TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term occupation on the edge of the desert: Riwi Cave in the southern Kimberley, Western Australia
AU - Balme, Jane
AU - O'Connor, Susan
AU - Maloney, Tim
AU - Vannieuwenhuyse, Dorcas
AU - Aplin, Kenneth
AU - Dilkes-Hall, India Ella
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Aboriginal people occupied Riwi, a limestone cave in the south-central Kimberley region at the edge of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, from about 46000 years ago through to the historical period. The cultural materials recovered from the Riwi excavations provide evidence of intermittent site use, especially in climatically wet periods. Changes in hunting patterns and in hearth-making practices about 34000 years ago appear to accompany a change to drought resistant vegetation in the site surrounds. Occupation during the Last Glacial Maximum highlights variation in aridity trends in the broader environmental record. The most intensive use of the cave was during a wet period in the early to middle Holocene, when people appear to have received marine shell beads from the coast through social networks. While there is less evidence for late Holocene occupation, this probably reflects deposition processes rather than an absence of occupation.
AB - Aboriginal people occupied Riwi, a limestone cave in the south-central Kimberley region at the edge of the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, from about 46000 years ago through to the historical period. The cultural materials recovered from the Riwi excavations provide evidence of intermittent site use, especially in climatically wet periods. Changes in hunting patterns and in hearth-making practices about 34000 years ago appear to accompany a change to drought resistant vegetation in the site surrounds. Occupation during the Last Glacial Maximum highlights variation in aridity trends in the broader environmental record. The most intensive use of the cave was during a wet period in the early to middle Holocene, when people appear to have received marine shell beads from the coast through social networks. While there is less evidence for late Holocene occupation, this probably reflects deposition processes rather than an absence of occupation.
U2 - 10.1002/arco.5166
DO - 10.1002/arco.5166
M3 - Article
SN - 0003-8121
VL - 54
SP - 35
EP - 52
JO - Archaeology in Oceania
JF - Archaeology in Oceania
IS - 1
ER -