Mapping unmarked graves with ground penetrating radar at the Walkerville Wesleyan cemetery, Adelaide

A Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey was undertaken to map unmarked graves within the historic Walkerville Wesleyan Cemetery in Adelaide. The survey revealed 168 probable graves, 20 possible graves and 68 additional graves containing more than one interment. Our results demonstrate the utility of geophysical methods, specifically GPR, as a non invasive tool for managing the cultural heritage of cemetery sites and suggest that this method could play a more significant role in Australian archaeology.

Trialing geophysical techniques in the identification of open Indigenous sites in Australia: A case study from inland northwest Queensland

The use of geophysical techniques as an aid to archaeological investigations has become common-place, however these methods have only occasionally been applied in Indigenous Australian archaeology. This is despite recognition (and recommendations) since the 1970s that such approaches have the potential to yield positive results in such contexts (e.g. Connah et al. 1976; Stanley 1983; Stanley and Green 1976). Australian archaeologists have perhaps been reluctant to embrace these techniques because of their perceived high cost (both of equipment and specialist staff) and the subtle nature of subsurface Indigenous sites as geophysical targets. Nevertheless, there have been a number of recent applications of these techniques in Australia, particularly in relation to burial and hearth sites. We report the results of a pilot study conducted in northwest Queensland. This study aimed to test the applicability of geophysical methods being routinely employed to locate a variety of open site features (particularly hearths and middens) as part of reconnaissance surveys. While not being entirely successful, this study demonstrated that certain archaeological features can be readily identifi ed using geophysical techniques, though further research and trials should be carried out to refi ne the uses of these techniques to allow their more widespread applicability.

The Big Flood

Since the first peopling of Australia and New Guinea (the continent of Sahul) during times of lower sea level more than 60,000 years ago, approximately 2 million km2 of land, roughly one-third of the present continental land mass, has been drowned by sea-level rise. Landscapes encountered and settled by thousands of generations of people throughout the continent have been inundated by rising seas as polar ice and glaciers melted into the world’s oceans. While some archaeological sites formed within these landscapes were no doubt destroyed by the rising seas, many sites are likely to have survived. This submerged archaeological record represents the majority of human occupation in Sahul, spanning the period from initial peopling of the continent to 7000 years BP. As a major frontier in Australian archaeology, investigation of what is now seabed will ultimately lead to revised and enhanced understanding of the continental archaeological record. By reevaluating the coastal zone, submerged landscapes, and continental shelf, consideration for these past cultural landscapes in what is now Sea Country has the potential to profoundly reshape the archaeological discourse of Australia and New Guinea.

The Development (and Imagined Reinvention) of Australian Archaeology in the Twentieth Century

Most histories of Australian archaeology written in the past three decades imagine that the discipline came of age in (approximately) the year 1960. We are led to believe that systematic archaeological research, nuanced interpretations, and advocacy for the conservation of Aboriginal cultural heritage all date to the post-1960 era. Yet archaeological research in Australia has a lengthier and more complex genealogy. Here we use a series of case studies to explore the gradual development of the discipline during the twentieth century. We unpack key moments and projects during the early to mid-twentieth century and examine the extent to which the so-called professional archaeologists of the 1960s overlapped with and depended on the work of “amateur” scholars. We conclude by suggesting that the period of most rapid and significant change in archaeological thought and practice was precipitated by Aboriginal activism leading up to the 1980s. Australia’s First Peoples demanded control of research into their cultural heritage, a project that continues today. Our discipline must encourage a culture of reflexivity on its current practices by coming to terms with—rather than silencing—its history, whether good, bad, or ugly.

Persistence of Complexity

The Intensification debate of the late 1970s–1980s in world and Australian archaeology challenged conventional environmental theories of human behaviour, and the concept of hunter-gatherers in general. It emphasized change and dynamics in past hunter-gatherer societies, arguing against predominant environmental control and comparing, rather than contrasting, hunter-gatherers with other societies such as agriculturalists and horticulturalists. The debate was directed at questions of resource use and economy, demography, and sociostructural change, and it set forth paradigmatic changes and new narratives regarding the conceptualization of hunter-gatherers and their history (prehistory). Discussed here are the debate’s theoretical history and development in the Australian context, its results, its lasting influence and critique, and its continued relevance in debates today.