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Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200473
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$283,678.00
Summary
Archives in Bark: Carved and inscribed Kimberley boab trees. This project seeks to record and contextualise Indigenous and non-Indigenous carvings and inscriptions on ancient Australian boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) growing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It will document a hitherto poorly recorded form of traditional Indigenous cultural and artistic practice, as well as information about the lives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living on missions and pastoral properties ....Archives in Bark: Carved and inscribed Kimberley boab trees. This project seeks to record and contextualise Indigenous and non-Indigenous carvings and inscriptions on ancient Australian boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) growing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It will document a hitherto poorly recorded form of traditional Indigenous cultural and artistic practice, as well as information about the lives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living on missions and pastoral properties prior to and immediately following European Contact. The significance of the project lies in its ability to record information about the lives of people not captured in other types of historical documents. The project should provide ecological information about the condition of these Kimberley heritage trees.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101703
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,505.00
Summary
Mission archaeology and colonial encounters in Southern Vanuatu. The remains of Christian missions in southern Vanuatu are important heritage sites for local communities, and for their place in world history as part of one of the final frontiers of European colonialism. This project explores these sites to produce a new picture of everyday life that includes the perspectives of missionaries and native people.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101351
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$335,427.00
Summary
Visualising archaeologies: Art and the creation of contemporary archaeology. This project aims to investigate contemporary archaeology method and theory, specifically the proposition that art practice can create and communicate archaeological knowledge. Connecting contemporary Australian society with its material past is part of developing ideas about place, identity, and community. Using qualitative research and art practice-based studies, the project will trace the emergence of art-archaeology ....Visualising archaeologies: Art and the creation of contemporary archaeology. This project aims to investigate contemporary archaeology method and theory, specifically the proposition that art practice can create and communicate archaeological knowledge. Connecting contemporary Australian society with its material past is part of developing ideas about place, identity, and community. Using qualitative research and art practice-based studies, the project will trace the emergence of art-archaeology collaborations and investigate the application of visual methods in representing Australia’s rich heritage. Through the visualisation of archaeology and heritage, the project seeks to further understand how the past is mediated in the present. This will enable better engagement in public discussions about what Australia is as a society and how it values its heritage.Read moreRead less
Rivers of Gold: The Legacy of Historical Gold Mining for Victoria's Rivers. By considering rivers as cultural artefacts, this project aims to evaluate how historical gold mining has shaped river systems in Victoria. Victoria’s historic mining industry led to extensive and long-lasting change to waterways across the state. The project plans to integrate approaches from landscape archaeology, physical geography, geomorphology and environmental chemistry to identify and map the extent of changes, i ....Rivers of Gold: The Legacy of Historical Gold Mining for Victoria's Rivers. By considering rivers as cultural artefacts, this project aims to evaluate how historical gold mining has shaped river systems in Victoria. Victoria’s historic mining industry led to extensive and long-lasting change to waterways across the state. The project plans to integrate approaches from landscape archaeology, physical geography, geomorphology and environmental chemistry to identify and map the extent of changes, including increased sedimentation, erosion, and chemical contamination. The project plans to demonstrate how historical mining continues to influence chemical and physical processes in Victorian streams and to develop understanding of the landscapes experienced by Victorians at the height of the mining boom. Project outcomes may provide improved context for catchment and reservoir management and counter prevailing impressions about causes of observed damage to rivers.Read moreRead less
The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria Archaeological Project. This field-based project investigates patterns of past Aboriginal island use in the south-west Gulf of Carpentaria. It addresses the nature and chronology of island habitation, and how people in the Gulf responded to the post-glacial sea level rise. Did people in northern Australia become stranded on islands in the mid-Holocene as they did on Flinders and Kangaroos Islands in the south, or were watercraft alread ....The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria Archaeological Project. This field-based project investigates patterns of past Aboriginal island use in the south-west Gulf of Carpentaria. It addresses the nature and chronology of island habitation, and how people in the Gulf responded to the post-glacial sea level rise. Did people in northern Australia become stranded on islands in the mid-Holocene as they did on Flinders and Kangaroos Islands in the south, or were watercraft already part of their material culture? This and other issues such as the cultural relationship between the present-day Yanyuwa and past island inhabitants, and the influences of early Macassan (Indonesian) contact will be investigated archaeologically.Read moreRead less
A reappraisal of Western European Mousterian tools from Australian perspectives. Intense debates in human evolution surround Neanderthals in France, where archaeological deposits provide abundant evidence of their lives. Were Neanderthals complex cultural beings comparable to our ancestors or did they possess less complex cultures? This question has often been addressed through analysis of Neanderthal, or ?Mousterian?, stone tools. Previous studies follow a tradition of dividing tools into types ....A reappraisal of Western European Mousterian tools from Australian perspectives. Intense debates in human evolution surround Neanderthals in France, where archaeological deposits provide abundant evidence of their lives. Were Neanderthals complex cultural beings comparable to our ancestors or did they possess less complex cultures? This question has often been addressed through analysis of Neanderthal, or ?Mousterian?, stone tools. Previous studies follow a tradition of dividing tools into types such as ?scrapers? or ?points?. This study employs non-type-based Australian perspectives, incorporating new analytical techniques, to re-describe Mousterian tools, review what they tell us of Neanderthal capabilities, and evaluate conventional type-based systems of analysis. Significant new information about hominid evolution will result.Read moreRead less
Plant use at the dawn of agriculture in central Anatolia. The project will increase collaboration with researchers in the UK, and Turkish archaeological authorities. It will refine our understanding of the process, rate and direction of agricultural origins in Western Asia and improve Australia's profile in origins of agriculture research. It will increase Australia's knowledge base about other regions and help to consolidate and promote archaeobotany/archaeological science in Australia's resear ....Plant use at the dawn of agriculture in central Anatolia. The project will increase collaboration with researchers in the UK, and Turkish archaeological authorities. It will refine our understanding of the process, rate and direction of agricultural origins in Western Asia and improve Australia's profile in origins of agriculture research. It will increase Australia's knowledge base about other regions and help to consolidate and promote archaeobotany/archaeological science in Australia's research community.Read moreRead less
Evolution of the Economic Landscape in Taiwan: Looking Inward and Outward. Over several centuries since 4000 BC, the social-ecological setting of Taiwan transformed from low-impact hunting-foraging to high-density village residence and intensive farming. Meanwhile, it was reshaped by new strategic relations with the outside world through migration and trade networks. New research aims to investigate how these long-term developments inter-related and transcended changing climate, natural habitats ....Evolution of the Economic Landscape in Taiwan: Looking Inward and Outward. Over several centuries since 4000 BC, the social-ecological setting of Taiwan transformed from low-impact hunting-foraging to high-density village residence and intensive farming. Meanwhile, it was reshaped by new strategic relations with the outside world through migration and trade networks. New research aims to investigate how these long-term developments inter-related and transcended changing climate, natural habitats, population size, and other factors. The research is designed to address how a complex economic landscape system developed and sustained itself through ongoing challenges, by concentrating on Taiwan as a uniquely informative example of combined intensive internal land-use and external partnerships.Read moreRead less
Evolution of technology and tool use in 10,000 years of Aboriginal History. Results will substantially enhance the power of explanations for the Australian backed artefact proliferation, a key archaeological signature of cultural change in ancient Aboriginal society. A solution to the puzzle of why those artefacts were frequently made during one period in the past will be of interest to all researchers concerned with the historical development of Aboriginal societies, and to Aboriginal people. F ....Evolution of technology and tool use in 10,000 years of Aboriginal History. Results will substantially enhance the power of explanations for the Australian backed artefact proliferation, a key archaeological signature of cultural change in ancient Aboriginal society. A solution to the puzzle of why those artefacts were frequently made during one period in the past will be of interest to all researchers concerned with the historical development of Aboriginal societies, and to Aboriginal people. Furthermore, a detailed study of the evolution of a technology and its use over a period of 10,000 years, defining the entanglement of production and use systems, is rare in archaeology and the project will enable development of new insights into theories concerning the reasons technologies are adopted and changed.Read moreRead less
Impacts of Catastrophic Marine Inundation Events (CMIEs) on the Prehistoric Archaeological Record of the Australian Coastline. This project will enhance Australia's ability to respond to future Catastrophic Marine Inundation Events (CMIEs) from tsunamis and cyclonic storm surges. CMIEs represent a major natural hazard endangering Australian coastal populations and infrastructure. Disaster risk assessments and management strategies for coastal communities need data with time-depth. This project w ....Impacts of Catastrophic Marine Inundation Events (CMIEs) on the Prehistoric Archaeological Record of the Australian Coastline. This project will enhance Australia's ability to respond to future Catastrophic Marine Inundation Events (CMIEs) from tsunamis and cyclonic storm surges. CMIEs represent a major natural hazard endangering Australian coastal populations and infrastructure. Disaster risk assessments and management strategies for coastal communities need data with time-depth. This project will produce high-resolution dating and stratigraphic evidence on the effects of CMIEs on the North West Shelf WA coastline over 100 to 1000 year timescales. Read moreRead less