Books by Patrick Faulkner
The research presented here is primarily concerned with human-environment interactions on the tro... more The research presented here is primarily concerned with human-environment interactions on the tropical coast of northern Australia during the late Holocene. Based on the suggestion that significant change can occur within short time-frames as a direct result of interactive processes, the archaeological evidence from the Point Blane Peninsula, Blue Mud Bay, is used to address the issue of how much change and variability occurred in hunter-gatherer economic and social structures during the late Holocene in coastal northeastern Arnhem Land. The suggestion proposed here is that processes of environmental and climatic change resulted in changes in resource distribution and abundance, which in turn affected patterns of settlement and resource exploitation strategies, levels of mobility and, potentially, the size of foraging groups on the coast. The question of human behavioural variability over the last 3000 years in Blue Mud Bay has been addressed by examining issues of scale and resolution in archaeological interpretation, specifically the differential chronological and spatial patterning of shell midden and mound sites on the peninsula in conjunction with variability in molluscan resource exploitation. To this end, the biological and ecological characteristics of the dominant molluscan species is considered in detail, in combination with assessing the potential for human impact through predation. Investigating pre-contact coastal foraging behaviour via the archaeological record provides an opportunity for change to recognised in a number of ways. For example, a differential focus on resources, variations in group size and levels of mobility can all be identified. It has also been shown that human-environment interactions are non-linear or progressive, and that human behaviour during the late Holocene was both flexible and dynamic.
Papers by Patrick Faulkner
Quaternary International, 2015
The identification of expedient bivalve tools recovered from archaeological deposits is currently... more The identification of expedient bivalve tools recovered from archaeological deposits is currently hindered by a lack of analytical frameworks. In order to identify those shell valves which have been used as expedient tools, analysts must be able to identify and distinguish between pre-mortem and post-depositional modifications, and use-wear from tool use. Central to this difficulty is a lack of experimental analogues for comparison with archaeological material. Here, we present an analytical framework for the identification of expedient bivalve tools made from Polymesoda (=Geloina) coaxans valves recovered from Australian archaeological sites. This analytical framework consists of a series of actualistic experiments designed to determine those variables useful for distinguishing between modifications produced via pre-mortem and post-depositional processes that can damage molluscan shell, and damage produced via use as an expedient tool. Trampling, flaking and scraping experiments and use-wear analysis are used as a reference for comparison with an assemblage of P. coaxans valves recovered from archaeological sites in Princess Charlotte Bay, north Queensland, Australia. We demonstrate that an analytical framework consisting of an analysis of shell area loss, shell fracture paths, and use-wear can be successfully applied to archaeological samples to confidently distinguish between those valves which have been used as expedient tools, and those which have not. This research has wider implications for the identification of this often overlooked class of shell tools from archaeological sites in Australia and other regions, allowing a more comprehensive understanding of the place of shell tools in coastal economies of the past.
Kuumbi Cave is one of a group of caves that underlie a flight of marine terraces in Pleistocene l... more Kuumbi Cave is one of a group of caves that underlie a flight of marine terraces in Pleistocene limestone in eastern Zanzibar (Indian Ocean). Drawing on the findings of geoarchaeological field survey and archaeological excavation, we discuss the formation and evolution of Kuumbi Cave and its wider littoral landscape. In the later part of the Quaternary (last ca. 250,000 years?), speleogenesis and terrace formation were driven by the interplay between glacioeustatic sea level change and crustal uplift at rates of ca. 0.10-0.20 mm/yr. Two units of backreef/reef limestone were deposited during ‘optimal’ (highest) highstands, tentatively correlated with MIS 7 and 5; (mainly) erosive marine terraces formed in these limestones in ‘suboptimal’ highstands. Kuumbi and other sub-terrace caves developed as flank margin caves, in the seaward portion of freshwater lenses during such ‘suboptimal’ highstands. Glacioeustacy-induced fluctuations of the groundwater table may have resulted in shifts from vadose (with deposition of well-developed speleothems) to phreatic/epiphreatic conditions in these caves. At Kuumbi, Late Pleistocene (pre-20,000 cal. BP) ceiling collapse initiated colluvial deposition near-entrance and opened the cave to large plants and animals, including humans. A phase of terminal Pleistocene human occupation ca. 18,500-17,000 cal. BP resulted in the deposition of a dense assemblage of Achatina spp. landsnails, alongside marine molluscs and mammal remains (including zebra, buffalo and other taxa now extinct on Zanzibar). The Holocene part of the cave stratigraphy near-entrance records phases of abandonment and intensified late Holocene human use.
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as import... more Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade con- nections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essen- tially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooar- chaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Australian Archaeology
This paper describes (a) the methods and results of a morphometric reconstruction and (b) a size ... more This paper describes (a) the methods and results of a morphometric reconstruction and (b) a size variability study of a heavily fragmented Atactodea (=Paphies) striata (surf clam) assemblage recovered from a small midden on the island of Muralag in the southwest Torres Strait, Queensland. Two intense but discrete pulses of late Holocene cultural activity at the site have been determined. Phase 1 is centred around 622 cal. BP (544–674 cal. BP) and Phase 2 is centred around 485 cal. BP (426–532 cal. BP). The results from our morphometric reconstruction reveal a statistically significant change (reduction) in the mean valve size of A. striata between occupational phases. Mean size and range of valve sizes are used as measures to determine when people were potentially exploiting the surf clam in Phases 1 and 2. While more data is required to determine an exact season of death, our findings reveal a relative signal of the seasonal exploitation of A. striata between these two phases.
Australian Archaeology, 2012
Page 129. Terrestrial engagements by terminal Lapita maritime specialists on the southern Papuan ... more Page 129. Terrestrial engagements by terminal Lapita maritime specialists on the southern Papuan coast 5 Ian J. McNiven School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria ian. mcniven@ monash. ...
Australian Archaeology, 2013
Different models explaining spatial and temporal changes in relation to the movement and colonisa... more Different models explaining spatial and temporal changes in relation to the movement and colonisation of the Lapita culture complex have been proposed for different regions throughout Melanesia and the Pacific. At Caution Bay, on the southern coast of PNG excavations of Lapita sites accompanied by rich faunal assemblages ( Mcniven et al. 2011) provides a unique opportunity to document changes in the archaeological record for this area. The aim of this paper is to investigate the exploitation of shellfish and its use spanning the three major occupational periods comprising of pre-lapita, lapita and post-lapita horzions in order to understand the impacts of in migration by Lapita peoples on natural mollusc resources. In turn, changes in mollusc resource-use, especially in levels of exploitation, range of targeted species and use of shell artefacts will be discussed together with important environmental changes so as to analyse the impact of this incoming migration and also understand ...
Australian Archaeology, 2012
In this chapter, we review the present and past environment of Caution Bay set in a broader geogr... more In this chapter, we review the present and past environment of Caution Bay set in a broader geographical context, including both terrestrial and marine habitats. Our primary objective is to sketch the general canvas upon which the past 6,000 or so years of local human presence, as represented by the Caution Bay archaeological record, played out. A secondary objective is to document the range of contemporary landforms and explore the spatial distribution and ecological dynamics of the various plant and animal communities that still occupy the present landscape, or did so at the time when Europeans first arrived in the 1870s. Knowledge of the contemporary landscape and its resources represents the starting point for inferring continuities and changes in ways of life for the region’s past inhabitants as these are tracked back from the present to the mid-Holocene, and ultimately for understanding the choices people made as they balanced various primary extractive and commercial activities to maintain cultural practices, adopt and develop new ones, survive and prosper. Relationships between people and locales at Caution Bay were, and continue to be, dynamic, with people playing a major role in shaping both the physical and biological landscape, just as the landscape and its resources have influenced the course of human history in this area.
This chapter reports on the personnel, research structure and analytical methods employed in the ... more This chapter reports on the personnel, research structure and analytical methods employed in the Caution Bay project, constituting the sum of the various phases of field and laboratory research at Caution Bay. We stress that from the onset our approach has been to investigate through excavation the character of the archaeological record at a landscape scale, rather than more detailed investigations of a handful of sites that would have provided limited spatial understandings across the whole of the study area. That is, limited excavations at numerous sites were favoured over large-scale horizontal excavations of a few sites. This choice of strategy has arguably been vindicated by the discovery of rich cultural deposits that would have been entirely missed had we focused on the ‘best’ surface sites, none of which possess the treasured and then-unexpected Lapita horizons subsequently found at depth following excavation at sites with minor post-Lapita surface cultural deposits. Be that as it may, we present here baseline details into the analytical methods used for all of our excavations and laboratory research, critical background information that details how 122 Caution Bay sites have been excavated and analysed, towards publication in a sequence of forthcoming monographs.
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as import... more Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
International Journal of Speleology, 2015
Australian Aboriginal Studies 1(1), 54-76, 2009
The coastal plains of northern Australia are relatively recent formations that have undergone dyn... more The coastal plains of northern Australia are relatively recent formations that have undergone dynamic evolution through the mid to late Holocene. The development and use of these landscapes across the Northern Territory have been widely investigated by both archaeologists and geomorphologists. Over the past 15 years, a number of research and consultancy projects have focused on the archaeology of these coastal plains, from the Reynolds River in the west to the southern coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the east. More than 300 radiocarbon dates are now available and these have enabled us to provide a more detailed interpretation of the pattern of human settlement. In addition to this growing body of evidence, new palaeoclimatic data that is relevant to these northern Australian contexts is becoming available. This paper provides a synthesis of the archaeological evidence, integrates it within the available palaeo-environmental frameworks and characterises the cultural chronology of human settlement of the Northern Territory coastal plains over the past 10 000 years.
Shell mounds ceased to be built in many parts of coastal northern Australia about 800–600 years a... more Shell mounds ceased to be built in many parts of coastal northern Australia about 800–600 years ago. They are the subject of stories told by Aboriginal people and some have been incorporated in ritual and political activities during the last 150 years. These understandings emerged only aĞer termination of the economic and environmental system that created them, 800–600 years ago, in a number of widely separated coastal regions. Modern stories and treatments of these mounds by Aboriginal people concern modern or near-modern practices. Modern views of the mounds, their mythological and ritual associations, may be explained by reference to the socioeconomic transitions seen in the archaeological record; but the recent cultural, social and symbolic statements about these places cannot inform us of the process or ideology concerned with the formation of the mounds. Many Aboriginal communities over the last half a millennium actively formed understandings of new landscapes and systems of land use. Attempts to impose historic ideologies and cosmologies on earlier times fail to acknowledge the magnitude and rate of economic and ideological change on the tropical coastline of Australia.
Expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples from the Bismarck Archipelago out into the Pacific com... more Expansion of Austronesian-speaking peoples from the Bismarck Archipelago out into the Pacific commencing c.3300 cal BP represents the last great chapter of human global colonisation. The earliest migrants were bearers of finely-made dentate-stamped Lapita pottery, hitherto found only across Island Melanesia and western Polynesia. We document the first known occurrence of Lapita peoples on the New Guinea mainland. The new Lapita sites date from 2900 to 2500 cal BP and represent a newly-discovered migratory arm of Lapita expansions that moved westwards along the southern New Guinea coast towards Australia. These marine specialists ate shellfish, fish and marine turtles along the Papua New Guinea mainland coast, reflecting subsistence continuities with local pre-Lapita peoples dating back to 4200 cal BP. Lapita artefacts include characteristic ceramics, shell armbands, stone adzes and obsidian tools. Our Lapita discoveries support hypotheses for the migration of pottery-bearing Melanesian marine specialists into Torres Strait of northeast Australia c.2500 cal BP.
Australian Archaeology 76:21–33, May 2013
Previously it has been argued that midden analysis from
three geographically distinct coastal re... more Previously it has been argued that midden analysis from
three geographically distinct coastal regions of tropical
northern Australia (Darwin Harbour, Blyth River, Blue Mud
Bay) demonstrates that changes through time in Aboriginal
mollusc exploitation reflect broader coastal environmental
transformations associated with late Holocene climatic
variability (Bourke et al. 2007). It was suggested that, while
a direct link between environmental change and significant
cultural change in the archaeological record has yet to
be demonstrated unambiguously, midden analysis has
the potential to provide the as-yet missing link between
changes in climate, environment and human responses over
past millennia. We test this hypothesis with a preliminary
sclerochronological analysis (i.e. an analysis of sequential
stable isotopes of oxygen) of archaeological shell samples
from all three regions. Our findings suggest the existence
of variations in temperature and rainfall indicative of
an increasing trend to aridity from 2000 to 500 cal. BP,
consistent with previous palaeoenvironmental work across
northern Australia.
by Elspeth (Ebbe) Hayes, Ben Marwick, Kelsey Lowe, S. Anna Florin, Christopher Clarkson, Xavier Carah, Tiina Manne, Jacqueline M Matthews, Patrick Faulkner, Lynley Wallis, and Richard L K Fullagar Journal of Human Evolution 83 (2015):46-64.
Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have ... more 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 wood- working, 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 over- stated. 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.
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Books by Patrick Faulkner
Papers by Patrick Faulkner
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
three geographically distinct coastal regions of tropical
northern Australia (Darwin Harbour, Blyth River, Blue Mud
Bay) demonstrates that changes through time in Aboriginal
mollusc exploitation reflect broader coastal environmental
transformations associated with late Holocene climatic
variability (Bourke et al. 2007). It was suggested that, while
a direct link between environmental change and significant
cultural change in the archaeological record has yet to
be demonstrated unambiguously, midden analysis has
the potential to provide the as-yet missing link between
changes in climate, environment and human responses over
past millennia. We test this hypothesis with a preliminary
sclerochronological analysis (i.e. an analysis of sequential
stable isotopes of oxygen) of archaeological shell samples
from all three regions. Our findings suggest the existence
of variations in temperature and rainfall indicative of
an increasing trend to aridity from 2000 to 500 cal. BP,
consistent with previous palaeoenvironmental work across
northern Australia.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
three geographically distinct coastal regions of tropical
northern Australia (Darwin Harbour, Blyth River, Blue Mud
Bay) demonstrates that changes through time in Aboriginal
mollusc exploitation reflect broader coastal environmental
transformations associated with late Holocene climatic
variability (Bourke et al. 2007). It was suggested that, while
a direct link between environmental change and significant
cultural change in the archaeological record has yet to
be demonstrated unambiguously, midden analysis has
the potential to provide the as-yet missing link between
changes in climate, environment and human responses over
past millennia. We test this hypothesis with a preliminary
sclerochronological analysis (i.e. an analysis of sequential
stable isotopes of oxygen) of archaeological shell samples
from all three regions. Our findings suggest the existence
of variations in temperature and rainfall indicative of
an increasing trend to aridity from 2000 to 500 cal. BP,
consistent with previous palaeoenvironmental work across
northern Australia.
these and other archaeological molluscan assemblages with similar taxa. These results have implications for the quality of zooarchaeological data increasingly utilised by conservation biologists, historical ecologists and policy makers.