We suggest that, while a direct physical link between environmental change and the interpretations of significant cultural change in the archaeological record have yet to be demonstrated unambiguously in this region, the analysis of mollusc exploitation has the potential to provide the direct link that is currently missing between changes in climate, environment and human responses over the last millennium. These case studies establish that archaeological and environmental evidence mutually supports the argument for climate change influencing cultural change in northern Australia. Overlap between the phases and timing of climatic and behavioural changes within each region suggests that, given regional variation in the nature and of these changes, there was an associated human response to late Holocene climatic variability. These case studies support the argument that Aboriginal mollusc exploitation reflects the altered local ecological habitats that accompanied broader coastal environmental change over the last few thousand years.
This paper investigates this premise by examining the archaeological record of changes in hunter-gatherer economies in three geographically distinct coastal regions of tropical northern Australia. Environmental factors and the location of both sites on landforms that formed following sea level fall over the past 2000 years help explain why the basal levels of both sites are probably 5m ASL) fronting the mid-Holocene sea level highstand palaeoshoreline.Ī number of archaeologists have suggested that significant climatic change with environmental and social consequences occurred between 1000 and 400 years ago in the Indo-Pacific region. Taking an historical ecology approach, species-specific habitat requirements and associated substrate sediment dynamics help explain similarities and differences between the two midden shell assemblages. This paper revisits these results following a detailed re-analysis of midden materials and new insights on regional sea level changes. Both sites were excavated and analysed in the 1980s. An example is midden deposits dating to the past 400 years forming the upper levels of Sites 62 and 75b from Tin Can Inlet located immediately south of the Fraser Island (K’gari) World Heritage Area. Although the sea arrived in southeast Queensland around 8000 years ago, most estuarine middens date to the past 1000 years.
0 kommentar(er)
