Unearthing the roots of agriculture: multi-disciplinary investigations of Pleistocene and Holocene plant exploitation in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. The Project will foster greater communication, public understanding and research links between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Project will also provide archaeological training for students at Australian universities and students and practitioners in Papua New Guinea. The research seeks to understand the development of societie ....Unearthing the roots of agriculture: multi-disciplinary investigations of Pleistocene and Holocene plant exploitation in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. The Project will foster greater communication, public understanding and research links between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Project will also provide archaeological training for students at Australian universities and students and practitioners in Papua New Guinea. The research seeks to understand the development of societies and subsistence practices, particularly plant exploitation and agriculture, in New Guinea from the Pleistocene to the present. The research will chart long-term human-environment relations in New Guinea, which are central to understanding the sustainability of food production and the maintenance of biodiversity in the Australasian region.Read moreRead less
The origins of Asian domestic buffalo and its role in the development of agricultural technology. Benefits for Australia are educational, cultural and scientific. This project will enhance research collaborations between Australian universities and research institutions in China, Canada, the USA and India. It will particularly create more opportunities for academic exchange between Australia and China. This project employs new methods combining archaeology with DNA technology and archaeometry to ....The origins of Asian domestic buffalo and its role in the development of agricultural technology. Benefits for Australia are educational, cultural and scientific. This project will enhance research collaborations between Australian universities and research institutions in China, Canada, the USA and India. It will particularly create more opportunities for academic exchange between Australia and China. This project employs new methods combining archaeology with DNA technology and archaeometry to tackle important issues in animal domestication and agricultural technology in many Asian regions. Its outcome will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the human history of our region and the world.Read moreRead less
Chinese Middle to Late Pleistocene hominid behaviour: exploring cultural variability through time and space. This research will contribute to the understanding of the spread of our species out of Africa 2 million years ago into East Asia. It examines the range of hominid behaviours and ecological circumstances that led to the successful colonisation of China by Homo erectus. It also addresses the vexed question of the relationship between H. erectus and H. sapiens. Did the latter evolve in situ ....Chinese Middle to Late Pleistocene hominid behaviour: exploring cultural variability through time and space. This research will contribute to the understanding of the spread of our species out of Africa 2 million years ago into East Asia. It examines the range of hominid behaviours and ecological circumstances that led to the successful colonisation of China by Homo erectus. It also addresses the vexed question of the relationship between H. erectus and H. sapiens. Did the latter evolve in situ from their antecedents as some suggest, or did H. sapiens replace H. erectus, in the great diaspora from Africa 120,000 years ago?Read moreRead less
Early African woodworking and tool use at the transition to modern humans. Our archaeological excavations and preliminary dating of Amanzi Springs (South Africa) to between 515,000 and 163,000 years ago shows that the site covers a critical time period that led to the origins of our species, Homo sapiens. Amanzi documents, in never before seen resolution, the technological leaps that our ancestors made during this transition. At ~400,000 years ago this includes the oldest evidence for woodworkin ....Early African woodworking and tool use at the transition to modern humans. Our archaeological excavations and preliminary dating of Amanzi Springs (South Africa) to between 515,000 and 163,000 years ago shows that the site covers a critical time period that led to the origins of our species, Homo sapiens. Amanzi documents, in never before seen resolution, the technological leaps that our ancestors made during this transition. At ~400,000 years ago this includes the oldest evidence for woodworking and tool use and >163,000 years ago the oldest heat treatment of rock to make stone tools. The organic preservation at the site means that we can reconstruct changing environment, linked to sea level changes and spring activity, for this period in the evolution of our ancestors at a level of detail not previously possibleRead moreRead less
Cultural change in its environmental context: exploring, interpreting, and managing archaeologically rich, large-scale cultural landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin. (1) Production of a Holocene climate history and evaluation of long-term human response to environmental change in Mediterranean to continental climate zones. (2) Development of relationships with international researchers, including leading scholars from Italy, Bulgaria, the United States, and the Netherlands. (3) Extension of Aus ....Cultural change in its environmental context: exploring, interpreting, and managing archaeologically rich, large-scale cultural landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin. (1) Production of a Holocene climate history and evaluation of long-term human response to environmental change in Mediterranean to continental climate zones. (2) Development of relationships with international researchers, including leading scholars from Italy, Bulgaria, the United States, and the Netherlands. (3) Extension of Australia's leadership in Mediterranean archaeology to the Balkans through building institutional relationships and initiating a presence in Bulgaria (arguably the most promising country in its region for archaeological research). (4) Development of innovative remote sensing methods for archaeological reconnaissance with wide applicability, including in Australian contexts and by other Australian research projects.Read moreRead less
An archaeological investigation into the collapse of Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka. This project aims to develop an improved understanding of the collapse of the kingdom of Polonnaruva, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Sri Lanka. The medieval collapse of Polonnaruva marked the end of the lowland kingdoms in Sri Lanka's arid north, and the end of a distinctive and successful form of hydraulic low-density urban settlement. Recent research at Anuradhapura suggests the very economic system that enabled ....An archaeological investigation into the collapse of Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka. This project aims to develop an improved understanding of the collapse of the kingdom of Polonnaruva, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Sri Lanka. The medieval collapse of Polonnaruva marked the end of the lowland kingdoms in Sri Lanka's arid north, and the end of a distinctive and successful form of hydraulic low-density urban settlement. Recent research at Anuradhapura suggests the very economic system that enabled these kingdoms to flourish within a marginal environment, may have facilitated their collapse. This project will characterise, contextualise and explain the development and failure of the low-density urban state of Polonnaruva. The project expects to inform environmental security and improve management and risk reduction in decision making in relation to ancient and contemporary socio-environmental systems.Read moreRead less
House to House Enquiries in the Hellenistic Near East. Housing is primary, vivid evidence of domestic life. Its key role in interpreting the social fabric of human settlement is a current international debate. This will be the first study of households in the Near East in the Seleucid period, when Macedonians settled the Levant. Did Greek culture interact with eastern traditions? Only archaeological evidence survives. The project takes a unique, newly-excavated site in Syria as a starting point ....House to House Enquiries in the Hellenistic Near East. Housing is primary, vivid evidence of domestic life. Its key role in interpreting the social fabric of human settlement is a current international debate. This will be the first study of households in the Near East in the Seleucid period, when Macedonians settled the Levant. Did Greek culture interact with eastern traditions? Only archaeological evidence survives. The project takes a unique, newly-excavated site in Syria as a starting point for a wider investigation of Hellenistic houses in the Near East, using the cross-disciplinary evidence of architecture, ceramics, domestic cult, zooarchaeology, palaeobotany and nuclear analysis of clays to interpret living space.Read moreRead less
The Origin and Development of the Tongan Maritime Empire. This project aims to understand the nature and development of the Tongan maritime empire, the most complex socio-political entity to exist in prehistoric Oceania. Extensive excavations of monumental structures and other sites throughout the central Pacific will create the first cultural sequence of the empire and a comprehensive radiocarbon chronology. The excavations will concentrate on sites of cross-cultural contact between indigeno ....The Origin and Development of the Tongan Maritime Empire. This project aims to understand the nature and development of the Tongan maritime empire, the most complex socio-political entity to exist in prehistoric Oceania. Extensive excavations of monumental structures and other sites throughout the central Pacific will create the first cultural sequence of the empire and a comprehensive radiocarbon chronology. The excavations will concentrate on sites of cross-cultural contact between indigenous peoples of the region. In addition traditional and documentary historical records will be reanalysed. A substantial monograph will assess the significance of these new Pacific data in relation to our understanding of maritime empires around the world.Read moreRead less
Environmental and cultural change along the Central Murray River. The aim of this project is to understand how past people in the riverine landscapes of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) were influenced by and adapted to environmental change. This will be achieved using a novel cross-disciplinary approach combining state-of-the-art palaeoenvironmental and archaeological methods. Indigenous people of the MDB have always been closely linked to rivers, however, over the period of human habitation flow ....Environmental and cultural change along the Central Murray River. The aim of this project is to understand how past people in the riverine landscapes of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) were influenced by and adapted to environmental change. This will be achieved using a novel cross-disciplinary approach combining state-of-the-art palaeoenvironmental and archaeological methods. Indigenous people of the MDB have always been closely linked to rivers, however, over the period of human habitation flows on these rivers were likely subject to changes that exceeded present-day variability. Understanding how these changes have impacted humans, offers clues on adaption to environmental change and aids in developing strategies for living with the inherently variable and vulnerable rivers in drylands.Read moreRead less
Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past ....Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past in this manner we can better understand current health issues linked to diet and how the environment and climate is changing.Read moreRead less