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Chronology of Lower Palaeolithic settlements across the Mediterranean. The project seeks to contribute to our understanding of early human evolution in the Mediterranean and provide tested dating methods for Early Pleistocene sites. It aims to answer a major question in Quaternary geochronology and Mediterranean archaeology – when hominins reached the edges of the Mediterranean – by building more robust chronologies for Early Pleistocene sites located in non-volcanic context. After testing a ser ....Chronology of Lower Palaeolithic settlements across the Mediterranean. The project seeks to contribute to our understanding of early human evolution in the Mediterranean and provide tested dating methods for Early Pleistocene sites. It aims to answer a major question in Quaternary geochronology and Mediterranean archaeology – when hominins reached the edges of the Mediterranean – by building more robust chronologies for Early Pleistocene sites located in non-volcanic context. After testing a series of dating protocols at known-age localities, the project plans to apply a new multi-technique dating approach combining different numerical methods and Bayesian modelling on a range of Lower Palaeolithic sites in three key areas: Southern Spain, Northern Africa and the Near East.Read moreRead less
Indian Ocean globalisation and the westward Austronesian expansion. This project aims to apply a multi-analytical archaeological science approach to investigate how cross-cultural interaction transformed peoples, societies and environments in the Indian Ocean. It plans to trace the movement of people, plants, animals, goods and practices to Madagascar and the Comoros over 1000 years ago in order to critically assess evidence for early long-distance contacts between Southeast Asia and Africa. The ....Indian Ocean globalisation and the westward Austronesian expansion. This project aims to apply a multi-analytical archaeological science approach to investigate how cross-cultural interaction transformed peoples, societies and environments in the Indian Ocean. It plans to trace the movement of people, plants, animals, goods and practices to Madagascar and the Comoros over 1000 years ago in order to critically assess evidence for early long-distance contacts between Southeast Asia and Africa. The project seeks to enhance Australia’s capacity for archaeological science and deliver significant social and cultural benefits by shedding light on the history of the diverse but interconnected Indo-Pacific world in which Australia now occupies a central geopolitical position.Read moreRead less
Resolving fundamental problems in the dating of marine shell in the tropics. This project will model variability in the way carbon is distributed in marine environments and animals in tropical Australasia. Results will provide key enabling tools for accurate dating of marine materials, realising the potential of previous research and forming the basis for accurate reconstructions of cultural, sea-level and climate changed.
Painting Country: the life and legacy of western Arnhem Land rock painters. This project aims to generate new understandings of Australia’s past by exploring the lives and legacies of known Aboriginal rock art artists. It addresses key questions in global archaeology relating to when, where and why rock art was created. Using innovative methodologies, this project intends to create a unique archive of 20th century rock art and oral history recordings from western Arnhem Land. The anticipated out ....Painting Country: the life and legacy of western Arnhem Land rock painters. This project aims to generate new understandings of Australia’s past by exploring the lives and legacies of known Aboriginal rock art artists. It addresses key questions in global archaeology relating to when, where and why rock art was created. Using innovative methodologies, this project intends to create a unique archive of 20th century rock art and oral history recordings from western Arnhem Land. The anticipated outcomes will include new internationally significant knowledge concerning the impacts of colonisation on artistic practices in Australia. Furthermore, the project aims to contribute new information and data that can be used to inform cultural heritage management and education programs both locally and across Australia. Read moreRead less
The Laboratory of Modernity: Knowledge Formation and the Australian Settler Colonies (1788-1900). Colonial Australia was a laboratory in which European ideas could be tested, raw data collected, and social experiments trialled, especially in managing settler, convict, and Aboriginal populations. This literary historical project will analyse the production and circulation of colonial knowledge, by focusing on texts and print culture, and will map their influence on European thought and modern soc ....The Laboratory of Modernity: Knowledge Formation and the Australian Settler Colonies (1788-1900). Colonial Australia was a laboratory in which European ideas could be tested, raw data collected, and social experiments trialled, especially in managing settler, convict, and Aboriginal populations. This literary historical project will analyse the production and circulation of colonial knowledge, by focusing on texts and print culture, and will map their influence on European thought and modern social theory. Grounded in meticulous archival and textual analysis, this project will trace the ways in which knowledge created in the settler colonies was produced by individuals and circulated by correspondence, institutions, and publication through imperial networks. This project will produce new insights into Australia’s literary and cultural history.Read moreRead less
Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environ ....Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environmental context of human evolution in Asia, and identify routes ancient people took as they moved south through Asia and into Australia.Read moreRead less
Resource security trade and the development of urbanism in the pre-Classical world. Long distance trade in bulk foods, such as grain, is a key strategy for overcoming food insecurity in the modern urbanised world, yet we know relatively little of its history and role in the emergence and stability of the world’s first cities and states. Developing new archaeological techniques, this project explores the history of trade in bulk grain in southwest Asia from the Neolithic to Iron Age and its role ....Resource security trade and the development of urbanism in the pre-Classical world. Long distance trade in bulk foods, such as grain, is a key strategy for overcoming food insecurity in the modern urbanised world, yet we know relatively little of its history and role in the emergence and stability of the world’s first cities and states. Developing new archaeological techniques, this project explores the history of trade in bulk grain in southwest Asia from the Neolithic to Iron Age and its role in stimulating socio-economic change and mediating food insecurity in a period of rapid climatic and political change. In revolutionising our view of ancient food trade it will provide an example from the past to help inform contemporary debates about the efficacy of a key economic strategy in moderating fluctuations in food supply.Read moreRead less
Dreams, Prophecy and Violence from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam. In Classical Greco-Roman society dreams or visions were sometimes understood as vehicles of divine revelation. Early Christians and Muslims developed the religious interpretation of dreams, using it to bolster the religious authority of their leaders, who laid claim to the Jewish tradition of prophets who brought messages from God. This project aims to uncover the development of dream interpretation from Classical Antiqu ....Dreams, Prophecy and Violence from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam. In Classical Greco-Roman society dreams or visions were sometimes understood as vehicles of divine revelation. Early Christians and Muslims developed the religious interpretation of dreams, using it to bolster the religious authority of their leaders, who laid claim to the Jewish tradition of prophets who brought messages from God. This project aims to uncover the development of dream interpretation from Classical Antiquity through early Christianity to early Islam and give an understanding of how dreams and visions were used as tools of religious control and as justification of violence against other religions.Read moreRead less
The unknown ‘Ice Age’ artists of Borneo. This project aims to shift the focus of the search for art’s origins onto important new horizons. Who were the first artists? When and why did it become second nature for humans not simply to exist within the natural world, but to encode it with images of things both real and imagined? The discovery of cave paintings in Sulawesi and more recently in Borneo dating to at least 40,000 years ago has altered our understanding of the origins and spread of the f ....The unknown ‘Ice Age’ artists of Borneo. This project aims to shift the focus of the search for art’s origins onto important new horizons. Who were the first artists? When and why did it become second nature for humans not simply to exist within the natural world, but to encode it with images of things both real and imagined? The discovery of cave paintings in Sulawesi and more recently in Borneo dating to at least 40,000 years ago has altered our understanding of the origins and spread of the first painting traditions. This project will build upon these breakthrough discoveries by constructing the first detailed portrait of the cultural and symbolic worlds of the unknown artists of Pleistocene Borneo. By doing so, it will further our knowledge about the process of the emergence of figurative art, one of the most fundamental cultural developments in the evolution of humankind.Read moreRead less
German-speakers in the Australian indigenous encounter: ethnographers, collectors, missionaries. This project will generate a website and accompanying scholarly book to provide easy access to otherwise intractable sources show-casing the vast contribution of German speakers to the mission and ethnographic effort in the Australian colonies. These will be useful resources for history teaching and a contribution to intercultural understanding.