SEMINAR: Archaeology Seminar Series

During 2013/14 Scarp Archaeology in collaboration with BHP Billiton and the Nyiyarparli People undertook a large scale research project focused on discovering and documenting Aboriginal archaeological sites of high significance throughout the Nyiyarparli Native Title claim area, in the Eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. The general aim of this research was to address conclusively the issues of settlement and occupation of the Eastern Hamersley Ranges. We were specifically interested in knowing when people arrived in this region, how they subsisted during the Pleistocene (including whether settlement persisted during the LGM) and how their subsistence strategies changed through time.

The project targeted the discovery of rock shelters from five different research areas, re-evaluation of previously recorded sites, and detailed excavation. The project also included a program of environmental sampling of the greater region. In this seminar I discuss the preliminary results of this research, including the re-excavation of both Newman rock shelter, Newman Orebody XXIX, and a suite of other new sites. A new chronology for the occupation of the Eastern Hamersley ranges is proposed, and the implications in terms of arid zone settlement and adaption examined.