Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:22:06.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middens and cheniers: implications of Australian research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Marjorie Sullivan  and
Sue O'Connor
Marjorie Sullivan
Affiliation:
North Australia Research Unit, ANU, PO Box 41321, Casuarina NT 0811, Australia
Sue O'Connor
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In watery places people prefer to live where they can keep their feet dry, and an elevation of a metre or two can make a difference. The simple distinction between humanly created middens and naturally built features does not easily apply in the Australian tropics, where the natural causes include cyclones, shellfish die-off and the building of mounds by scrub turkeys, and where foragers are not directed in where they choose to camp by concern for the classification by which tidy-minded archaeologists may want to order mounds in the wetlands.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 257 , December 1993 , pp. 776 - 788
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1993

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

Anthony, E.J. 1989. Chenier plain development in northern Sierra Leone, West Africa, Marine Geology 90: 297–309.Google Scholar
Augustinius, P.G.E.F., Hazelhoff, L. & Kroon, A. The chenier coast of Suriname: modern and geological development, Marine Geology 90: 269–81.Google Scholar
Bailey, G.N. 1977. Shellmounds, shellmiddens and raised beaches in the Cape York Peninsula, Mankind 11: 132–43.Google Scholar
Baker, R. 1981. Aboriginal and environmental history of Chambers Bay. Unpublished B.A. (Hons) thesis. Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bardsley, K.N., Davie, J.D.S. & Woodroffe, C.D (ed.). 1985. Coasts and tidal wetlands of the Australian monsoon region. Darwin: Australian National University, North Australia Research Unit. Mangrove Monograph 1.Google Scholar
Beaton, J.M. 1985. Evidence for a coastal occupation timelag at Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland, and implications for coastal colonization and population growth theories for Aboriginal Australia, Archaeology in Oceania 20: 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betitis, T. & Sullivan, M.E. 1990. Late Holocene sedimentation in Mirigida embayment, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, Science in New Guinea 16: 22–30.Google Scholar
Bird, E.C.F. 1984. Coasts. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Bird, M.K. 1992. The impact of tropical cyclones on the archaeological record: an Australian example, Archaeology in Oceania 27: 75–86.Google Scholar
Chappell, J. & Grindrod, J. 1984. Chenier plain formation in northern Australia, in Thorn, B.G. (ed.), Coastal geomorphology in Australia: 197–231. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chappell, J. & Woodroffe, C.D. 1985. Morphodynamics of Northern Territory tidal rivers and floodplains, in Bardsley, et al. (1985): 85–96.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.F., Wasson, R.J. & Williams, M.A.J. 1979. Point Stuart chenier and Holocene sea levels in northern Australia, Search 10: 90–92.Google Scholar
Cribb, R. 1986. Sites, people and archaeological information traps: a further transgressive episode from Cape York, Archaeology in Oceania 21: 171–4.Google Scholar
Elkin, A.P 1933. Totemism in northwestern Australia. Reprinted from Oceania Vols III and IV. Sydney: Oceania Publications.Google Scholar
Hiscock, P. & Mowat, F. In press. Midden variability in the coastal portion of the Kakadu region, Australian Archaeology.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G. 1985. Geomorphology and development of the Victoria delta, in Bardsley, et al. (1985): 31–42.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G. 1987. Age structure of the Point Stuart chenier plain: a reassessment, Search 18: 257–9.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G. 1991. Radiocarbon dating of cheniers, in Gillespie, R. (ed.), Quaternary dating workshop 1990: 11–12. Canberra: Australian National University, Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology, Research School of Pacific Studies.Google Scholar
Lees, B.G. 1992. Geomorphological evidence for late Holocene climatic change in northern Australia, Australian Geographer 23: 1–10.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. 1975. Prehistory of Australia. Melbourne: Penguin.Google Scholar
Peterson, N. 1973. Campsite locations among Australian huntergatherers, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 8: 173–93.Google Scholar
Price, W.A. 1955. Environment and formation of the chenier plain, Quaternaria 2: 75–86.Google Scholar
Prost, M.T. 1989. Coastal dynamics and chenier sands in French Guiana, Marine Geology 90: 259–67.Google Scholar
Rhoades, E.G. 1982. Depositional model for a chenier plain, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, Sedimentology 29: 201–21.Google Scholar
Russell, R.J. & Howe, H.V. 1935. Cheniers of southwestern Louisiana, Geographical Review 25: 449–61.Google Scholar
Semeniuk, V. 1982. Geomorphology and Holocene history of tidal flats, King Sound, northwestern Australia, Royal Society of Western Australia Journal 65: 47–68.Google Scholar
Short, A. 1989. Chenier research on the Australian coast, Marine Geology 90: 345–51.Google Scholar
Stone, T. 1989. Origins and environmental significance of shell and earth mounds inNorthern Australia, Archaeology in Oceania 24: 59–64.Google Scholar
Sullivan, M.E. 1982. Shell middens in the coastal landscape of New South Wales. Unpublished Ph.D thesis. Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Sullivan, M.E. 1984. A shell midden excavation at Pambula Lake on the far south coast of New South Wales, Archaeology in Oceania 19: 1–15.Google Scholar
Sullivan, M.E. & Sassoon, M. 1987. Prehistoric occupation of Loloata Island, Papua New Guinea, Australian Archaeology 24: 1–9.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D., Chappell, J.M.A. & Thom, B.G. 1988. Shell middens in the context of estuarine development, South Alligator River, Northern Territory, Archaeology in Oceania 23: 95–103.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D., Chappell, J.M.A., Thom, B.G. & Wallensky, E. 1986. Geomorphological dynamics and evolution of the South Alligator tidal river and plains, Northern Territory. Darwin: Australian National University, North Australia Research Unit. Mangrove Monograph 3.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, C.D. & Mulrennan, M.E. 1993. Geomorphology of the Mary River plains, Northern Territory. Darwin: Australian National University, North Australia Research Unit.Google Scholar
Wright, L.D. and Coleman, J.M. 1973. Geomorphic coast variability, northwestern Australia, Coastal Studies Bulletin 7: 35–64.Google Scholar
Zhao Xitao, 1989. Cheniers in China: an overview, Marine Geology 90: 311–20.Google Scholar