Graduate School of the Environment - Western New South Wales Archaeology Program (WNSWAP)
What We Do
WNSWAP projects 1996 – 2007
Predicting the Past: Time, Landscape and Indigenous Australian History
(ARC Discovery Grant project, Paroo-Darling National Park, 2005-2007)
Conventionally archaeologists discover sites through survey and excavation. Both are problematic in the arid 70% of Australia where many sites lack boundaries and rest on the surface.
To solve these problems we re-conceptualise archaeological site surveys by providing an integrated methodology based on archaeology, Quaternary geochronology and geomorphology that emphasises the landscape setting as a means for evaluating when archaeological materials were deposited, how they have been modified through time, and where they have been eroded.
The result will be a clear statement of when and where we may expect the archaeological record to be preserved enabling a more detailed account of Indigenous Australian place use history.
Stone artefacts and hearths – people and environment: understanding the past at Poolamacca
(funded by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 2004-2005)
In 2005, archaeologists, geomorphologists and geochronologists from the Western NSW Archaeology Program (WNSWAP) worked with Traditional Owners to study the archaeological record of Poolamacca Station in western NSW.
We surveyed artefacts and the remains of heat-retainer hearths on a small section of river terrace adjacent to Campbells Creek. We also recorded possible lithic sources, and conducted a pilot study to test a non-destructive method for dating hearths.
The goal was to provide TOs with geoarchaeological information to add to their knowledge of their country. In the past, waterholes and lithic sources made Campbells Creek a good place to live, as indicated by the rich archaeological record. But the environment was not unchanging: differences in the wood burnt in the hearths from one time period to the next suggests variability in the availability of particular species, which may be related to climate change.
Aboriginal people appear to have adapted to such changes, however, as a record of occupation going back at least 6000 years has been established from age determinations on the hearths. Recent erosion now threatens that record. Overgrazing in the late 19th century led to stream incision and widening, and sheetwash and rill and gully erosion continue to threaten the preservation of the archaeological record that remains. Scientists and Traditional Owners need to continue working together to learn from that record before it is lost forever.
Geoarchaeological Investigation of Aboriginal Landscape Occupation in Peery National Park, western NSW
(Macquarie University External Collaborative Grant project with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2002)
This pilot project investigated archaeological material in its landscape context at three locations in Peery National Park (now part of the Paroo-Darling National Park) that were being considered for visitor facilities, using WNSWAP survey and analysis techniques.
All three areas were found to contain assemblages different from those recorded from elsewhere in NSW. Alternative locations for visitor facilities were recommended.
Peopling of the arid zone revisited: Aboriginal stone artefact scatters as indicators of occupation intensity in western NSW
(ARC Large Grant project, Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station, 1999-2001)
Dramatic increases in the density of archaeological materials dated to the last 1500 years are reported for the arid zone of western NSW.
We investigated this record at a regional level by applying a sophisticated sampling design to search for patterns in the deposition of stone artefacts across six landscape types (Land Systems) at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone Research Station, 110 km north of Broken Hill.
Through an approach that combined archaeological and geomorphological studies using new technological solutions based on GIS to record surface scatters of artefacts, we produced a high quality database to investigate Aboriginal place use history in the late Holocene.
The length of archaeological record was found to vary across space, depending on the relative landscape stability: longer records of occupation were found on older, more stable landforms, while the more dynamic geomorphic environments preserved much shorter records.
These findings have major implications for the use of settlement systems as models of Aboriginal occupation in Australia, and elsewhere.
Dealing with space: the interface between archaeology and geomorphology in far western NSW
(ARC Collaborative Grant project with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1996-1998)
Surface deposits of stone artefacts are the most common archaeological material in Australia, yet their study has contributed the least to our understanding of Aboriginal prehistory. Amongst the myriad of reasons is a lack of understanding of the interrelationships between geomorphic processes of landscape change and the preservation, exposure and visibility of the archaeological record of Aboriginal occupation.
In this project we developed methods that overcome this problem. We used geomorphological and geophysical techniques to establish a chronology of landscape evolution, and electronic survey technology and GIS to document and analyse artefact and hearth distributions.
The project involved archaeologists, geomorphologists, and geochronologists working together to integrate a dynamic view of natural landscape change with an understanding of the spatial distribution of archaeological materials.