Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:16:22.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A large area archaeological excavation at Cuddie Springs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Judith Field ,
Richard Fullagar  and
Garry Lord
Judith Field
Affiliation:
Archaeology, A14, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Richard Fullagar
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
Garry Lord
Affiliation:
Brewarrina Local Aboriginal Land Council, Bathurst Street, Brewarrina NSW 2839, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Large area excavation at Cuddie Springs has revealed that the Pleistocene sediments have remained undisturbed. This eliminates the possibility that stone artefacts found in association with megafauna may have been introduced by disturbance from higher levels and indicates an overlap of megafauna with humans of at least 10,000 years.

Keywords

megafaunaCuddie Springsstone artefactsenvironmental change
Type
News & Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 290 , December 2001 , pp. 696 - 702
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, C. & Fletcher, H.O.. 1934. The Cuddie Springs Bone Bed, The Australian Museum Magazine 5: 152–8.Google Scholar
Clarke, S.J. 1999. The application of the amino acid racemisation geochronological technique to Late Pleistocene fossil teeth from the Australian megafaunal locality, Cuddie Springs. Unpublished B.Sc Hons thesis, University of Wollongong.Google Scholar
Choquenot, D. & Bowman, D.M.J.S.. 1998. Marsupial megafauna, Aborigines and the overkill hypothesis: application of predator-prey models to the question of Pleistocene extinction in Australia, Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 7: 167–80.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, R. & Allen, J.. 2001. Prey choice and hunting strategies in the Late Pleistocene: Evidence from Southwest Tasmania, in Anderson, A., O’Connor, S. & Lilley, J. (ed.), Histories of Old Ages: essays in honour of Rhys Jones: 397–429. Canberra: Coombs Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Dodson, J.R., Fullagar, R., Furby, J., Jones, R., & Prosser, I.. 1993. Humans and megafauna in a late Pleistocene environment from Cuddie Springs, north western New South Wales, Archaeology in Oceania 28: 94–9.Google Scholar
Field, J. & Boles, W.. 1998. Genyornis newtoni and Dromaius novaehollandiae at 30,000 BP in central northern New South Wales, Alcheringa 22: 177–88.Google Scholar
Field, J. & Dodson, J.. 1999. Late Pleistocene megafauna and archaeology from Cuddie Springs, southeastern Australia, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 65: 275–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, J., Dodson, J. & Prosser, I.. In press. A vegetation history from the Australian semi-arid zone, Quaternary Science Reviews 21: Manuscript No. QSR939.Google Scholar
Field, J. & Fullagar, R.. 2001. Archaeology and Australian Megafauna, Science 294: 7a.Google Scholar
Fifleld, L.K., Bird, M.I., Turney, C.S.M., Hausladen, P.A., Santos, G.M & Tada, M.L. DI. In press. Radiocarbon dating of the human occupation of Australia prior to 40 ka BP — successes and pitfalls, Radiocarbon (in press)Google Scholar
Flannery, T.F. 1994, The future eaters: an ecological history of the Australasian lands and people. Sydney: Reed Publishers.Google Scholar
Fullagar, R. & Field, J.. 1997. Pleistocene seed-grinding implements from the Australian arid zone, Antiquity 71: 300–307.Google Scholar
Furby, J.H. 1995. Megafauna under the microscope, archaeology and palaeoenvironment at Cuddie Springs. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, School of Geography, University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1985. On watering holes and mineral licks, death and predation, in Mead, J. & Meltzer, D.J. (ed.), Environments and extinctions: man in Late Glacial North America: 53–71. Orono (ME): University of Maine, Centre for the Study of Early Man.Google Scholar
Head, L. 2000. Second nature: the history and implications of Australia as Aboriginal landscape. Syracuse (NY): Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Horton, D. 2000, The Pure State of Nature: Sacred cows, destructive myths and the environment. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S. & Klein, R.G., (ed.). 1984. Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution. Tucson (AZ): University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Miller, G., Magee, J.W., Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., Spooner, N.A., McCulloch, M.T. & Ayliffe, L.K.. 1999. Pleistocene extinction of Genyornis newtoni: human impact on Australian megafauna. Science 283: 205–8.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, J. & Kamminga, J.. 1999. Prehistory of Australia: 172–89. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Nicholson, A, & Cane, S.. 1991. Desert camps: analysis of Australian Aboriginal proto-historic camp sites, in Gamble, C.S. & Boismier, W.A. (ed.), Ethnoarchaeological approaches to mobile campsites: hunter-gatherer and pastoralist case studies: 263–354. Ann Arbor (MI): International Monographs in Prehistory. Ethnoarchaeological Series.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J.F. 1987. Alyawara site structure and its archaeological implications, American Antiquity 56: 483–593.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J.F. & Allen, J.. 1998. When did humans first arrive in Greater Australia and why is it important to know? Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 132–46.Google Scholar
Pickering, M. 1995. Notes on the Aboriginal hunting and butchering of cattle and buffalo, Australian Archaeology 40: 17–20.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Flannery, T.F., Ayliffe, L.K., Yoshida, H., Ollky, J.M., Prideaux, G.J., Laslett, G.M., Baynes, A., Smith, M.A., Jones, R., & Smith, B.L.. 2001. New ages for the last of Australian megafauna: continent wide extinction about 46,000 years ago, Science 292: 1888–92.Google Scholar
Spurling, G.B. & Hayden, B.. 1984. Ethnoarchaeology and intrasite spatial analysis: a case study from the Australian Western Desert, in Hietala, H.J.. (ed.), Intrasite spatial analysis in archaeology: 224–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thorne, A., Grun, R, Mortimer, G., Spooner, N.A., Simpson, J.J., Mcculloch, M., Taylor, L. & Curnoe, D.. 1999. Australia’s oldest human remains: age of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton, Journal of Human Evolution 36: 591–612.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, C.S. 1885. President’s Address, Annual General Meeting, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 9: 1207–41.Google Scholar
Wright, R.V.S. 1986. New light on the extinction of the Australian megafauna, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 109: 1–9.Google Scholar
Wroe, S. & Field, J.. 2001. Mystery of megafaunal extinctions remains, Australasian Science 22: 21–5.Google Scholar