Performance Computing techniques and infrastructure. This collection will facilitate the dissemination and interchange of archaeological data across disciplines and institutions and across the public and private sectors; enhance archaeological research; and contribute to disco ....e-Archaeology: Towards an Australian Archaeological Data Grid. The central goal of this pilot project is the development and implementation of an Australian archaeological digital collection platform based on existing High Performance Computing techniques and infrastructure. This collection will facilitate the dissemination and interchange of archaeological data across disciplines and institutions and across the public and private sectors; enhance archaeological research; and contribute to discourses about Australian cultural heritage and identity. Our case study will be the Mill Point Archaeological Project in southeast Queensland. This initiative will build on existing developments made overseas and through strategic collaborations between UQ, ANU and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD.Read moreRead less
The Spandrel Hypothesis: Towards a unified theory of stone flaking. The archaeological story of human evolution and prehistory has a strong Old World bias – the impression is that main events were in Africa and Europe and Australasia was mostly irrelevant. This is particularly true where stone tools are concerned: Australasian tools appear not to track the progression in technology that appears to be present in the Old World Standard Sequence. This project will test whether the Standard Sequence ....The Spandrel Hypothesis: Towards a unified theory of stone flaking. The archaeological story of human evolution and prehistory has a strong Old World bias – the impression is that main events were in Africa and Europe and Australasia was mostly irrelevant. This is particularly true where stone tools are concerned: Australasian tools appear not to track the progression in technology that appears to be present in the Old World Standard Sequence. This project will test whether the Standard Sequence has been overinterpreted and the pattern recognised for Australasia is in fact applicable world-wide. The results of the project will enhance the way Australia interprets itself and the Australasian region to the rest of the world. This is a goal of Research Priority 4 (Safeguarding Australia).Read moreRead less
Development and application of the Uranium-series method for dating ancient rock engravings. Radiocarbon dating has been used to establish the age of relatively recent Australian rock art, but the ages of ancient engravings cannot be measured beyond the limit of this method. Comparative radiocarbon and uranium-series assays will be made on pairs of test samples collected from natural mineral deposits at engraving locations constrained by the ages of lakes, lava flows, sedimentary deposits or ic ....Development and application of the Uranium-series method for dating ancient rock engravings. Radiocarbon dating has been used to establish the age of relatively recent Australian rock art, but the ages of ancient engravings cannot be measured beyond the limit of this method. Comparative radiocarbon and uranium-series assays will be made on pairs of test samples collected from natural mineral deposits at engraving locations constrained by the ages of lakes, lava flows, sedimentary deposits or ice. Using test samples with independent and radiocarbon age controls will give confidence in the uranium dating approach for reliably measuring the ages of similar coatings associated with ancient carvings and exposed rock surfaces throughout the world.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0453555
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$109,595.00
Summary
Luminescence stimulation and detection facility for dating of Quaternary geological and archaeological sediments. Reliable ages are required in the Earth and archaeological sciences. Luminescence dating is a flexible geochronological technique for diverse deposits. It exploits the radiation-induced thermally (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) emissions from minerals exposed to sunlight before burial. Recent technical developments have made feasible OSL dating of small samples (e.g. ....Luminescence stimulation and detection facility for dating of Quaternary geological and archaeological sediments. Reliable ages are required in the Earth and archaeological sciences. Luminescence dating is a flexible geochronological technique for diverse deposits. It exploits the radiation-induced thermally (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) emissions from minerals exposed to sunlight before burial. Recent technical developments have made feasible OSL dating of small samples (e.g., individual sand grains) and sediments deposited during the past 0.5-1 million years. We request funds for a Risø TL/OSL system with single-grain attachment to resolve the timing of sea-level, climate and landscape changes, and the chronology of human evolution and dispersal, in Australia and Southeast Asia.Read moreRead less
Archaeological Geophysics at Port Arthur. This project will apply geophysical technology for rapid non-invasive archaeological investigations at Port Arthur, Australia's premier convict era historical site.
It will be the first comprehensive integrated geophysical study of a major European archaeological site in Australia and will provide a framework for future geophysical archaeological investigations at other Australian historic sites.
The main direct outcomes from this project will be ....Archaeological Geophysics at Port Arthur. This project will apply geophysical technology for rapid non-invasive archaeological investigations at Port Arthur, Australia's premier convict era historical site.
It will be the first comprehensive integrated geophysical study of a major European archaeological site in Australia and will provide a framework for future geophysical archaeological investigations at other Australian historic sites.
The main direct outcomes from this project will be an improved understanding of the location and nature of obscured cultural features at Port Arthur and a significant improvement in the efficiency of archaeological investigations.
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Change and continuity: chronology, archaeology and art in the North Kimberley, Northwest Australia. The project will tackle some of the most basic questions concerning cultural continuity and change in Australia - in a region that has a long history of 'outside' contact, and a spectacular Aboriginal rock art sequence of world heritage significance. It will be undertaken in partnership with local indigenous communities, representative organisations and other stakeholders, and will provide a venue ....Change and continuity: chronology, archaeology and art in the North Kimberley, Northwest Australia. The project will tackle some of the most basic questions concerning cultural continuity and change in Australia - in a region that has a long history of 'outside' contact, and a spectacular Aboriginal rock art sequence of world heritage significance. It will be undertaken in partnership with local indigenous communities, representative organisations and other stakeholders, and will provide a venue for the training of indigenous and student participants. As well as high quality research outcomes, the project will produce information for strategic management of the Kimberley's unique cultural and natural heritageRead moreRead less
Rehabilitation of archaeological surface collections: Development of research strategies for the assessment, collection, and scientific analysis of lithic surface scatters. Archaeological lithic surface collections constitute the majority of prehistoric sites in Australia. These sites are usually ranked as low to nil priority in cultural heritage assessments for mitigation of site disturbance. Over 16,000 artifacts were collected from a bridge right of way (100%) at Camooweal, QLD. We will analy ....Rehabilitation of archaeological surface collections: Development of research strategies for the assessment, collection, and scientific analysis of lithic surface scatters. Archaeological lithic surface collections constitute the majority of prehistoric sites in Australia. These sites are usually ranked as low to nil priority in cultural heritage assessments for mitigation of site disturbance. Over 16,000 artifacts were collected from a bridge right of way (100%) at Camooweal, QLD. We will analyse 350 artifacts for organic use residues including dating, and use statistical analysis of the whole collection to arrive at a model for appropriate investigation of this site type in future. The research team is a novel collaboration between university, a heritage consultant, and an Aboriginal corporation.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100094
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$110,000.00
Summary
Single-grain optically-stimulated luminescence and dosimetry instruments to service the Sydney metropolitan and greater New South Wales region. This equipment will support projects that address significant environmental challenges in Australia, such as climate change and variability, coastal management and sustainable river and water management, and that assess the impacts and consequences of these challenges for populations living in environmentally sensitive areas. These projects will build on ....Single-grain optically-stimulated luminescence and dosimetry instruments to service the Sydney metropolitan and greater New South Wales region. This equipment will support projects that address significant environmental challenges in Australia, such as climate change and variability, coastal management and sustainable river and water management, and that assess the impacts and consequences of these challenges for populations living in environmentally sensitive areas. These projects will build on established collaborations in Australia, Antarctica and the south-west Pacific and encourage new collaborations with south-east Asian, Egyptian and Argentinean researchers, which will promote Australian research on a world stage. The use of this equipment will also pioneer new dating methodologies to further enhance Australia's place at the forefront of geochronology.Read moreRead less