Thirsty work: Testing the risk reduction model of mid- to late-Holocene stone points with distance decay from freshwater in northern Australia
Author(s)
Maloney, Tim Ryan
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2021
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A key tenant of risk reduction models in archaeology the world over is that changes in resource availability drove mobility increases and created a need for an extension of stone tool use life. This manuscript directly addresses the question, is retouch intensity of tools related to distance from freshwater, by using extant localities of major Gorges, Rivers and water holes in the southern Kimberley region of northern Australia. Previous research has argued that retouched stone points during the mid to late-Holocene were part of a risk minimisation strategy, within broader technological organisation models. Modelling the ...
View more >A key tenant of risk reduction models in archaeology the world over is that changes in resource availability drove mobility increases and created a need for an extension of stone tool use life. This manuscript directly addresses the question, is retouch intensity of tools related to distance from freshwater, by using extant localities of major Gorges, Rivers and water holes in the southern Kimberley region of northern Australia. Previous research has argued that retouched stone points during the mid to late-Holocene were part of a risk minimisation strategy, within broader technological organisation models. Modelling the distance from primary water sources, in arid to semi-arid regions of the southern Kimberley, reduction intensity of points is found to increase with distance from water sources consistently. This research provides an appropriate test of existing risk minimisation models and highlights global significance for similar studies where retouch tool reduction and forager mobility are linked to environmental change.
View less >
View more >A key tenant of risk reduction models in archaeology the world over is that changes in resource availability drove mobility increases and created a need for an extension of stone tool use life. This manuscript directly addresses the question, is retouch intensity of tools related to distance from freshwater, by using extant localities of major Gorges, Rivers and water holes in the southern Kimberley region of northern Australia. Previous research has argued that retouched stone points during the mid to late-Holocene were part of a risk minimisation strategy, within broader technological organisation models. Modelling the distance from primary water sources, in arid to semi-arid regions of the southern Kimberley, reduction intensity of points is found to increase with distance from water sources consistently. This research provides an appropriate test of existing risk minimisation models and highlights global significance for similar studies where retouch tool reduction and forager mobility are linked to environmental change.
View less >
Journal Title
The Holocene
Note
This publication has been entered as an advanced online version in Griffith Research Online.
Subject
Archaeology
Environmental history
Geology
Physical geography and environmental geoscience
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Geography, Physical
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Physical Geography