Place as Occupational Histories: Towards an Understanding of Deflated Surface Artefact Distributions in the West Darling, New South Wales, Australia
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis develops theoretical and methodological approaches to the investigation of deflated surface stone artefact scatters beyond those that emphasise synchronic behavioural interpretations. The study is undertaken on Pine Point and Langwell Stations, two adjoining pastoral leases south of Broken Hill in arid Western New South Wales, Australia. The main objective of the study is to investigate long-term accumulated patterns in stone artefact assemblage composition within archaeological deposits with known occupational chronologies. These are derived from the dating of charcoal from heat retainer hearths. It is argued that the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages represent multiple episodes of accumulation over the last 2,000 years. Therefore, the formation of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages means they are ideal for the investigation of long-term accumulated patterns. To analyse the composition of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages, the concepts of artefact use life, curation, the intensity of raw material utilisation and occupation intensity are used. These permit the investigation of assemblage accumulation as a temporal process. Assemblages are not thought of as synchronic functional sets but rather as the consequence of repeated and discontinuous discard episodes overtime. As occupation intensity increases, so does the intensity of raw material utilisation. Cores and tools will be worked more intensively and assemblages will be dominated by local raw material, as access to distant sources becomes restricted. Analysis of the composition of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages indicates both consistencies and inconsistencies in the reduction and utilisation of lithic raw materials. Some of the consistencies are argued to reflect the character and distribution of the wider lithic landscape. In general, there is a distance decay relationship in the reduction of silcrete. This relationship is not evident in all measures of reduction intensity. Variation in measure…
abstract: This thesis develops theoretical and methodological approaches to the investigation of deflated surface stone artefact scatters beyond those that emphasise synchronic behavioural interpretations. The study is undertaken on Pine Point and Langwell Stations, two adjoining pastoral leases south of Broken Hill in arid Western New South Wales, Australia. The main objective of the study is to investigate long-term accumulated patterns in stone artefact assemblage composition within archaeological deposits with known occupational chronologies. These are derived from the dating of charcoal from heat retainer hearths. It is argued that the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages represent multiple episodes of accumulation over the last 2,000 years. Therefore, the formation of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages means they are ideal for the investigation of long-term accumulated patterns. To analyse the composition of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages, the concepts of artefact use life, curation, the intensity of raw material utilisation and occupation intensity are used. These permit the investigation of assemblage accumulation as a temporal process. Assemblages are not thought of as synchronic functional sets but rather as the consequence of repeated and discontinuous discard episodes overtime. As occupation intensity increases, so does the intensity of raw material utilisation. Cores and tools will be worked more intensively and assemblages will be dominated by local raw material, as access to distant sources becomes restricted. Analysis of the composition of the Pine Point-Langwell assemblages indicates both consistencies and inconsistencies in the reduction and utilisation of lithic raw materials. Some of the consistencies are argued to reflect the character and distribution of the wider lithic landscape. In general, there is a distance decay relationship in the reduction of silcrete. This relationship is not evident in all measures of reduction intensity. Variation in measure…
author: Shiner, Justin Ian
language: en
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2004
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:05:11Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/751