Old boundaries and new horizons: the Weipa shell mounds reconsidered

Michael Morrison

33 citations0/0 files storedArchaeology in Oceania/Archæology & physical anthropology in Oceania

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Australian Indigenous Culture and History Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Abstract

Abstract This paper develops an alternative interpretation of shell mound phenomena at Albatross Bay, near Weipa on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Past researchers have interpreted these distinct mounded middens as functional edifices, constructed to enable small family groups to camp closer to resources during the late wet season. Here I propose that the mounds at Weipa were associated with relatively large groups of people intensively exploiting the shellfish Anadara granosa. This argument is based on a range of factors, including the biological characteristics of Anadara, a species that makes up over 90% of the composition of shell mounds, as well as archaeological and ethnographic evidence.

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References

1972Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia.1997Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory 1985Evidence for a coastal occupation time‐lag at Princess Charlotte Bay (North Queensland) and implications for coastal colonization and population growth theories for Aboriginal Australia 1999Australian coastal archaeology 1939The Seasonal Factor in Human Culture Illustrated from the Life of a Contemporary Nomadic Group 2010Shell Mounds, Shell Middens, and Raised Beaches in the Cape York Peninsula 1973CAMP SITE LOCATION AMONGST AUSTRALIAN HUNTER‐GATHERERS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE FOR A KEY DETERMINANT 2022Of acts and axes: an ethnography of socio-cultural change in an Aboriginal community, Cape York Peninsula

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2010Mission-Based Indigenous Production at the Weipa Presbyterian Mission, Western Cape York Peninsula (1932–66)2013The archaeology of culturally modified trees: Indigenous economic diversification within colonial intercultural settings in Cape York Peninsula, northeastern Australia 2009Coastal shell middens of the Abydos coastal plain, Western Australia 2013Niche production strategies and shell matrix site variability at A lbatross B ay, C ape Y ork P eninsula

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