86 research outputs found
Archaeological perspectives on conflict and warfare in Australia and the Pacific
Full text linkWhen James Boswell famously lamented the irrationality of war in 1777, he noted the universality of conflict across history and across space – even reaching what he described as the gentle and benign southern ocean nations. This volume discusses archaeological evidence of conflict from those southern oceans, from Palau and Guam, to Australia, Vanuatu and Tonga, the Marquesas, Easter Island and New Zealand. The evidence for conflict and warfare encompasses defensive earthworks on Palau, fortifications on Tonga, and intricate pa sites in New Zealand. It reports evidence of reciprocal sacrifice to appease deities in several island nations, and skirmishes and smaller scale conflicts, including in Easter Island. This volume traces aspects of colonial-era conflict in Australia and frontier battles in Vanuatu, and discusses depictions of World War II materiel in the rock art of Arnhem Land. Among the causes and motives discussed in these papers are pressure on resources, the ebb and flow of significant climate events, and the significant association of conflict with culture contact. The volume, necessarily selective, eclectic and wide-ranging, includes an incisive introduction that situates the evidence persuasively in the broader scholarship addressing the history of human warfare
Glass beads from Australian Indigenous sites
No full textThe study of glass trade beads from various archaeological contexts, including contact and post-contact sites in North America, has been constructive in both advancing analytical methods and also in understanding past cultural entanglements (Hancock 2013); nonetheless, corresponding finds and reported studies from Australian Indigenous site contexts – such as rock-shelters and middens – are comparatively rare, occurring in reported quantities numbering less than 300 to date, and are largely constrained to western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory (NT) (Allen et al. 2018; James et al. 2017; Litster et al. 2018; Wesley and Litster 2015a, b; Fig. 1)
Developing approaches for understanding Indigenous Australian glass bead use during the contact period
No full textIn search of the archaeology of portable art from Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Australia
No full textResearch into prehistoric Eurasian, American, and African portable art is well established; however, such artefacts remain proportionally underreported from Australian, Pacific, and Southeast Asian archaeological contexts. This volume attempts to address this gap introducing the readership to past and present research in this region. This chapter outlines the research presented in this volume and also explores the role and relevance of portable art research in the Asia-Pacific within broader international dialogues
Developing approaches for understanding Indigenous Australian glass bead use during the contact period
No full textResearch into Indigenous bead use in Australia has emphasised the use of organic materials, such as seeds, reeds, bone and shell, in contrast to recently introduced beads made from glass. Indigenous collections housed at both Australian and international institutions, however, contain material culture that incorporates glass beads, such as chokers, necklaces and biting bags, in addition to both archaeological finds and ethnographic photos that illustrate the use of such items during the contact period. These beads and beaded objects bring to light questions concerning the use and production of beaded material culture. In this chapter, we propose an approach for the future study of these materials, incorporating methods from archaeology and anthropology, to explore the Indigenous use of glass beads and the production of beaded objects during the contact period
Maldivian Archaeology
No full textThe Maldives are an archipelago located centrally in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka and India (see Fig. 1). The occupation history is layered, largely because the Maldives acted as a historical waypoint for seafarers traveling across the Indian Ocean (Maloney 2013; Mohamed 2005). Investigations into the material remains of past occupation were initiated in the mid-1800s, through a series of antiquarian investigations. Archaeology during the early 1900s tended to focus on establishing the nature of a pre-existing Buddhist occupation phase, with more recent investigations establishing the role of the islands within past globalizations (Litster 2016) and the export of cowry shell money (Haour et al. 2016, 2017; Mikkelsen 2000). This encyclopedia entry focuses on the archaeological research undertaken in the Maldives, concentrating on the historical development of the discipline in the region
Shell beads as markers of Oceanic dispersal: A rare Cypraeidae ornament type from the Mariana Islands
No full textWe present experimental and micro-trace evidence for an unusual Cypraeidae bead type associated with the earliest cultural deposits of the Bapot-1 site in the Marianas Islands in Western Micronesia. Results show that these ground-section cowry beads were strung together while worked dorsum found at this same site were used as pendants/lids. The probable occurrence of ground-section beads on Tikopia island ~4000 km from the Marianas suggests that these distinctive shell artefacts can assist archaeological understanding of early Oceanic dispersals and interaction among different colonising Neolithic groups in the Indo-Pacific
Endometriosis of the Perineum: a rare diagnosis usually associated with episiotomy
No full textEndometriosis of the perineum is rare, and is usually associated with prior episiotomy.Peer reviewe
Figure 12 in Metal-Age Maritime Culture at Jareng Bori Rockshelter, Pantar Island, Eastern Indonesia
No full textFigure 12. Slipped sherds by spit at Jareng Bori.Published as part of Hawkins, Stuart, Arumdhati, Fayeza Shasliz, Litster, Mirani, Lim, Tse Siang, Basile, Gina, Leclerc, Mathieu, Reepmeyer, Christian, Maloney, Tim Ryan, Boulanger, Clara, Louys, Julien, Mahirta, Clark, Geoff, Keling, Gendro, Willan, Richard C., Yuwono, Pratiwi, O, Sue & Connor, 2020, Metal-Age Maritime Culture at Jareng Bori Rockshelter, Pantar Island, Eastern Indonesia, pp. 237-262 in Records of the Australian Museum 72 (5) on page 252, DOI: 10.3853/j.2201-4349.72.2020.1726, http://zenodo.org/record/794607
Dr. Mirani Litster
No full textB. Arch (Hons), PhD
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific and ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. Areas of expertise: Archaeology; Archaeology Of Asia, Africa And The Americas; Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Archaeology; Archaeological Scienc
- …
