Living in rainforest: the prehistoric occupation of North Queensland's humid tropics
Creators: name: Horsfall, Nicky
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 1987
Subjects: Sahul
Archaeology
Radiocarbon
SahulArch
OCTOPUS database

description: This thesis presents the results of an exploratory investigation into the prehistoric occupation of the tropical rainforests of northeast Queensland. The limited ethnographic data available for this region describes how the Aboriginal societies who lived in these rainforests exploited their environment. A major feature of this exploitation was the intensive use of several species of toxic plants (many of them restricted to this district) as food staples. These plants were rendered edible by a complex process of treatment which included leaching in running water. Similar processes have been used to treat toxic food plants in many regions of the world, and their use may have a considerable antiquity. Although preservation of archaeological remains is not optimal in these humid tropics, numerous sites have been recorded, and excavations were undertaken at several of these. The oldest cultural deposits found so far are at Jiyer Cave (from 5100 BP), and an open site (Mulgrave River 2) was first occupied at about 2700 BP. Both of these sites contained remains of toxic and non-toxic food plants. Similar food plant remains were also recovered from other sites investigated by the author. The link between these archaeological remains of toxic food plants and intensive Aboriginal exploitation of the rainforests is not clear. This is due partly to the poor preservation of organic material in the older deposits particularly, and partly to inter-site variations. At Jiyer Cave, plant remains clearly identified as belonging to toxic species are no more than about 1000 years old, while non-toxic and unidentified species are as much as 4000 years old. Stone artefacts possibly associated with the processing of toxic species occur throughout these deposits, though specialised processing tools appear to be less than 1000 years old. At Mulgrave River 2, toxic food plant species occur in deposits dated to about 2000 BP, although they are more prevalent in the most recent levels. However, stone artefacts which might be associated with complex treatment procedures are rare at this site. The deposition rates of quartz artefacts are taken as possible indicators of intensity of site use. At Jiyer Cave, an increase of occupation is thus postulated for about 650 to 850 BP, whereas at Mulgrave River 2 the deposition of quartz artefacts peaks between 1800 and 1000 BP. In other words, there is no direct correlation between increased use of the sites and the presence of toxic plant remains, nor is there any correspondence between depositional histories of the two sites. Areas which still need investigation or which have arisen as a result of this research are noted, and a number of suggestions for future research are made.
description: Thesis submitted by N. Horsfall BSc(Qld) BA (Hons) (Qld) in March 1987 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Behavioural Science at James Cook University of North Queensland. This upload contains both vol 1 and vol 2 of Horsfall's PhD thesis.