‘Come down in the world?’ Assessing social status from a nineteenth century burial in Far North Queensland

Abstract

This paper outlines the exhumation of the grave of Jane Ann Owen situated on Low Island, a sandy coral cay 15 km northeast of Port Douglas in Far North Queensland. It examines the remote burial in the context of assessing social status from a nineteenth century burial. It is argued from the presence of a prosthetic dental attachment that the individual was at one time in her adult life reasonably affluent which stands in contrast to the simple nature of her grave, lacking as it does any of the accoutrements expected of a burial of someone of either status or wealth. It is concluded that the evidence of both wealth and poverty present from the grave and body of Jane Ann Owen is not necessarily related to evidence of status but most likely a product of geographic isolation, highlighting the complexities in interpreting status and wealth archaeologically from nineteenth century burials in remote Australia.