Colin Pardoe
Biological Anthropology within an archaeological framework
Phone: +61 428692798
Address: 16 Hackett Gardens, Turner, ACT 2612, Australia
Phone: +61 428692798
Address: 16 Hackett Gardens, Turner, ACT 2612, Australia
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Papers by Colin Pardoe
variables that influence usewear formation on sandstone grinding implements (including abrading stones) of different toughness and hardness. Distinct patterns of usewear result from the class of worked material, modes and duration of use, and the stone material. Hard sandstones can sustain more developed polish during use than soft sandstones, which wear more rapidly. Our experimental reference library is applied here to a pilot study of grinding implements, made of hard and soft sandstones, in archaeological contexts from southeastern Australia, where distributions of hard seed mortars and soft seed grinding stones are correlated with distinct woodland and floodplain vegetation communities, suggesting different behavioural strategies. Seed grinding is documented on both hard and soft sandstones but we suggest that grinding hard seeds is only efficient on hard sandstones. The spatial and chronological distributions of hard and soft sandstone grinding dishes are potentially linked not only with sandstone availability but also with vegetation communities and climate change.
subsistence strategies practiced on the floodplains in the late Holocene. This paper presents the analyses of the cultural materials recovered from these two open sites, including those of invertebrate and vertebrate faunal remains, shell and stone artefacts, and pigment on artefacts. Interpretation of the data suggests that occupation was relatively short-lived. Differential representation of food resources indicates that each site was occupied in different seasons. Both local manufacture and regional connectivity are suggested by ochre use and stone artefact working. Evidence from other regional sites implies a subsequent focus
for settlement to the south and east.
In this short review I mention only a couple of features indicative of violence, cranial depression fractures and parrying fractures to the forearm. Research in Australia has not shown systematic patterns related to environment at a very general or continental level. When we turn to chronology, we see glimpses of what looks like considerable trauma from fighting with weaponry—enough to suggest that it was common in the early Holocene. At the same time, the incidence of cranial depression fractures marginally increases among women, and considerably more among men, suggesting that open combat increased by the Late Holocene. Based on the present evidence, violence would appear to have been common across several categories including domestic, trial by ordeal, warfare and revenge.
The evidence for warfare is now examined as a case study for the Central Murray River region and set within continental variation.
The first question addressed is whether my original view of warfare as boundary maintenance is supported? If not, how would this affect the interpretation of the territorial model?
Following on from this, the second question is: How well does skeletal evidence correlate with the historical record? How far might we push our interpretations of violence and warfare from skeletal trauma?
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.
Citation: J. L. Wright, S. Wasef, T. H. Heupink, M. C. Westaway, S. Rasmussen, C. Pardoe, G. G. Fourmile, M. Young, T. Johnson, J. Slade, R. Kennedy, P. Winch, M. Pappin Sr., T. Wales, W. B. Bates, S. Hamilton, N. Whyman, S. van Holst Pellekaan, P. J. McAllister, P. SC. Taçon, D. Curnoe, R. Li, C. Millar, S. Subramanian, E. Willerslev, A.-S. Malaspinas, M. Sikora, D. M. Lambert, Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Sci. Adv. 4, eaau5064 (2018).
Bioscapes are essentially population structure, the non-random distribution of morphological variation; the unique combinations of ecology, evolution and society that produced an historical sequence of change and variation. The purpose of studying population structure is partly to elucidate evolutionary processes of humans and partly to investigate the history of particular groups of people.
Biological mapping of human morphological variation would be uninteresting if there were a complete correspondence of biology and geography. What will be of greater interest is where unexpected patterns might lead us to greater understanding of the evolutionary processes that create each unique history as they produce the living diversity of all organisms. The scope of this biological mapping is continental. From a general overview particular observations will be drawn on islands, the arid zone and the River Murray.
Evidence from cranial, non-metric traits shows that such a system must result in regional similarity along a huge stretch of river and in extreme diversity within the region. Kow Swamp and Coobool Creek are not archaic, atypical members of this group. They represent the immense diversity engendered by their unique historical patterns of social organisation, demography and environment.
a sandstone rock shelter in western Arnhem Land (Australia) containing numerous Aboriginal burials. GPR revealed subsurface patterning of rocks in the shelter deposits and archaeological excavation demonstrated that these were related to burials. Post-excavation, GIS and statistical analysis further elucidated the relationship between the rocks and human burials. This integration of detailed mapping, GPR and excavation afforded the opportunity to test a way to identify unmarked burials using GPR in sandstone rock shelters and to document a marker for burial identification in this region. Application of the methodology developed through this case study provides a useful management tool for Indigenous communities and other heritage practitioners.
variables that influence usewear formation on sandstone grinding implements (including abrading stones) of different toughness and hardness. Distinct patterns of usewear result from the class of worked material, modes and duration of use, and the stone material. Hard sandstones can sustain more developed polish during use than soft sandstones, which wear more rapidly. Our experimental reference library is applied here to a pilot study of grinding implements, made of hard and soft sandstones, in archaeological contexts from southeastern Australia, where distributions of hard seed mortars and soft seed grinding stones are correlated with distinct woodland and floodplain vegetation communities, suggesting different behavioural strategies. Seed grinding is documented on both hard and soft sandstones but we suggest that grinding hard seeds is only efficient on hard sandstones. The spatial and chronological distributions of hard and soft sandstone grinding dishes are potentially linked not only with sandstone availability but also with vegetation communities and climate change.
subsistence strategies practiced on the floodplains in the late Holocene. This paper presents the analyses of the cultural materials recovered from these two open sites, including those of invertebrate and vertebrate faunal remains, shell and stone artefacts, and pigment on artefacts. Interpretation of the data suggests that occupation was relatively short-lived. Differential representation of food resources indicates that each site was occupied in different seasons. Both local manufacture and regional connectivity are suggested by ochre use and stone artefact working. Evidence from other regional sites implies a subsequent focus
for settlement to the south and east.
In this short review I mention only a couple of features indicative of violence, cranial depression fractures and parrying fractures to the forearm. Research in Australia has not shown systematic patterns related to environment at a very general or continental level. When we turn to chronology, we see glimpses of what looks like considerable trauma from fighting with weaponry—enough to suggest that it was common in the early Holocene. At the same time, the incidence of cranial depression fractures marginally increases among women, and considerably more among men, suggesting that open combat increased by the Late Holocene. Based on the present evidence, violence would appear to have been common across several categories including domestic, trial by ordeal, warfare and revenge.
The evidence for warfare is now examined as a case study for the Central Murray River region and set within continental variation.
The first question addressed is whether my original view of warfare as boundary maintenance is supported? If not, how would this affect the interpretation of the territorial model?
Following on from this, the second question is: How well does skeletal evidence correlate with the historical record? How far might we push our interpretations of violence and warfare from skeletal trauma?
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.
Citation: J. L. Wright, S. Wasef, T. H. Heupink, M. C. Westaway, S. Rasmussen, C. Pardoe, G. G. Fourmile, M. Young, T. Johnson, J. Slade, R. Kennedy, P. Winch, M. Pappin Sr., T. Wales, W. B. Bates, S. Hamilton, N. Whyman, S. van Holst Pellekaan, P. J. McAllister, P. SC. Taçon, D. Curnoe, R. Li, C. Millar, S. Subramanian, E. Willerslev, A.-S. Malaspinas, M. Sikora, D. M. Lambert, Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Sci. Adv. 4, eaau5064 (2018).
Bioscapes are essentially population structure, the non-random distribution of morphological variation; the unique combinations of ecology, evolution and society that produced an historical sequence of change and variation. The purpose of studying population structure is partly to elucidate evolutionary processes of humans and partly to investigate the history of particular groups of people.
Biological mapping of human morphological variation would be uninteresting if there were a complete correspondence of biology and geography. What will be of greater interest is where unexpected patterns might lead us to greater understanding of the evolutionary processes that create each unique history as they produce the living diversity of all organisms. The scope of this biological mapping is continental. From a general overview particular observations will be drawn on islands, the arid zone and the River Murray.
Evidence from cranial, non-metric traits shows that such a system must result in regional similarity along a huge stretch of river and in extreme diversity within the region. Kow Swamp and Coobool Creek are not archaic, atypical members of this group. They represent the immense diversity engendered by their unique historical patterns of social organisation, demography and environment.
a sandstone rock shelter in western Arnhem Land (Australia) containing numerous Aboriginal burials. GPR revealed subsurface patterning of rocks in the shelter deposits and archaeological excavation demonstrated that these were related to burials. Post-excavation, GIS and statistical analysis further elucidated the relationship between the rocks and human burials. This integration of detailed mapping, GPR and excavation afforded the opportunity to test a way to identify unmarked burials using GPR in sandstone rock shelters and to document a marker for burial identification in this region. Application of the methodology developed through this case study provides a useful management tool for Indigenous communities and other heritage practitioners.
Trait frequencies are significantly associated with factors of geography. These are interpretable as clines spanning the continent, the east coast and the River Murray. From the multivariate results, two major divisions are identified, a large northern and a much smaller southeastern zone. The River Murray stands out as a region of extreme diversity. The identification of small regional patterns as clines and clusters gives rise to an interpretation of variation based mainly on gene flow. It is suggested that patterns of links between groups are the result of gene flow and particular spatial relationships that restrict flow.
A total of 918 sites were used in an analysis of the nature and distribution of sites in the Murrumbidgee Province. 307 archaeological sites and other features are held on the Sites Register of NP&WS. 347 sites (including more than 600 separate features) were added to this information during fieldwork in the present study. Other data were added from previous studies.
On the basis of the distribution of known sites and their location, we estimate that the Murrumbidgee Province contains more than 92,000 sites or features. Mounds, scarred trees, burials and open sites with stone tools are the most commonly encountered sites in the area.
A predictive map has been developed as part of this project. The map may be used with Arc View, a standard Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program used by many land managers. The map shows the likelihood of site occurrence throughout the study area. This map will prove valuable as a completely public document containing no confidential sites information. Recommendations on site conservation include checking actions such as unrestrained laser-levelling of large paddocks and old timber felling on river channel frontage without inspection for potential damage to places of significance to Aboriginal People. Damage to Aboriginal sites destroys these cultural assets and damages the right of Aboriginal people to access and enjoy their heritage.
The study documented 141 burials distributed within a cemetery and across residential places. Patterns of burial differed between those in the cemetery and those buried individually or in smaller groups. The latter were often associated with residential areas. Children made up 20% of burials within the cemetery and 4% outside. Men and women were represented in both areas in about the same numbers (65% men and 35% women), consistent with the wider region. Cremations were more common than one might expect (16%) and more of those were from outside the cemetery. 57% of burials were supine extended. Burials were placed mainly heading to the WSW with a smaller number heading to the north.
This report was written for the local community and should be read in conjunction with the main report (Pardoe 1989).
Mark Grist was the Cultural Heritage Officer at the Sunraysia Aboriginal Co-operative in Mildura. We had identified the meander scroll on the western end of Lindsay Island (part of the Murray River floodplain) as an important area that required conservation and documentation. Previous study had identified this as one of the places that GM Black exhumed remains during the 1940s (Pardoe 1988). It was also the subject of survey and excavation in the 1970s (Blackwood and Simpson 1973).
A total of 141 graves were documented in this survey. No excavation was carried out. Most of the burials probably date to within the last few thousand years. The cemetery is well-defined, being restricted to three discrete dunes of the meander scroll. Position or form of burial is typical of the wider region, and varied between cemetery and non-cemetery. Burials laid out in a supine extended position were most common (57%), with cremations more common than previously reported at 16%. The remainder were mainly semi-flexed, although 3 individuals (6%) were buried face down. Children made up 20% of burials in the cemetery, but only 4% outside. Most adult burials were men (69%), with some differences between cemetery and non-cemetery.
Our discovery of the Berribee silcrete source was a major find that fuelled Mark’s interest in further study, culminating in his 1995 BA Honours thesis from the Australian National University, entitled ‘An archaeological investigation in to the “No Stone Saga” of far north-west Victoria’.
This was an important study that demonstrated the practical working arrangement possible between Aboriginal people and Archaeologists. The study focussed on skeletal remains at the request and interest of the local community. Conservation and future planning were important for this locality because of its importance and fragility. The concerns and interests of all parties - Aboriginal, local, archaeological, conservation - were accommodated and proved complementary.
This document, approved at the time by the Sunraysia Aboriginal Co-operative and Traditional Owners, is edited slightly for clarity.
A predictive map was constructed from 6,695 sites or data points. This is a powerful tool for understanding the distribution of the archaeology around the Menindee Lakes – a road map if you will of how people made use of, and travelled around the Lakes over the course of days, seasons, generations and millennia.
Quandong nuts present a major problem when you want to crack them. They are round like a ball and have a really hard shell. The art is to hit them hard enough to break the casing without smashing the kernel into peanut butter mixed with sharp pieces of outer shell.
During my work with Wiradjuri people on the Lachlan, Baakantji on the Darling, Gunu on the Paroo, Nari Nari on the Murrumbidgee, and Barapa on the Murray, we have identified 25 specialised stone implements so far that we have called QUANDONG STONES. The stones are usually made from brown stream-rolled cobbles of a hard, tough quartzite material. They are oval in shape, like two fists, and weigh on average 1.5kg.
The author was asked to assist with the salvage works, which were carried out during October 2014. More than 6,000 bones or fragments were retrieved from mechanical and manual sieving. These were laid out on 28 trestle tables at the secure laboratory facilities of ACHM [Australian Cultural Heritage Management]. The bones were cleaned for inspection, with limited reconstruction to assist individuation. After 15 days, the remains of 24 individuals and 2 dogs were identified, with parts being reunited according to set criteria.
The remains consist of 4 children, ranging in age from an infant to young teenager, 4 mid adults and 6 older adults. There were 7 women and 8 men. Tooth wear was of two distinct kinds, indicating different daily tasks such as chewing fibre for string. Fractures were found on heads [1 man, 2 women] and body [5 individuals, or about 1/5 of the total number].
There is evidence of a mortuary custom in the animal bones retrieved. This has only been previously recorded in Central Australia.
One of the men is most likely to have been born in southern Victoria. Biometric analysis places him with the Giraiwirrung, and in death he was placed facing his birthplace.
Several stone tools were recovered. These are typical of these residential areas, where cutting and pounding fibres was probably a major component of the day-to-day work. Numerous burials are common in residences, in Australia and throughout the world. Density of burial typically follows density of occupation, and this region, in the City of Salisbury, was one of the densest population centres of the Adelaide Plain in traditional times.
Barapa people recognise the role that archaeology can play in revealing their ancestors’ landscape and how they managed its resources. Current modelling of water flows draws heavily on data collected from the late 1800s that overlooks the first 50 years of dramatic European impact on the environment. The distribution and structure of pre-colonial Aboriginal village sites can offer more convincing evidence of previous water regimes.
We present a case study of the relationship between water flows and residential patterning at The Pulitj, a small alveolar swamp in the GKP Forest. Documentation of the size, location and clustering of 154 earthen mounds offers insights into Aboriginal life in one particular part of the Riverine Plain that has relevance for similar ecosystems elsewhere within the Basin.
The recent confluence of drought and upstream water diversion have conspired to bring the Barka to a state that may not support fish along much of its length. Small bodied fish are at particular risk. Waterholes are drying, with some below 4 m. Loss of genetic diversity, extirpation and possibly extinction might be averted with emergency measures guided by the Barkandji archaeological record - a distillation of traditional practice spanning several thousand years. A last ditch effort might use ground [bore] water to provide some relief to small-bodied fish. These would best be placed at the sites of villages beside waterholes, as these would most likely be the most secure.