Coastal Southeast Queensland, Australia: An Historical Ecology Model of Mid- to Late Holocene Settlement and Subsistence

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Coastal Southeast Queensland covers an area stretching from Fraser Island in the north to the border of northern New South Wales in the south, and possesses the best documented and most intensively scrutinized coastal archaeological record in Australia. The area was a major focus in the late 1970s when the Moreton Regional Archaeological Project, a long-term multi-stage regional project, was established at The University of Queensland to coordinate archaeological investigations. Initial studies provided the basis for a regional chronology, as well as models of settlement and subsistence based on the exploitation of the area’s rich marine resources. In the time since the original work was conducted the research foci for coastal archaeology have moved toward more complex issues such as assessing the impact of humans on marine ecosystems, the identification of patterns in resource exploitation strategies, and the use of molluscs as proxy evidence in local and regional environmental reconstructions. Re-analysis of midden deposits from differing locations in Southeast Queensland in the context of recent regional palaeo-environmental reconstructions indicates considerable variability in site characteristics across the region, strongly influenced by local environmental factors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23237