Nicola Stern
Dr Nicola Stern is a Palaeolithic Archaeologist interested in the contribution that archaeology makes to our understanding of the narrative and dynamics of human evolution. Her research interests straddle both ends of the time scale, and include investigation of the Early Stone Age in East Africa and the late Pleistocene of Australia. A general interest in the problem of how we know what we think we know about the distant past has spawned more specific interests, including investigation of the way sites form, the information that can be generated from chipped stone artefacts, and the behavioural information that can be generated from agglomerations of material remains scattered across ancient landscapes. She has a particular interest in the way in which site formation processes and time structure the archaeological record and the implications of this for the information archaeologists can hope to generate about the past.
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not exclusively) by historians interested in breaking the apparently artificial
barrier that separates historical narratives based on written or oral testimonies
from those based on the study of material remains. However, to achieve this
goal, historians and archaeologists will have to grapple with the substantive
implications of studying the unique material archives that are the particular
purview of the historical sciences. This chapter explores some of the issues
involved in doing so by investigating the empirical characteristics of an
archaeological record that spans the entire known history of human settlement
on the Australian continent. As such, it holds out the promise of writing a
narrative of the continent’s earliest history as well as exploring the dynamics of
long-term change that followed the colonisation of a previously unpeopled and
unfamiliar country.
for assessing the relationship between access to and selection of raw materials, tool-making strategies and the spatial and temporal availability of subsistence resources.
draws attention to the low frequency of implements, uncertainties about functional interpretations and archaeological implications. He
argues that Pleistocene seed exploitation at Lake Mungo was limited and probably not indicative of a seed grinding economy. We suggest
that it is premature to speculate about the scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo. We also use new data to address concerns raised about our
methodology.
These hearths were constructed in aeolian sediments with alternating clay and sand layers, indicative of
fluctuating lake levels and occasional drying out. The geochemistry of the otoliths confirms this scenario,
with shifts in Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca marking the entry of the fish into Lake Mungo several years before their
death, and a subsequent increase in the d18O by w4& indicating increasing evaporation of the lake.
During sustained lake-full conditions there are considerably fewer traces of human presence. It seems
that the evaporating Lake Mungo attracted people to harvest fish that might have become sluggish
through oxygen starvation in an increasingly saline water body (easy prey hypothesis). In contrast,
surface finds have a much wider range in radiocarbon age as a result of reworking, and do not necessarily
indicate evaporative conditions, as shown by comparison with otoliths from upstream Lake Mulurulu.
not exclusively) by historians interested in breaking the apparently artificial
barrier that separates historical narratives based on written or oral testimonies
from those based on the study of material remains. However, to achieve this
goal, historians and archaeologists will have to grapple with the substantive
implications of studying the unique material archives that are the particular
purview of the historical sciences. This chapter explores some of the issues
involved in doing so by investigating the empirical characteristics of an
archaeological record that spans the entire known history of human settlement
on the Australian continent. As such, it holds out the promise of writing a
narrative of the continent’s earliest history as well as exploring the dynamics of
long-term change that followed the colonisation of a previously unpeopled and
unfamiliar country.
for assessing the relationship between access to and selection of raw materials, tool-making strategies and the spatial and temporal availability of subsistence resources.
draws attention to the low frequency of implements, uncertainties about functional interpretations and archaeological implications. He
argues that Pleistocene seed exploitation at Lake Mungo was limited and probably not indicative of a seed grinding economy. We suggest
that it is premature to speculate about the scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo. We also use new data to address concerns raised about our
methodology.
These hearths were constructed in aeolian sediments with alternating clay and sand layers, indicative of
fluctuating lake levels and occasional drying out. The geochemistry of the otoliths confirms this scenario,
with shifts in Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca marking the entry of the fish into Lake Mungo several years before their
death, and a subsequent increase in the d18O by w4& indicating increasing evaporation of the lake.
During sustained lake-full conditions there are considerably fewer traces of human presence. It seems
that the evaporating Lake Mungo attracted people to harvest fish that might have become sluggish
through oxygen starvation in an increasingly saline water body (easy prey hypothesis). In contrast,
surface finds have a much wider range in radiocarbon age as a result of reworking, and do not necessarily
indicate evaporative conditions, as shown by comparison with otoliths from upstream Lake Mulurulu.