From scatter to mound: A new developmental model for shell mound sites at Weipa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25120/qar.16.2013.228Abstract
Recent research on shell mounds near Weipa (northeast Australia) has focussed on economic questions, particularly understanding what these sites reveal about the production strategies of Aboriginal people and possible links to broader social and environmental transformations documented in late Holocene northeastern Australia. However, in order to explore such issues it is necessary to acquire a firm understanding of mound development through reference to detailed stratigraphic, chronological and compositional data. This paper presents results of investigations into the developmental history of a range of shell matrix sites including shell scatters, non-mounded middens and mounds that occur at Bweening, to the north of Weipa. It is argued that the early stages of mound formation involved multiple small-scale (1–2m diameter) discard events in ‘clusters’ within close proximity to one another, coalescing through time to form low dome-shaped mounds. However, site development is characterised by a high degree of spatial variability in terms of where discard activities were focussed, and appears to shift in response to quite localised factors.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the list of references. Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
5. An article will not be published until the signed Author Agreement has been completed and returned to the Editors by the contributor.