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
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
Proxies of power: ceramics and the Anatolian Iron Age. This project aims to understand the economic and political dynamics of emerging, competing polities during the Early and Middle Iron Age (~1200-600 BCE) in central and west Anatolia. It deploys a new protocol that combines mineralogical with geologically high resolution stable and radio-isotopic techniques for in-hand ceramics and sediments. This project will establish a definitive, spatially-discrete model of ceramic exchange between the ce ....Proxies of power: ceramics and the Anatolian Iron Age. This project aims to understand the economic and political dynamics of emerging, competing polities during the Early and Middle Iron Age (~1200-600 BCE) in central and west Anatolia. It deploys a new protocol that combines mineralogical with geologically high resolution stable and radio-isotopic techniques for in-hand ceramics and sediments. This project will establish a definitive, spatially-discrete model of ceramic exchange between the centres of three contemporary Anatolian polities: Phrygia, Lydia, and Tabal. The project will develop a new understanding of the economic and political transformations of Iron Age history, and expand the capabilities of a range of analytic techniques in archaeological contexts.Read moreRead less
The Impact of Water Stress on Early Humans in the Kalahari Desert. This project aims to understand the impacts of water stressed environments for early modern human behaviour through state-of-the-art excavation techniques and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at two new archaeological sites in the Kalahari. How humans mitigated water stress during a major technological transition is significant because adaptability to arid environments was crucial for humans expanding beyond Africa and into Aus ....The Impact of Water Stress on Early Humans in the Kalahari Desert. This project aims to understand the impacts of water stressed environments for early modern human behaviour through state-of-the-art excavation techniques and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at two new archaeological sites in the Kalahari. How humans mitigated water stress during a major technological transition is significant because adaptability to arid environments was crucial for humans expanding beyond Africa and into Australia. The expected outcome of this project is creation of new knowledge on the origins of human resilience to water stress. The benefit lies in the potential to gain insights into meeting future climate challenges by exploring the adaptive strategies developed by early modern humans in the southern Kalahari.Read moreRead less
Understanding long-term human-environmental interactions in South Asia. How did humans adapt to environmental change in the past? This project aims to address this question by examining the evidence provided by archaeological shell assemblages, a frequently overlooked residue of human habitation patterns. Deploying a range of high-resolution ecological and chemical techniques, this project aims to investigate changes in human behaviour, diet and landscape in one region through time and space. Th ....Understanding long-term human-environmental interactions in South Asia. How did humans adapt to environmental change in the past? This project aims to address this question by examining the evidence provided by archaeological shell assemblages, a frequently overlooked residue of human habitation patterns. Deploying a range of high-resolution ecological and chemical techniques, this project aims to investigate changes in human behaviour, diet and landscape in one region through time and space. The expected outcomes of this project will enhance our understanding of early human movement through South Asia into Australasia and generate new knowledge regarding the course of human adaptation to environmental changeRead moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101383
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$432,953.00
Summary
Hidden histories in teeth: The key to unlocking secrets in ancient Myanmar. The aim of this project is to examine isotopes in the teeth of individuals from three sites in prehistoric central Myanmar to examine diet, the movement and migration of people, and potential patterns in post-marital residence, which are all intricately linked. Built on a strong conceptual framework this project seeks to generate new information in the field of archaeological science. The research outcomes of this projec ....Hidden histories in teeth: The key to unlocking secrets in ancient Myanmar. The aim of this project is to examine isotopes in the teeth of individuals from three sites in prehistoric central Myanmar to examine diet, the movement and migration of people, and potential patterns in post-marital residence, which are all intricately linked. Built on a strong conceptual framework this project seeks to generate new information in the field of archaeological science. The research outcomes of this project will expand our current archaeological knowledge of this focal but under-researched area, which will be of particular benefit in understanding Myanmar in relation to surrounding regions and the wider Southeast Asian context, and in fostering continued collegiality and collaboration with Myanmar scholars and communities.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100133
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$409,297.00
Summary
Early animal husbandry and socio-political complexity in the Asia-Pacific. This project will investigate the origins of animal husbandry and its link to the creation of wealth, the development of socio-political prestige systems, the rise of inequality, and the coevolutionary effects of the domestication process on pigs. It focuses on 15 stratified Neolithic archaeological sites in the tropical island region of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific dating between 4000-500 years ago. An expected ....Early animal husbandry and socio-political complexity in the Asia-Pacific. This project will investigate the origins of animal husbandry and its link to the creation of wealth, the development of socio-political prestige systems, the rise of inequality, and the coevolutionary effects of the domestication process on pigs. It focuses on 15 stratified Neolithic archaeological sites in the tropical island region of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific dating between 4000-500 years ago. An expected outcome will be the establishment of an integrated evolutionary theoretical model that could be applied to analyzing agricultural transitions globally. Such a model predicts socio-political and rational economic strategies in pig management systems and can be tested using zooarchaeological analyses.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
The origin of cumulative culture in human evolution. Humans accumulate knowledge and use cumulative culture to transfer it across generations, and identifying the origin of this unique ability is a significant research priority for the study of archaeology and human evolution. This project aims to discover the emergence of cumulative culture by using experiments to evaluate stone tool-making, a technology passed between humans for 3.3 million years. Expected outcomes include international collab ....The origin of cumulative culture in human evolution. Humans accumulate knowledge and use cumulative culture to transfer it across generations, and identifying the origin of this unique ability is a significant research priority for the study of archaeology and human evolution. This project aims to discover the emergence of cumulative culture by using experiments to evaluate stone tool-making, a technology passed between humans for 3.3 million years. Expected outcomes include international collaborations that improve our evolutionary understanding of teaching and learning, and produce new data on early stone artefacts in Indonesia and Australia. This should provide significant benefits for collaborative research and scholarly insight into human evolution and Indigenous knowledge in our region.Read moreRead less
Earliest Village People: the shift to sedentary life in the Natufian period. This project aims to investigate the shift to sedentary life by excavating one of the earliest villages, founded by hunter-gatherers around 12,500 BCE. Of key interest are foundational burials at Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan and their role in the establishment of this new kind of settlement. Well-preserved deposits present a rare opportunity to track a community in the act of settling down so significant knowledge about the ....Earliest Village People: the shift to sedentary life in the Natufian period. This project aims to investigate the shift to sedentary life by excavating one of the earliest villages, founded by hunter-gatherers around 12,500 BCE. Of key interest are foundational burials at Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan and their role in the establishment of this new kind of settlement. Well-preserved deposits present a rare opportunity to track a community in the act of settling down so significant knowledge about the transition to sedentism should be generated. An interdisciplinary approach combining archaeology, bioanthropology and archaeogenetics may provide new explanations of early social organisation. Potential benefits include the building of international collaborations and the development of Australia’s role in the Middle East.Read moreRead less