Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-zlgnt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T09:51:16.298Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conjoin sets and stratigraphic integrity in a sandstone shelter: Kenniff Cave (Queensland, Australia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Norma Richardson
Norma Richardson*
Affiliation:
Archaeological Sites Register, Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, GPO Box 4646, Darwin N.T. 0801, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is a common assumption that archaeological deposits with well-defined bands of ‘undisturbed’ sediments possess absolute stratigraphic integrity and hence that discrete cultural events are sealed within them. This cautionary tale, based on the excavation of a sandstone shelter site in Queensland, shows that this precise stratigraphic and chronological resolution can no longer be taken for granted. Conjoin sets (stone flakes struck from the same core) demonstrate substantial vertical artefact migration between layers, with consequent implications for interpretation.

Information

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 251 , June 1992 , pp. 408 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Cahen, D. & Moeyersons, J. 1977. Subsurface movements of stone artifacts and their implications for the prehistory of Central Africa, Nature 266: 812–15.Google Scholar
Gould, R.A. 1969. Puntutjarpa rocksheiter: a reply to Messrs. Glover and Lampert, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 4: 229–37.Google Scholar
Hiscock, P.D. 1986. The conjoin sequence diagram: a method of describing conjoin sets, Queensland Archaeological Research 3: 159–66.Google Scholar
Hughes, P.J. & Lampert, R.J. 1977 Occupational disturbance and types of archaeological deposit, Journal of Archaeological Science 4: 135–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, I. 1979. The getting of data. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Kelly, M. 1982. A practical reference source to radiocarbon dates obtained from archaeological sites in Queensland. Brisbane: Archaeology Branch, Department of Aboriginal and Islanders Advancement. Cultural Resource Management Monograph 4.Google Scholar
Morwood, M.J. 1979. Art and stone: towards a prehistory of Central Western Queensland. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Morwood, M.J. 1981. Archaeology of the Central Queensland Highlands: the stone component, Archaeology in Oceania 16(1): 1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morwood, M.J. 1984. The prehistory of the Central Queensland Highlands, in Wendorf, F. & Close, A.E. (ed.), Advances in World Archaeology 3: 325–80. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. 1969. The prehistory of Australia. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. 1975. The prehistory of Australia. Revised edition. Melbourne: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. & Joyce, E.B. 1965. Archaeological and geomorphological investigations on Mt. Moffatt Station, Queensland, Australia, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 31: 147–212.Google Scholar
Pearce, R.H. 1974. Spatial and temporal distribution of Australian backed blades, Mankind 9: 300–09.Google Scholar
Siiriainen, A. 1977. Pieces in vertical movement: a model for rocksheiter archaeology, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 43: 349–53.Google Scholar
Stern, N. 1980. Taphonomy: some observations about its place in archaeology. Unpublished BA(Hons.) thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Stockton, E.D. 1973. Shaws Creek Shelter: human displacement of artifacts and its significance, Mankind 9:112–17.Google Scholar
Van Noten, F., Cahen, D. & Keeley, L. 1980. A paleolithic campsite in Belgium, Scientific American 242: 48–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villa, P. 1982. Conjoinable pieces and site formation processes, American Antiquity 47: 276–90.Google Scholar
White, C. 1967. Early stone axes in Arnhem Land, Antiquity 41: 149–52.Google Scholar
White, J.P. & O’Connell, J.F. 1982. A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar