The archaeology of Sulawesi: a strategic island for understanding modern human colonization and interactions across our region. This project will investigate the archaeology and palaeoenvironment of Sulawesi over the past 50,000 years. Sulawesi is strategically positioned to test competing models of initial modern human expansion, and trajectories of cultural change and interaction, across our region. It also addresses the National Research Program goal of responding to climate change.
The Missing Millennium and the Origins of Agriculture in Southeast Asia. This project aims to investigate the missing millennium – a significant gap in our understanding of the arrival of food producing populations into northern Vietnam between 5000 and 4000 years ago, before their expansion across the rest of Mainland Southeast Asia. Substantial new insights will include information on cultural development and population ancestry, an enhanced archaeological chronology, and details of the subsis ....The Missing Millennium and the Origins of Agriculture in Southeast Asia. This project aims to investigate the missing millennium – a significant gap in our understanding of the arrival of food producing populations into northern Vietnam between 5000 and 4000 years ago, before their expansion across the rest of Mainland Southeast Asia. Substantial new insights will include information on cultural development and population ancestry, an enhanced archaeological chronology, and details of the subsistence economies of both farmers and hunter-gatherers in the region. Significant benefits are expected in understanding the population history behind modern Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100070
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,807.00
Summary
Radiocarbon dating enamel and the first domestic pigs in South East Asia. This project aims to develop techniques to radiocarbon date archaeological tooth enamel. In warm environments, it is rarely possible to date bone, as the protein targeted degrades rapidly. Without direct dates on skeletal material, chronologies underpinning archaeological studies across much of Australia and South East Asia (SEA) are insecure, hindering the study of numerous archaeological questions. Enamel is relatively s ....Radiocarbon dating enamel and the first domestic pigs in South East Asia. This project aims to develop techniques to radiocarbon date archaeological tooth enamel. In warm environments, it is rarely possible to date bone, as the protein targeted degrades rapidly. Without direct dates on skeletal material, chronologies underpinning archaeological studies across much of Australia and South East Asia (SEA) are insecure, hindering the study of numerous archaeological questions. Enamel is relatively stable, but it does degrade during burial. The effect of degradation on the radiocarbon age of archaeological teeth will be studied to identify the least altered areas for dating. Using these outcomes, a chronology for the spread of pigs through SEA will then be developed, testing models that explain how early farming practices developed.Read moreRead less
Origins, health and demography of ancestral Southeast Asians: 2500 BC to 1000 AD. This project will investigate the origins, demography and health of ancestral Southeast Asian peoples, particularly during and after the Neolithic revolution. This crucial and transformative period in prehistory ushered into Southeast Asia the first farmers, novel technological changes, waves of new migrants and hitherto unknown diseases.
Identifying the transition from hunting to animal management in mainland and Island Southeast Asia: origins, impacts and proxies for human migration. This project proposes to determine how and when a range of domestic and translocated wild animals were introduced to different geographic locations of mainland and Island Southeast Asia between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. It will identify their origins, timings of introduction and what impacts they had on native island faunas.
Unraveling the mystery of the Plain of Jars, Laos. Since their discovery in the 1930s, the mysterious collections of giant stone jars scattered throughout central Laos have remained one of the great prehistoric puzzles of south-east (SE) Asia. It is thought that the jars represent the mortuary remains of an extensive and powerful Iron Age culture. This project seeks to determine the true nature of these sites, which date to a dynamic period of increasing complexity in SE Asia (c.500BCE-500CE). T ....Unraveling the mystery of the Plain of Jars, Laos. Since their discovery in the 1930s, the mysterious collections of giant stone jars scattered throughout central Laos have remained one of the great prehistoric puzzles of south-east (SE) Asia. It is thought that the jars represent the mortuary remains of an extensive and powerful Iron Age culture. This project seeks to determine the true nature of these sites, which date to a dynamic period of increasing complexity in SE Asia (c.500BCE-500CE). The project entails extensive reconnaissance, precision mapping, archaeological excavation and analysis of associated burial material. Using a suite of cutting-edge archaeological technologies, it is expected to have far-reaching benefits for archaeology, science, Laos and World Heritage.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL120100156
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,147,123.00
Summary
Understanding modern human dispersal, adaptation and behaviour en route to Australia. This project will investigate modern human dispersal, adaptations and behaviour along the maritime route to Australia. Using strategic testing of archaeological and biotic deposits, museum collections and predictive modelling, it will help us understand the unique adaptive and cognitive abilities that were required to make this journey.
Divergent pathways to tropical agriculture in Australasia and Wallacea. The project aims to address a major question in world archaeology: why did some people develop agriculture, while others did not? It plans to establish plant macrofossil and microfossil reference collections for three wet tropical regions: highland Papua New Guinea, Moluccas in eastern Indonesia, and western Arnhem Land in Australia. It then plans to use previously excavated archaeobotanical assemblages to establish robust p ....Divergent pathways to tropical agriculture in Australasia and Wallacea. The project aims to address a major question in world archaeology: why did some people develop agriculture, while others did not? It plans to establish plant macrofossil and microfossil reference collections for three wet tropical regions: highland Papua New Guinea, Moluccas in eastern Indonesia, and western Arnhem Land in Australia. It then plans to use previously excavated archaeobotanical assemblages to establish robust plant-use chronologies for these regions. In this way, the project seeks to develop capacity for tropical archaeobotany within Australia and to revolutionise concepts of plant exploitation, domestication and cultivation in tropical Australasia and Wallacea during the Holocene (last c.11 500 years).Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100046
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,575.00
Summary
Foundations of Island Southeast Asian maritime interaction: unravelling cause and consequence for the transformation of past societies. The successful spread of Neolithic innovations across the world was one of the most important transformations in human history. This project combines the geochemical and technological analysis of stone tools to track the evolution of maritime colonisation in Island Southeast Asia, the foundation for the success of agriculture in this region.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100153
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$347,556.00
Summary
Radiogenic bronze and the Indianisation of Southeast Asia. Intense South/Southeast Asian maritime activity began circa 2500 years ago, but the societies involved and their motivation is unknown. Study of exchange networks in chemically distinctive bronzes related to early Buddhism and their likely production centre in eastern India will establish a sound economic basis underlying long-term cultural influence.