Puritjarra
Puritjarra is an archaeological site located in the western part of Central Australia in Cleland Hills, 350 kilometers west of Alice Springs.[1][2] An ancient rock shelter, this site is located within the traditional Aboriginal lands of the Kukatja people.[3] The site is significant due to its ancient rock art and the stone artifacts that have been found there.
Archaeological findings
[edit]With some of the oldest rock art in Australia and a stone artifact typology stretching over 30 millennia, Puritjarra is a place in which many archeological excavations have taken place. It dates to at least 32,000 B.P. with findings from the Pleistocene into the Holocene.[4] The rock shelter has a sandy floor and a reliable water source nearby. At the site, there are some rock art engravings in stone.[5]
Flaked stone artifacts were found, some made from locally sourced materially (silicified sandstone, clear quartz and ironstone) and some from other materials sourced from further away (white chalcedony, nodular chert, and silcrete).[4] Grey silcrete was used to make the blades for men's knifes at Puritjarra. This silcrete would have been sourced from elsewhere in the Cleland Hills.[6] Archaeologist Mike Smith found that there was little change in the types of resources and materials used throughout the Pleistocene and into the Holocene. Flake and core methods for creating stone tools stayed relatively the same.[4] Tula stone tools as well as thumbnail scrapers that were most likely hafted have also been found at the site.[7]
Researchers have determined that the site was occupied throughout the late Pleistocene and into the last millennium. Some of the rock art at Puritjarra has been dated to the mid-Holocene.[8]
History of archaeological research
[edit]Puritjarra was first excavated between 1986 and 1990 by archaeologist Mike Smith. [4] A series of trenches and grid square excavation pits were dug for the research. Extensive chronology was done on the site through radiocarbon dating at each excavation which dates the site to 32,000 B.P. or 35,000 B.P. [9]
References
[edit]- ^ Smith, M.A.; Prescott, J.R.; Head, M.J. (January 1997). "Comparison of 14C and luminescence chronologies at puritjarra rock shelter, central Australia". Quaternary Science Reviews. 16 (3–5): 299–320. doi:10.1016/S0277-3791(96)00085-6.
- ^ Rosenfeld, A.; Smith, M. A. (2002). "Rock-Art and the History of Puritjarra Rock Shelter, Cleland Hills, Central Australia". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 68: 103–124. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00001468. ISSN 0079-497X.
- ^ Smith, Mike (2005). Peopling the Cleland Hills: Aboriginal history in western Central Australia, 1850-1980. Aboriginal history monograph. Canberra: Aboriginal History. ISBN 978-0-9585637-8-9.
- ^ a b c d Smith, Moya A. (29 November 2006). "Characterizing Late Pleistocene and Holocene stone artefact assemblages from Puritjarra rock shelter: a long sequence from the Australian Desert". Records of the Australian Museum. 58 (3): 371–410. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.58.2006.1470. hdl:1885/27417. ISSN 0067-1975.
- ^ Rosenfeld, A.; Smith, M. A. (2002). "Rock-Art and the History of Puritjarra Rock Shelter, Cleland Hills, Central Australia". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 68: 103–124. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00001468. ISSN 0079-497X.
- ^ Graham, R.; Thorley, P. (1996). "Central Australian Aboriginal stone knives: their cultural significance, manufacture and trade". In Morton, S. R.; Mulvaney, D. J. (eds.). Exploring Central Australia: Society, the environment and the 1894 Horn Expedition. Chipping Norton, NSW: Surrey Beatty and Sons. pp. 74–89. ISBN 9780949324672.
- ^ Holdaway, Simon; Stern, Nicola (2004). A record in stone: the study of Australia's flaked stone artefacts. Melbourne: Museum Victoria. ISBN 978-0-85575-460-0. OCLC 56544260.
- ^ Smith, M. A.; Watchman, A.; Ross, J. (March 2009). "Direct dating indicates a Mid-Holocene Age for archaic rock engravings in arid Central Australia". Geoarchaeology. 24 (2): 191–203. Bibcode:2009Gearc..24..191S. doi:10.1002/gea.20262. hdl:1885/59160. ISSN 0883-6353.
- ^ Smith, M.A. (October 1989). "The case for a resident human population in the Central Australian Ranges during full glacial aridity". Archaeology in Oceania. 24 (3): 93–105. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.1989.tb00218.x. ISSN 0728-4896.