Mike Smith

Hunter-gatherer response to late Holocene climatic variability in northern and central Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 25-08-2010

DOI: 10.1002/JQS.1416

The human colonisation of Australia: optical dates of 53,000 and 60,000 years bracket human arrival at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 1994

DOI: 10.1016/0277-3791(94)90080-9

Reorganising foraging during the Late Holocene: The archaeology of NEP23, Central Australia

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 02-09-2021

DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2021.1976899

Ground‐penetrating radar and burial practices in western Arnhem Land, Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 11-09-2014

DOI: 10.1002/ARCO.5039

Beyond the radiocarbon barrier in Australian prehistory

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Date: 09-1994

DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00047116

Abstract: The team that has been dating early Australian sites by luminescence methods replies to Allen's (1994) view of the continent's human chronology, published in the June ANTIQUITY (68: 339–43). They argue the strength of the long chronology with their new optical dates.

Desert Peoples

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 2005

DOI: 10.1002/9780470774632

The first Australian plant foods at Madjedbebe, 65,000–53,000 years ago

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 17-02-2020

DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-14723-0

Abstract: There is little evidence for the role of plant foods in the dispersal of early modern humans into new habitats globally. Researchers have hypothesised that early movements of human populations through Island Southeast Asia and into Sahul were driven by the lure of high-calorie, low-handling-cost foods, and that the use of plant foods requiring processing was not common in Sahul until the Holocene. Here we present the analysis of charred plant food remains from Madjedbebe rockshelter in northern Australia, dated to between 65 kya and 53 kya. We demonstrate that Australia’s earliest known human population exploited a range of plant foods, including those requiring processing. Our finds predate existing evidence for such subsistence practices in Sahul by at least 23ky. These results suggest that dietary breadth underpinned the success of early modern human populations in this region, with the expenditure of labour on the processing of plants guaranteeing reliable access to nutrients in new environments.

The lost oasis: Archaeology of a ‘forgotten’ mikiri well in the Simpson Desert

Publisher: James Cook University

Date: 05-03-2020

DOI: 10.25120/QAR.23.2020.3717

Abstract: This paper describes a previously unknown mikiri well in the Simpson dune field. This site was abandoned about 500-600 years ago and does not feature in ethnographic records for this region. We argue that its abandonment was most likely due to failure of the well caused by a fall in the local watertable. The Simpson Desert is one of the major sand-ridge deserts of the world, but current views of the chronology of human use of this vast dune field rest on only a handful of radiocarbon ages (n=12). The radiocarbon ages for this mikiri, and its surroundings, add to this limited dataset. We plot all available radiocarbon ages from archaeological sites in the dune field showing that occupation of this mikiri coincided with a widespread increase in use of the dune field during the last millennium, at about the time the Wangkanguru people in the dune field were becoming linguistically distinct from the Arabana to the west.

65,000 years of changing plant food and landscape use at Madjedbebe, Mirarr country, northern Australia

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 05-2022

DOI: 10.1016/J.QUASCIREV.2022.107498

Human-environment interactions in Australian drylands: Exploratory time-series analysis of archaeological records

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 05-2008

DOI: 10.1177/0959683607087929

Abstract: Exploratory time-series analysis of radiocarbon data from archaeological contexts is used to reconstruct the population history of arid Australia, allowing this to be read in concert with records of climatic variability over the last 20 000 years. Probability distribution plots of 971 radiocarbon ages from 286 sites in five dryland regions (the arid west coast, Pilbara and Murchison, Nullarbor, arid interior and the southeastern arid zone) provide a proxy record of prehistoric population fluctuations in these areas. There is regional variation, but the radiocarbon density plots suggest a step-wise pattern of population growth and expansion, with significant thresholds at 19, 8 and 1.5 cal. kyr BP. Within this, the plots suggest a saw-tooth pattern of rapid population growth and decline on a 1—3 kyr frequency, with a marked collapse of dryland hunter-gatherer populations around 3—2.5 cal. kyr BP affecting most regions. Comparison with climate data shows broad correlations with past temperature and rainfall variability, sea-level change and ENSO activity, but the interaction of prehistoric populations and these environmental changes is not well resolved. High litude environmental changes appear to have triggered stadial changes in population, rather than smooth transitions. Dryland populations may also have become more sensitive to small environmental changes in the late Holocene, as population density increased. A large increase in population around 1.5 cal. kyr BP is associated with small changes in regional palaeoecology, which are not otherwise represented in palaeoclimatic data sets. Spectral analysis identifies two cyclical periodicities of 1340 and 175 years within the population histories, also suggesting responses to millennial and submillennial climatic variability, a pattern most marked in the late Holocene.

Human predation contributed to the extinction of the Australian megafaunal bird Genyornis newtoni ∼47 ka

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 29-01-2016

DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS10496

Abstract: Although the temporal overlap between human dispersal across Australia and the disappearance of its largest animals is well established, the lack of unambiguous evidence for human–megafauna interactions has led some to question a human role in megafaunal extinction. Here we show that diagnostic burn patterns on eggshell fragments of the megafaunal bird Genyornis newtoni , found at sites across Australia, were created by humans discarding eggshell in and around transient fires, presumably made to cook the eggs. Dating by three methods restricts their occurrence to between 53.9 and 43.4 ka, and likely before 47 ka. Dromaius (emu) eggshell occur frequently in deposits from ka to present burnt Dromaius eggshell first appear in deposits the same age as those with burnt Genyornis eggshell, and then continually to modern time. Harvesting of their eggs by humans would have decreased Genyornis reproductive success, contributing to the bird’s extinction by ∼47 ka.

Puntutjarpa rockshelter revisited: a chronological and stratigraphic reappraisal of a key archaeological sequence for the Western Desert, Australia

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 04-05-2017

DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2017.1351673

How do we distinguish termite stone lines from artefact horizons? A challenge for geoarchaeology in tropical Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 03-10-2020

DOI: 10.1002/GEA.21766

A fresh framework for the ecology of arid Australia

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 04-2011

DOI: 10.1016/J.JARIDENV.2010.11.001

New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Date: 08-06-2001

DOI: 10.1126/SCIENCE.1060264

Abstract: All Australian land mammals, reptiles, and birds weighing more than 100 kilograms, and six of the seven genera with a body mass of 45 to 100 kilograms, perished in the late Quaternary. The timing and causes of these extinctions remain uncertain. We report burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago (95% confidence interval, 51,200 to 39,800 years ago). Our results rule out extreme aridity at the Last Glacial Maximum as the cause of extinction, but not other climatic impacts a “blitzkrieg” model of human-induced extinction or an extended period of anthropogenic ecosystem disruption.

Radiocarbon dating of organic- and carbonate-carbon in Genyornis and Dromaius eggshell using stepped combustion and stepped acidification

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 07-2003

DOI: 10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00151-3

Global Deserts in Perspective

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 2005

DOI: 10.1002/9780470774632.CH1

The archaeology, chronology and stratigraphy of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II): A site in northern Australia with early occupation

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 06-2015

DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2015.03.014

Abstract: Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages in Sahul for this early period. However, the stone artefacts and other important archaeological components of the site have never been described in detail, leading to persistent doubts about its stratigraphic integrity. We report on our analysis of the stone artefacts and faunal and other materials recovered during the 1989 excavations, as well as the stratigraphy and depositional history recorded by the original excavators. We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers. Silcrete and quartzite artefacts are common in the early assemblage, which also includes edge-ground axe fragments and ground haematite. The lower flaked stone assemblage is distinctive, comprising a mix of long convergent flakes, some radial flakes with faceted platforms, and many small thin silcrete flakes that we interpret as thinning flakes. Residue and use-wear analysis indicate occasional grinding of haematite and woodworking, as well as frequent abrading of platform edges on thinning flakes. We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been overstated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50-60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods. We discuss the implications of these new data for understanding the first human colonisation of Sahul.

Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 07-2017

DOI: 10.1038/NATURE22968

Abstract: The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia's megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Robert Edwards and the history of Australian rock art research

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2021

DOI: 10.1071/HR20011

Abstract: Working in the 1960s, Robert (Bob) Edwards was a key figure in the development of research into Australian rock art. He was one of the first rock art scholars to attempt a quantitative and comparative survey of rock engravings in south and central Australia. In this paper, we examine the development of his work on rock engravings, the intellectual context for his research, and the problems he addressed. Edwards’ research took place during a decade when rock art research became more systematic, analytical and quantitative. Although Edwards’ research on rock engravings was influential, his subsequent career shows a shift from an antiquarian interest in which he regarded rock art as an archaeological relic of an ancient Australia, to a more humanist perspective, where he began to appreciate that many of the sites that he regarded as ancient were part of a living tradition.

A continental narrative: Human settlement patterns and Australian climate change over the last 35,000 years

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 09-2015

DOI: 10.1016/J.QUASCIREV.2015.06.018

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP220101522

Start Date: 03-2022

End Date: 03-2026

Amount: $910,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0347378

Start Date: 04-2003

End Date: 12-2005

Amount: $166,986.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP0218849

Start Date: 04-2002

End Date: 04-2005

Amount: $67,635.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP120200473

Start Date: 12-2012

End Date: 12-2015

Amount: $374,154.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP110200742

Start Date: 03-2012

End Date: 12-2016

Amount: $810,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP110102864

Start Date: 2011

End Date: 12-2016

Amount: $753,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0450837

Start Date: 2004

End Date: 12-2009

Amount: $150,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Modern Human Origins And Early Behavioural Complexity In Australia And Southeast Asia

Start Date: 2011

End Date: 2015

Funder: Australian Research Council

Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354580

Start Date: 12-2003

End Date: 12-2004

Amount: $10,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP200100559

Start Date: 11-2020

End Date: 12-2024

Amount: $695,700.00

Funder: Australian Research Council