NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGES IN AUSTRALIAN LITHIC INDUSTRIES DURING THE HOLOCENE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-05

In Australian archaeology, lithic analysis has been mostly driven by behavioural ecology and optimal foraging theory. Following such body of theories, a number of changes in Australian lithic industries have been highlighted, and often explained in terms of adaptation to shifting environmental conditions. Thus, cultural and social choices and organisations were often overlooked by scholars. These analyses, based on the quantification of artefacts’ morphometric features, lack detailed qualitative depiction of the changes occurring in lithic industries. In this presentation I propose to approach the study of Australian lithic assemblages through the application of an alternative methodology based on the French chaîne opératoire method. I believe that different explanatory models can be advanced and new interpretations of the changes in lithic technology can be provided. I will use the Kimberley region (north-west Australia) as a case study, focusing on the emergence of bifacial and point technology. During the Holocene, between 5,000 and 1,000 cal. BP, the region witnesses substantial changes in the archaeological record with the emergence of new tool-types (i.e. various point morphologies). The appearance of these new tool-types, more standardised from a morphological point of view, has been interpreted as a risk reduction strategy to cope with heightened climatic instability and less predictable resources. Nerveless, some researchers have recently suggested that the late emergence of bifacially shaped and pressure-flaked Kimberley points could be interpreted from a social perspective. My analysis, based on the chaîne opératoire approach, review these hypotheses through the study of mid-Holocene assemblages from the Kimberly region. Via this case study I will question the efficiency of both methodologies in explaining changes in human behaviour and bring new elements in the debate on lithic technology in Australian prehistory.

Author(s): Benoit, Marine (University of Western Australia)