Palaeoeconomies in the East Alligator River Region, Australia

Summary

The East Alligator River Region has undergone considerable environmental change throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene, with changing sea levels dramatically altering the ecosystems of this region. Current archaeological models for this region indicate that people adapted their economic activities to successfully exploit these shifting environments. Molluscs have played an important role in the economic activities of these groups and often comprise large portions of the regional assemblages, but they have not been subject to in-depth studies. Detailed analyses of midden material from rockshelter sites will develop a more comprehensive understanding of the changing economic role of molluscs, both in subsistence and as a raw material for tool use. Additionally, this project will use the known biological and ecological information available for these organisms as environmental proxies, in combination with existing data, to reconstruct the past environments at these sites and to examine and build on current models of long-term human behaviour and use of coastal resources. These detailed analyses of the molluscan material provides new lines of evidence enabling re-examination of pre-existing models for the region.

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): 16533