Is that Roo on the Barbeque? Using Use-Wear, Residue Analysis and Biochemical Staining to identify varied subsistence practices in Aboriginal archaeological sites in Australia.

Summary

Environmental factors associated with open context sites are frequently considered to negatively impact on the survival of archaeological residues on lithic artefacts. This report challenges these views and documents how the simple combination of three lines of evidence enabled the identification and characterisation of significant and varied subsistence practises from two sites on opposite sides of Australia. The identification of use-related residues was facilitated by using a specifically developed suite of biochemical stains to provide visual support/evidence for the stories that have been passed down through generations of Aboriginal people. The results challenge the uncritical use of artefact morphology to assume function and demonstrates the value of analytical techniques to understand wide-ranging practises across various contexts. The first study documents investigations carried out on two open context grindstones from the site of Serpent’s Glen in the Western Desert of Western Australia. The second study examines flaked stone artefacts from a late Holocene open context site in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, in eastern Australia near Sydney.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15293