Richard Cosgrove
La Trobe University, Archaeology and History, Faculty Member
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... 2). Indeed Sahul, like the Americas, also had no earlier hominins. ... Evidence from the archeologi-cal site of Cuddie Springs suggests that Genyornis survived for another ... Genyornis's prolonged co-existence with humans at... more
... 2). Indeed Sahul, like the Americas, also had no earlier hominins. ... Evidence from the archeologi-cal site of Cuddie Springs suggests that Genyornis survived for another ... Genyornis's prolonged co-existence with humans at Cuddie Springs can be explained this way without ...
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Studies of late Pleistocene hunter/gatherers on different continents have attempted to compare their archaeological records in the hope of revealing global temporal and spatial variability (Soffer 1987; Gamble and Soffer, 1990; Veth et... more
Studies of late Pleistocene hunter/gatherers on different continents have attempted to compare their archaeological records in the hope of revealing global temporal and spatial variability (Soffer 1987; Gamble and Soffer, 1990; Veth et al. 2005; Smith and Hesse 2006). However, incomplete or uneven chronological and paleoecological frameworks have limited the ability of most studies to compare archaeologies in commensurate ways. In one major attempt to do this, Gamble and Soffer (1990:15) used the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as a point of comparison but identified serious limitations in the data because of the different research agendas and the use of conflicting spatial and chronological scales. Gamble and Soffer argued that any observed variability could be the product of incompatible data sets rather than significant differences in human behaviours (1990:15). They suggested that if global comparisons are to be successful in illuminating aspects of human behavioural variability, it is crucial that standardisation of both temporal and spatial scales be in place for cross-cultural studies (Gamble and Soffer 1990:8). This approach has been successful in the natural sciences, particularly in studies of past global climates (e.g. Gasse et al. 1996; Shulmeister et al. 2006).
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Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
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Significance We provide global assessment of the possible link between Pleistocene hominin arrival and island extinction. The existing records on islands around the world do not support a significant and detrimental impact on island... more
Significance We provide global assessment of the possible link between Pleistocene hominin arrival and island extinction. The existing records on islands around the world do not support a significant and detrimental impact on island biotas following island colonization prior to the Holocene. This suggests that models using island extinctions as evidence in support of anthropogenic megafaunal overhunting, or as extensions of continental-level extinctions, need to be reconsidered.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Human Evolution, Mediterranean prehistory, Island Studies, and 13 moreCoastal and Island Archaeology, Caribbean Archaeology, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Pleistocene, Historical Ecology, Evolution and Human Behavior, Human Impact on Environment, Pacific Islands Archaeology, Extinction, Islands, Megafaunal extinctions, and Academy of Sciences and Letters
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What changes the Tasmanian man must have witnessed. Probably some of these glacial phases with the gradual drowning of the Bass land bridge, which so effectually checked the Australian Pharaoh and his hounds on the Victorian bank. What... more
What changes the Tasmanian man must have witnessed. Probably some of these glacial phases with the gradual drowning of the Bass land bridge, which so effectually checked the Australian Pharaoh and his hounds on the Victorian bank. What difference, ... This paper describes ...
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Subtitled Scale, resolution and explanation in Tasmanian Pleistocene human behaviour'. This monograph examines prior notions of the uniform behaviour of late Pleistocene humans nad concludes that the archaeological data from Southwest... more
Subtitled Scale, resolution and explanation in Tasmanian Pleistocene human behaviour'. This monograph examines prior notions of the uniform behaviour of late Pleistocene humans nad concludes that the archaeological data from Southwest Tasmania challenge this received view. The notion is examined by a detailed comparative analysis of two cave sites located in south central Tasmania. The results from these two sites clearly indicate a strong archaeological dichotomy between the two closely related geographic locations. in the absence of ethnographic, archaeological and/or theoretical behavioural models to investigate this dichotomy further, a palaeoecological framework is advanced to examine the bases for this variability.
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Abstract Hornfels is a high quality metamorphic rock commonly used by Tasmanian Aborigines for artefact manufacture in eastern Tasmania. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) data collected from over a dozen Aboriginal hornfels quarries in... more
Abstract Hornfels is a high quality metamorphic rock commonly used by Tasmanian Aborigines for artefact manufacture in eastern Tasmania. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) data collected from over a dozen Aboriginal hornfels quarries in the region showed that hornfels from several of the quarries has a distinct geochemical signature, making it possible to separate the quarries using particular elements (Rb, Sr and Zr). Comparing the quarry data with pXRF artefact analyses obtained from museum collections and open artefact scatters at inland and coastal sites showed that a small proportion of artefacts were made from non-local hornfels. This demonstrated that Aboriginal people transported individual hornfels artefacts over distances of up to 73 km, including between quarries and from inland to coastal sites. This indicates a dynamic system of Aboriginal stone procurement and mobility, including long distance hornfels artefact transport, despite the availability of high quality and easily accessible hornfels throughout that region. However, transport of hornfels artefacts appears restricted to the southeast, with no evidence that hornfels was transported across ethnographically documented tribal boundaries.
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The proportions of woody and grassland taxa in terrestrial ecosystems played an important role in the origin and evolution of early Palaeolithic hominins. However the influence of ecosystem changes on hominin behavior and adaptations in... more
The proportions of woody and grassland taxa in terrestrial ecosystems played an important role in the origin and evolution of early Palaeolithic hominins. However the influence of ecosystem changes on hominin behavior and adaptations in Asia has not been studied in detail. Hominins have exploited the Luonan Basin in the Eastern Qinling Mountains, central China, since the early Paleolithic. Dated sites, consisting of alternating loess and soil deposits with in situ artefacts, are common in the region, and provide a detailed record of Early to Middle Pleistocene hominin environments. Here, we present the results of measurements of the stable carbon isotopic composition of soil organic matter (δ(13)CSOM) in the loess-paleosol sequences from the Longyadong Cave site. Our analyses of δ(13)CSOM show that for at least 400 ka the Longyadong Cave site and its surroundings were dominated by C3 woody plants, whereas the nearby Liuwan site was dominated by C4 and C3 mixed grassland or woody gra...
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In contemporary green perceptions, rainforests are an Eden of biodiversity. But they seem also to be a famously hard environment for human subsistence, with foods scattered or high up beyond reach — which is why reports of... more
In contemporary green perceptions, rainforests are an Eden of biodiversity. But they seem also to be a famously hard environment for human subsistence, with foods scattered or high up beyond reach — which is why reports of Palaeo-Indians' flourishing in the Brazilian rainforests have caused surprise. What place do the rainforests have in Aboriginal Australian settlement, as archaeologically perceived?
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Research Interests: Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Zooarchaeology, and 9 moreLandscape Archaeology, Palaeolithic Archaeology, Australian Indigenous Archaeology, Biology, Palaeoecology, Hunter-Gatherers (Anthropology), Anthropological Archaeology, Academic, and Hunter Gatherer Archaeology
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Demography is increasingly being invoked to account for features of the archaeological record, such as the technological conservatism of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and cultural loss in... more
Demography is increasingly being invoked to account for features of the archaeological record, such as the technological conservatism of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and cultural loss in Holocene Tasmania. Such explanations are commonly justified in relation to population dynamic models developed by Henrich [Henrich J (2004)Am Antiq69:197-214] and Powell et al. [Powell A, et al. (2009)Science324(5932):1298-1301], which appear to demonstrate that population size is the crucial determinant of cultural complexity. Here, we show that these models fail in two important respects. First, they only support a relationship between demography and culture in implausible conditions. Second, their predictions conflict with the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence. We conclude that new theoretical and empirical research is required to identify the factors that drove the changes in cultural complexity that are documented by the archaeol...
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Research Interests: Biology and Archaeofauna
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Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Archaeology, Geology, Geochemistry, Paleontology, and 15 moreHuman Evolution, Archaeological Science, Biology, Evolution, Mammalogy, Archaeoanthropology, Animal Ecology, Palaeoanthropology, Vertebrate Paleontology, Mammal Extinctions, Megafauna, Late Pleistocene, Megafaunal extinctions, Small samples, and Prey Selection
New research on the odontochronological (dental growth-increment) analysis of marsupial teeth provides opportunities to estimate with more certainty the time of the year Tasmanian Aborigines inhabited sites during the late Pleistocene.... more
New research on the odontochronological (dental growth-increment) analysis of marsupial teeth provides opportunities to estimate with more certainty the time of the year Tasmanian Aborigines inhabited sites during the late Pleistocene. Here we focus on the Bennett's wallaby ( ...
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Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Base de datos de artículos de revistas, ...
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To cite this article: Cosgrove, Richard and Sim, Robin. A Tribute: Vale Darrell Arthur West 25 April 1945-24 March 2009 [online]. Australian Aboriginal Studies, No. 1, 2010: 132-135. Availability:< http://search. informit. com.... more
To cite this article: Cosgrove, Richard and Sim, Robin. A Tribute: Vale Darrell Arthur West 25 April 1945-24 March 2009 [online]. Australian Aboriginal Studies, No. 1, 2010: 132-135. Availability:< http://search. informit. com. au/documentSummary; dn= 337872649438961; ...
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Over the past 18 years the results of archaeological field research in many parts of Australia have challenged the view of late Pleistocene archaeological unity and homogeneity. Debates are increasingly focused on issues of identifying... more
Over the past 18 years the results of archaeological field research in many parts of Australia have challenged the view of late Pleistocene archaeological unity and homogeneity. Debates are increasingly focused on issues of identifying regional behavioral variability and away from a ‘normalization’ of Australia's prehistory. Prior notions of cultural transformations from ‘simple’ (late Pleistocene) to ‘complex’ (late Holocene) social
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Skip to content. admin login. La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by... more
Skip to content. admin login. La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students ...
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Skip to content. admin login. La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by... more
Skip to content. admin login. La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students La Trobe University Research Online, a digital repository holding works produced by La Trobe University staff and students ...
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The arrival of modern humans into previously unoccupied island ecosystems is closely linked to widespread extinction, and a key reason cited for Pleistocene megafauna extinction is anthropogenic overhunting. A common assumption based on... more
The arrival of modern humans into previously unoccupied island ecosystems is closely linked to widespread extinction, and a key reason cited for Pleistocene megafauna extinction is anthropogenic overhunting. A common assumption based on late Holocene records is that humans always negatively impact insular biotas, which requires an extrapolation of recent human behavior and technology into the archaeological past. Hominins have been on islands since at least the early Pleistocene and Homo sapiens for at least 50 thou- sand y (ka). Over such lengthy intervals it is scarcely surprising that significant evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural changes occurred. However, the deep-time link between human arrival and island ex- tinctions has never been explored globally. Here, we examine ar- chaeological and paleontological records of all Pleistocene islands with a documented hominin presence to examine whether humans have always been destructive agents. We show that extinctions at a global level cannot be associated with Pleistocene hominin arrival based on current data and are difficult to disentangle from records of environmental change. It is not until the Holocene that large-scale changes in technology, dispersal, demography, and human behavior visibly affect island ecosystems. The extinction acceleration we are currently experiencing is thus not inherent but rather part of a more recent cultural complex.
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The ''Wet Tropics'' of Australia host a unique variety of plant lineages that trace their origins to the super-continent of Gondwanaland. While these ''ancient'' evolutionary records are rightly emphasized in current management of the... more
The ''Wet Tropics'' of Australia host a unique variety of plant lineages that trace their origins to the super-continent of Gondwanaland. While these ''ancient'' evolutionary records are rightly emphasized in current management of the region, multidisciplinary research and lobbying by Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples have also demonstrated the significance of the cultural heritage of the ''Wet Tropics.'' Here, we evaluate the existing archeological, paleoenvironmental, and historical evidence to demonstrate the diverse ways in which these forests are globally significant, not only for their ecological heritage but also for their preservation of traces of millennia of anthropogenic activities, including active burning and food tree manipulation. We argue that detailed paleoecological, ethnobotanical, and archeological studies, working within the framework of growing national and world heritage initiatives and active application of traditional knowledge, offer the best opportunities for sustainable management of these unique environments in the face of increasingly catastrophic climate change and bushfires.
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Detailed research into marsupial behavioural ecology and modelling of past Aboriginal exploitation of terrestrial fauna has been scarce. Poor bone preservation is one limiting factor in Australian archaeological sites, but so has been the... more
Detailed research into marsupial behavioural ecology and modelling of past Aboriginal exploitation of terrestrial fauna has been scarce. Poor bone preservation is one limiting factor in Australian archaeological sites, but so has been the lack of research concerning the ecology and physiology of Australia’s endemic fauna. Much research has focused on marine and fresh-water shell-fish found in coastal and inland midden sites. Detailed studies into areas such as seasonality of past human occupation and nutritional returns from terrestrial prey species have not had the same attention. This chapter reviews the current level of published Australian research into two aspects of faunal studies, seasonality and nutrition. It describes the patterns from well-researched faunal data excavated from the Ice Age sites in southwest Tasmania. Concentration is on the vertebrate fauna found in seven limestone cave sites to examine any temporal changes to seasonal butchery and identify any differences...
a b s t r a c t Loess deposits in the Eastern Qinling Mountains (central China) provide a detailed archive for recon-structing the paleoenvironment during early hominin occupation. The study of the loess deposits also provides a unique... more
a b s t r a c t Loess deposits in the Eastern Qinling Mountains (central China) provide a detailed archive for recon-structing the paleoenvironment during early hominin occupation. The study of the loess deposits also provides a unique opportunity to understand Pleistocene atmospheric circulation in this transitional climatic zone. However, the provenance and formation of the loess deposits were not well understood until now. In this paper, we report on new geomorphologic investigations and depositional analyses of the loess deposits. The results suggest that Gobi deserts and drylands in northern and northwestern China were one of the dust sources. These loess deposits show similar geochemical composition as the average upper crust (UCC), and may indicate that they experienced multiple sedimentary processes, with the dust being well mixed before deposition. However, the higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (between 0.719650 and 0.721043) and extremely low 3 Nd (0) values (between À11.98 and À...
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Introduction The distribution and make-up of Australian Pleistocene Aboriginal populations have been characterized as widespread, with low densi-ties possessing little regional variation over large areas of Australia (White &... more
Introduction The distribution and make-up of Australian Pleistocene Aboriginal populations have been characterized as widespread, with low densi-ties possessing little regional variation over large areas of Australia (White & O'Connell 1982: 72). This assumption has been ...
Research Interests: Archaeology and Antiquity
Hornfels is a high quality metamorphic rock commonly used by Tasmanian Aborigines for artefact manufacture in eastern Tasmania. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) data collected from over a dozen Aboriginal hornfels quarries in the region... more
Hornfels is a high quality metamorphic rock commonly used by Tasmanian Aborigines for artefact manufacture in eastern Tasmania. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) data collected from over a dozen Aboriginal hornfels quarries in the region showed that hornfels from several of the quarries has a distinct geochemical signature, making it possible to separate the quarries using particular elements (Rb, Sr and Zr). Comparing the quarry data with pXRF artefact analyses obtained from museum collections and open artefact scatters at inland and coastal sites showed that a small proportion of artefacts were made from non-local hornfels. This demonstrated that Aboriginal people transported individual hornfels artefacts over distances of up to 73 km, including between quarries and from inland to coastal sites. This indicates a dynamic system of Aboriginal stone procurement and mobility, including long distance hornfels artefact transport, despite the availability of high quality and easily accessible hornfels throughout that region. However, transport of hornfels artefacts appears restricted to the southeast, with no evidence that hornfels was transported across ethnographically documented tribal boundaries.