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Copyright of Archaeology in Oceania is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeology in Oceania is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT The introduction of the convict system in 1850 into the Western Australian (WA) economy resulted in a large injection of capital into the colony, the dissemination of which cannot be overlooked when considering the transformative effect of the convict system. This injection resulted from the purchase of goods and services by the penal system that ultimately transferred money from the British Crown into the local market. For this paper, historical and archaeological data was used to develop an understanding of the breakdown of spending by the penal system, and to consider how the circumstance of individual aspects of the penal system impacted purchasing choices, and subsequently benefitted the local market. Using artefacts recovered from two sites within Fremantle Prison, one representing institutional purchases and the other relating to a wage earner, it was possible the test the variation in economic impact of spending given institutional circumstance. By considering whether purchases represented local commodities or imports, it was possible to see how capital transferred into the local economy and how much of that spending leaked out through imports. In doing this, the analysis highlighted the varying benefit of the capital injected by the penal system related to circumstance and the value of considering the penal system as an elaborate entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the archaeological salvage, radiocarbon dating and analysis of seven shell midden sites located south of Port Hedland, and makes observations regarding the archaeology of the Port Hedland region and the Abydos coastal plain. The excavations revealed an almost continuous sequence of archaeological sites dating between 5250calBP and 50calBP years. These include some of the earliest and latest radiocarbon ages associated with Anadara granosa dominated middens, shell mounds and earth mounds from northwestern Australia. Where earlier researchers had suggested that Anadara exploitation in northwestern Australia, and particularly on the Abydos plain and Burrup Peninsula, was limited to between 4200 and 1600 BP, these excavations demonstrate that the exploitation of Anadara shell in the Port Hedland region was continuous from at least 4400calBP (and possibly as early as 5350calBP) until the early twentieth century. Based on a consideration of their contents and ages, it is suggested that the various forms of shell accumulations in the study area, including shell mounds, earth mounds, surface scatters and stratified lenses of shell midden, are likely to vary more as a result of site formation processes than Aboriginal people's past gathering practices. This finding has broader implications for understanding the place of Anadara shell mounds and middens in the prehistoric regional economy of northwestern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007 the Dumpier Archipelago petroglyph province was included on the National Heritage List. This paper outlines the process of determining the province's scientific values. We briefly describe our findings, which are based on all existing site data lodged with regulatory authorities. We synthesize published and unpublished systematic survey and rock art recording data collected over three decades for research and environmental impact assessment. Based on this synthesis we provide the first thorough analysis and contextualisation of pelroglyph sites across the Archipelago. We compare this art province with other art style provinces in the Pilbara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the results and implications of recent excavations on the Hamersley Iron Brockman 4 tenement, near Tom Price, Western Australia. Results concentrate on two rock shelters with Aboriginal occupation starting at least 32,000 years ago and extending throughout the Last Glacial period. Preliminary observations are proposed concerning the nature of Aboriginal foraging patterns as displayed in the flaked stone and faunal records tor the Brockman region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stone artefact scatters dominate the archaeological landscape of the inland Pilbara. While the archaeological record from rockshelter sites suggests human occupation consisting of brief. intermittent visits by small groups of people, artefact scatters which range from small, discrete single flaking events of perhaps 5-10 artefacts to widespread and varied scatters, sometimes of hundreds of thousands of stone artefacts extending over hundreds of thousands of square metres, clearly tell a different story. This paper presents an analysis of stone artefact assemblages from nine inland Pilbara surface artefact scatters and demonstrates that sites of this type have the potential to contribute much to our knowledge of human occupation of the region. We propose a testable model of Aboriginal occupation of the Pilbara during the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of Tropical Cyclone Vance, which entered the Exmouth Gulf on March 22 1999, presented an opportunity to study in detail the effects of extreme storm conditions on coastal sites in northern Cape Range peninsula. A post-cyclone survey of all sites in the study area was undertaken in July 1999, four months after the cyclone struck and aimed to quantify and characterise the effects of a single extreme cyclonic event on coastal archaeological sites. This paper presents the results of this survey and implications for studying coastal archaeological sites in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses an article on middens linked to mangrove tidal flats just south of Port Hedland in Pilbara region in Western Australia, the patterns of residential mobility by the populations in Pilbara during the Last Glacial Maximum and the patterns in the archaeological record of the Pilbara that can be interpreted as local expression of wider trends in the archaeological record of the semi-arid and arid zones in Australia.

Inthanoona, a pastoral head station in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which functioned from the 1860s lo the 1890s includes an assemblage of more than 250 rock engravings of which 20% are identifiable contact period motifs. These include images of clothed men and women, guns, horses, sheep, wheeled vehicles, houses and ships. Spatial analysis of the structures, artefacts and engravings on the site supports the conclusion that the contact motifs demonstrate continuity in Indigenous modes of representation and innovation in subjects. They provide direct evidence of Aboriginal participation in, and perceptions of, the pastoral and pearl shell industries of the Pilbara. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middens and mounds dominated by Anadara granosa began in be formed on the Abydos Coastal Plain sometime between 4400 and 5300 calibrated years before present, unit while mounds appear to have ceased forming some 1800-1600 years ago. middens continued lo form until the early twentieth century or later. In some cases, the curliest of these middens and shell mounds formed on top of older middens from which Anadara granosa is totally absent, and in which Terebralia spp. (while occurring in relatively low concentrations) is the dominant shell species. Anadara granosa dominated middens (sensu lato) occur in a variety of forms across the landscape, including large shell mounds, earth mounds (or mounded shell middens), lenses of shell eroding out of well-developed dunes, and undifferentiated surface shell scatters. The large number of middens which occur throughout the region from the mid Holocene, and the volume of shell represented by these sites, point to the occurrence of significant economic and social changes from the mid to late Holocene. The Abydos Coastal Plain experienced increasing aridity, and, as a result, increased resource stress during the mid-Holocene. We suggest that the large. single species Anadara granosa middens were occupied during regular periods when large groups of Aboriginal people undertook ceremonial activities after the wet season, when resources were abundant. Changes apparent in the archaeological record, including the occurrence of large numbers of Anadara granosa dominated middens and shell mounds, increased establishment of archaeological sites and increased complexity and distance of exchange systems, came about as a result of social, economic and logistical restructuring. This in turn was the result of the effects of resource stress on local Aboriginal people over the course of the mid to late Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examples of striped marsupial depictions have been reported from both the coastal and inland Pilbara. Many are regarded as images of the thylacine, an animal that disappeared from mainland Australia some 3000-4000 years ago. Also observable in the rock an is the 'fat-tailed macropod", a distinctive rendition of a marsupial with an extremely thick tail. Recent investigations in the Tom Price area and on the Burrup Peninsula confirm that both motifs pertain to the more ancient rock art corpus. Restricted artistic variation within the depiction of these two species confirms (he trend to naturalistic style within animal subjects and suggests a extensive, culturally cohesive, artistic tradition across the Pilbara during the Pleistocene and early Holocene. At two specific locations, aspects of the rock art may be explained in terms of contemporary oral traditions and cultural practices, affording one way of placing temporal parameters on these early graphic traditions. I argue that the rock art is not just representational; that it communicates mythological narratives and behavioural traits, which have a deep antiquity to the Dreaming of more than just a few thousand years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacture and distribution of macro-blades in the Paraburdoo area of south central Pilbara is described and its relation to theories regarding their intended use discussed. The Pilbara evidence is compared to that from elsewhere in northern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Windjana Gorge Water Tank Shelter (DIA 12588) is a narrow limestone rockshelter located in Windjana Gorge National Park, Western Australia. Although the site is badly disturbed, test excavation revealed some 45cm of in situ deposit down to massive roof-fall. Radiocarbon estimates demonstrate that the shelter was used from at least 7000 calBP into the European contact period. The sediments contain well-preserved faunal remains and stone artefacts. The faunal remains give an insight into Aboriginal economy in an arid region with adjacent fresh water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the palaeodemographic models proposed for Late Quaternary Aboriginal cultural history in Western Australia. Effects of climatic and environmental changes to the population; Suggestion of a human presence by the temporal range of radiocarbon; Alternative regional model of population mobility and fluctuating occupation patterns.