Published Papers by Birgitta (Birgy) Stephenson
Excavations, Surveys and Heritage Management in Victoria, Volume 6, 2017
Journal of Archaeological Science, 61: 235-243, 2015
Use-wear and residue analyses of stone artefacts are widely used to better understand the behavio... more Use-wear and residue analyses of stone artefacts are widely used to better understand the behaviour and resource utilization of past peoples. There are numerous ethnographic reports describing the processing of animal parts, but identification of collagen, the principle component of animal protein, can be difficult because of the similarity in appearance to other non-collagenous residues (e.g. Lombard and Wadley, 2007). Additionally, damage to collagen structure caused by processing and taphonomic factors can alter collagen's microscopic morphological features and further prevent microscopic identification. This paper describes the trialling, blind testing and application of a modified Picro-Sirius Red (PSR) staining protocol not reliant on intact morphology which can be used to identify archaeological collagenous residues. The protocol allows for differentiation of Types I, II and III collagen and can detect the minuscule amounts in archaeological samples. The application of this staining protocol to ten grindstones from arid and semiarid regions in south and central Australia supports the view that lack of collagen heretofore reported in residue studies is more likely the result of under-detection than its absence (see Monnier et al., 2012). The staining protocol represents an inexpensive, efficient and reliable process which can be added to contemporary use-wear and residue analyses. This addition allows more inclusive assessments of past function and promotes wider understandings of the behaviour of past peoples.
Quaternary International, 2020
For nearly 70 years scientific techniques have been routinely applied in archaeological research.... more For nearly 70 years scientific techniques have been routinely applied in archaeological research. Yet some artefacts hold such cultural significance that sampling is inappropriate, restricting the methods that can be brought to bear in their analysis. Such restrictions often apply to rock art, especially where research is directed by the indigenous peoples who have stewardship over not only the site fabric, but its inseparable cultural context. Here we report a multi-technique program of in-field and laboratory-based analyses to describe the materiality of a painted rock art site in Nyiyaparli country, in the Central Pilbara region of Western Australia. The relationship between the rock art, nearby potential pigment sources and evidence for ochre processing at the site was investigated using in situ portable X-Ray Fluorescence and optical microscopy, with interpretations aided by field and laboratory-based residue analysis of grinding related stone artefacts and X-Ray Powder Diffraction of potential ochre sources. Our findings provide an example of the nuanced interpretations that scientific analyses can add to rock art investigations. Our work suggests that local materials were used in the production of painted art and that ochre processing was ubiquitous at the site and other nearby rockshelters. Combined with the placement of rock art in a hidden context within the site, we suggest the panels at BBH15-01 were part of in-group events and that art and ochre processing in the Baby Hope study area were part of everyday activities.
Nature September: 1-18, 2016
Elucidating the material culture of early people in arid Australia and the nature of their enviro... more Elucidating the material culture of early people in arid Australia and the nature of their environmental interactions is essential for understanding the adaptability of populations and the potential causes of megafaunal extinctions 50-40 thousand years ago (ka). Humans colonized the continent by 50 ka, but an apparent lack of cultural innovations compared to people in Europe and Africa 3,4 has been deemed a barrier to early settlement in the extensive arid zone. Here we present evidence from Warratyi rock shelter in the southern interior that shows that humans occupied arid Australia by around 49 ka, 10 thousand years (kyr) earlier than previously reported. The site preserves the only reliably dated, stratified evidence of extinct Australian megafauna, including the giant marsupial Diprotodon optatum, alongside artefacts more than 46 kyr old. We also report on the earliest-known use of ochre in Australia and Southeast Asia (at or before 49-46 ka), gypsum pigment (40-33 ka), bone tools (40-38 ka), hafted tools (38-35 ka), and backed artefacts (30-24 ka), each up to 10 kyr older than any other known occurrence. Thus, our evidence shows that people not only settled in the arid interior within a few millennia of entering the continent, but also developed key technologies much earlier than previously recorded for Australia and Southeast Asia.
Journal of Archaeological Science 23: 178-198, 2019
Identifying the range of plants and/or animals processed by pounding and/or grinding stones has b... more Identifying the range of plants and/or animals processed by pounding and/or grinding stones has been a rapidly developing research area in world prehistory. In Australia, grinding and pounding stones are ubiquitous across the semi-arid and arid zones and the associated tasks have been mostly informed by ethnographic case studies. More recently, plant microfossil studies have provided important insights to the breadth of plants being exploited in a range of contexts and over long time periods. The preservation of starch and/or phytoliths on the used surfaces of these artefacts is well documented, though the factors determining the survival or destruction of use-related starch residues are still largely unknown. Some of these artefacts have also been used for grinding up small animals and these tasks can be identified by specific staining methods for organic remains such as collagen. In this study, 25 grinding and pounding stones identified during an archaeological project in arid South Australia, were examined for starch and collagen residues. The artefacts were from 3 locations in central South Australia, all located in exposed settings. Of these localities, Site 11 in the Western Valley near Woomera is an important Aboriginal landscape specifically associated with male ceremonial practice in the recent past. The remaining two sites, one in the adjacent Nurrungar Valley and the other near Andamooka 100 km distant, have unrestricted access and potentially a different suite of residues. The Kokatha Mula Nations, the Traditional Owners of Woomera, requested that this study be undertaken to explore the range of plants that may have been processed here. It provided an opportunity to investigate the preservation potential of starch and collagen on grinding stones; explore the range of taphonomic factors involved in the persistence of residues in extreme environmental conditions; and test the methodological developments in identifying specific plant origin of starch residues. Of the 25 grinding/pounding stones tested, 7 yielded starch grains. Geometric morphometric analysis identified 3 economic grass species, Crinum flaccidum (Andamooka Lily) and Typha domingensis (Bulrush/Cumbungi). Folded collagen was identified on one artefact. Oral histories recount the movement between Andamooka and Nurrungar/Western Valley for men's ceremonies, and documented in the movement of stone resources, e.g. oolytic chert.
The survival of residues in this environment and the identification of economic plant taxa complement the current knowledge of ceremonial activities and the movement of people and resources across significant dis-tances in arid South Australia.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 26:721-740, 2016
The materiality of ritual performance is a growing focus for archaeologists. In Europe, collectiv... more The materiality of ritual performance is a growing focus for archaeologists. In Europe, collective ritual performance is expected to be highly structured and to leave behind a loud archaeological signature. In Australia and Papua New Guinea, ritual is highly structured; however, material signatures for performance are not always apparent, with ritual frequently bound up in the surrounding natural and cultural landscape. One way of assessing long-term ritual in this context is by using archaeology to historicize ethno-historical and ethnographic accounts. Examples of this in the Torres Strait region, islands between Papua New Guinea and mainland Australia, suggest that ritual activities were materially inscribed at kod sites (ceremonial men's meeting places) through distribution of clan fireplaces, mounds of stone/bone and shell. This paper examines the structure of Torres Strait ritual for a site ethnographically reputed to be the ancestral kod of the Mabuyag Islanders. Intra-site partitioning of ritual performance is interpreted using ethnography, rock art and the divergent distribution of surface and sub-surface materials (including microscopic analysis of dugong bone and lithic material) across the site. Finally, it discusses the materiality of ritual at a boundary zone between mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea and the extent to which archaeology provides evidence for Islander negotiation through ceremony of external incursions.
Scientific Reports, 2020
Insects form an important source of food for many people around the world, but little is known of... more Insects form an important source of food for many people around the world, but little is known of the deep-time history of insect harvesting from the archaeological record. In Australia, early settler writings from the 1830s to mid-1800s reported congregations of Aboriginal groups from multiple clans and language groups taking advantage of the annual migration of Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) in and near the Australian Alps, the continent's highest mountain range. The moths were targeted as a food item for their large numbers and high fat contents. Within 30 years of initial colonial contact, however, the Bogong moth festivals had ceased until their recent revival. No reliable archaeological evidence of Bogong moth exploitation or processing has ever been discovered, signalling a major gap in the archaeological history of Aboriginal groups. Here we report on microscopic remains of ground and cooked Bogong moths on a recently excavated grindstone from Cloggs Cave, in the southern foothills of the Australian Alps. These findings represent the first conclusive archaeological evidence of insect foods in Australia, and, as far as we know, of their remains on stone artefacts in the world. They provide insights into the antiquity of important Aboriginal dietary practices that have until now remained archaeologically invisible. Ethnographic accounts from around the world have reported the widespread use of insects as food by people 1-3. In some cases, such as among the Shoshone and other Great Basin tribes of the U.S., swarms of grasshoppers and crickets were driven into pits and blankets 4 , while among the Paiute the larvae of Pandora moths (Coloradia pandora lindseyi) were smoked out of trees to fall into prepared trenches, where they would be cooked 5. Across the world, insects could be mass-harvested, often seasonally, offering high nutritional value especially in fat, protein and vitamins 6. The harvesting of insects in the past has ranged from opportunities to feed large communal gatherings during times of plenty, to more individualistic economic pursuits such as in the search for delicacies or the exploitation of low-ranked resources when other foods were scarce or depleted 7-9. Irrespective of the catch, insects often represented an important component of the diet, and of the reliability and thus dependability of locales as resource zones, with implications for social scheduling and cultural practice. However, a paucity of archaeological studies of insect food remains has resulted in a downplay or omission of the use of insects from archaeological narratives and deep-time community histories 10. In Australia, a wide range of insects is known to have been eaten by Aboriginal groups, in particular the larvae ('witchetty grubs') of cossid moths (especially Endoxyla leucomochla) in arid and semi-arid areas 11-13. Of
Australian Archaeology, 2020
Australian Archaeology, 2021
In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKu... more In this paper we report on new research at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country), in the southern foothills of SE Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Detailed chronometric dating, combined with high-resolution 3D mapping, geomorphological
studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. These results suggest a critical re-interpretation of what the Old People were, and were not, doing in Cloggs Cave during the Late Holocene. Instead of a lack of
Late Holocene cave occupation, as previously thought through the conceptual lens of ‘habitat and economy’, Cloggs Cave is now understood to have been actively used for special, magical purposes. Configured by local GunaiKurnai cosmology, cave landscapes (including
Cloggs Cave’s) were populated not only by food species animals, but also by ‘supernatural’ Beings and forces whose presence helped inform occupational patterns. The profound differences between the old and new archaeological interpretations of Cloggs Cave, separated by five decades of developing archaeological thought and technical advances,
draw attention to archaeological meaning-making and highlight the significance of data capture and the pre-conceptions that shape the production of archaeological stories and identities of place.
Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique, 2014
Quaternary Science Reviews
Australian Archaeology, 2012
Quaternary International, 2016
Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique, 2014
Archaeology in Oceania, 2015
Quaternary International, 2020
For nearly 70 years scientific techniques have been routinely applied in archaeological research.... more For nearly 70 years scientific techniques have been routinely applied in archaeological research. Yet some artefacts hold such cultural significance that sampling is inappropriate, restricting the methods that can be brought to bear in their analysis. Such restrictions often apply to rock art, especially where research is directed by the indigenous peoples who have stewardship over not only the site fabric, but its inseparable cultural context. Here we report a multi-technique program of in-field and laboratory-based analyses to describe the materiality of a painted rock art site in Nyiyaparli country, in the Central Pilbara region of Western Australia. The relationship between the rock art, nearby potential pigment sources and evidence for ochre processing at the site was investigated using in situ portable X-Ray Fluorescence and optical microscopy, with interpretations aided by field and laboratory-based residue analysis of grinding related stone artefacts and X-Ray Powder Diffraction of potential ochre sources. Our findings provide an example of the nuanced interpretations that scientific analyses can add to rock art investigations. Our work suggests that local materials were used in the production of painted art and that ochre processing was ubiquitous at the site and other nearby rockshelters. Combined with the placement of rock art in a hidden context within the site, we suggest the panels at BBH15-01 were part of in-group events and that art and ochre processing in the Baby Hope study area were part of everyday activities.
Australian Archaeology, 2020
The discovery of a well-preserved hearth at Point Nepean presented an opportunity to extract as m... more The discovery of a well-preserved hearth at Point Nepean presented an opportunity to extract as much information as possible from an unusual feature in the Metropolitan region which includes in situ heat-retaining stones. Working in conjunction with the Traditional Owners and Parks Victoria, slumped hearth and midden deposits were excavated carefully, and samples sent to specialists for analysis. The remainder of the intact feature was photographed in 3D and then preserved by the construction of a rock-retaining wall by Parks Victoria. The results of the scientific analyses have yielded insights into the activities that took place in the vicinity of the hearth around the time of first contact between Aboriginal and European people, and illustrate the potential for similar studies to be undertaken on comparable deposits at other Aboriginal places.
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Published Papers by Birgitta (Birgy) Stephenson
The survival of residues in this environment and the identification of economic plant taxa complement the current knowledge of ceremonial activities and the movement of people and resources across significant dis-tances in arid South Australia.
studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. These results suggest a critical re-interpretation of what the Old People were, and were not, doing in Cloggs Cave during the Late Holocene. Instead of a lack of
Late Holocene cave occupation, as previously thought through the conceptual lens of ‘habitat and economy’, Cloggs Cave is now understood to have been actively used for special, magical purposes. Configured by local GunaiKurnai cosmology, cave landscapes (including
Cloggs Cave’s) were populated not only by food species animals, but also by ‘supernatural’ Beings and forces whose presence helped inform occupational patterns. The profound differences between the old and new archaeological interpretations of Cloggs Cave, separated by five decades of developing archaeological thought and technical advances,
draw attention to archaeological meaning-making and highlight the significance of data capture and the pre-conceptions that shape the production of archaeological stories and identities of place.
The survival of residues in this environment and the identification of economic plant taxa complement the current knowledge of ceremonial activities and the movement of people and resources across significant dis-tances in arid South Australia.
studies and archaeological excavations, now allow a dense sequence of Late Holocene ash layers and their contents to be correlated with GunaiKurnai ethnography and current knowledge. These results suggest a critical re-interpretation of what the Old People were, and were not, doing in Cloggs Cave during the Late Holocene. Instead of a lack of
Late Holocene cave occupation, as previously thought through the conceptual lens of ‘habitat and economy’, Cloggs Cave is now understood to have been actively used for special, magical purposes. Configured by local GunaiKurnai cosmology, cave landscapes (including
Cloggs Cave’s) were populated not only by food species animals, but also by ‘supernatural’ Beings and forces whose presence helped inform occupational patterns. The profound differences between the old and new archaeological interpretations of Cloggs Cave, separated by five decades of developing archaeological thought and technical advances,
draw attention to archaeological meaning-making and highlight the significance of data capture and the pre-conceptions that shape the production of archaeological stories and identities of place.
This paper focuses on an extraordinarily high-density stone artefact assemblage (over 13,000 artefacts) identified within one of these investigation areas adjacent to Kororoit Creek, where stone artefact attribute and residue/use-wear analyses of the assemblage permit a glimpse of the range of past land-use activities that occurred within the Rockbank landscape. However, 3D distributional analysis of the archaeological material indicates that the assemblage does not represent a stratigraphically intact deposit, as much of the assemblage was transported by post-depositional processes. Through examination by a series of specific research questions, this work enhances our understanding of the nature of Aboriginal occupation on the Volcanic Plains of western Victoria.
The survival of residues in this environment and the identification of economic plant taxa complement the current knowledge of ceremonial activities and the movement of people and resources across significant distances in arid South Australia.
studies of ground stone tools. What we present here is an update of an earlier paper
(Dubreuil and Savage 2013), with revisions and contributions from other scholars
on the topics of use–wear analysis and research design, raw material analysis, the
equipment used in use–wear analysis and photography, residue analysis, as well as
the framework developed at naked eye and high magnifications
co-authors: David Thomas, Dan Turnbull, Birgitta Stephenson, Xavier Carah, Oona Phillips, Barry Coombes
Previous research at the nearby site of Serpents Glen indicates that Katjarra (or Carnarvon Ranges), homeland to the hunter-gatherer Martu people, has been occupied for at least 26,000 years. It is inferred that over this period of time an array of activities relating to subsistence, medicine, hunting and ceremony would have been undertaken. The site of Wirrilee 2 contains a number of potential grinding circles or work areas. In-situ grinding furniture in the form of top stones is associated with two of these eight activity areas. In addition, a large section of roof fall exhibiting ground or worked surface sections was identified. These indicators of past processing, along with the site’s proximity to nearby rock art sites and extensive grassy plains, made it an ideal site for undertaking investigations relating to past processing activities. This talk will discuss the results of this study and the biochemical staining approaches employed. If time permits, the results of a related study investigating the use of nearby open context grindstones will also be presented.