Author: Alexandra Snep
Snep, Alexandra, 2024 Aboriginal Fibrecraft from Windmill Way, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Approximately 90% of traditional material culture is comprised of organic material, yet these
materials do not preserve well in archaeological contexts. The recovery of a large assemblage
of macrobotanical material, shell, wood, and faunal bone, along with stone artefacts from
Windmill Way rockshelter, near Laura in southeast Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,
provides a rare glimpse into Aboriginal material culture in the Late Holocene. This thesis
characterises the assemblage of 510 fragments of plant fibre representing several stages in the
processing of raw fibre into string and string-based fabrics (netting and looping).
The development of string is argued to be a crucial component in the evolution of culture,
enabling humans to adapt to a range of environments, capture and contain resources, and
develop composite tools and adornments. Although perishable, indirect evidence for string
spans hundreds of thousands of years and remains entwined in all human lifeways. The
reliance on string requires intimate knowledge of fibre-bearing plants, and sustained time and
effort in manufacture. Ethnographic observations of Aboriginal fibre practice indicate the
breadth of specialised fibre traditions and ubiquity of fibrecraft in southeast Cape York
Peninsula. These observations were collated and provide a regional base for identifying
potential uses of the archaeological fibre. A comparison of the macro-attributes of the fibre
assemblage was then compared to a selection of objects made wholly or partly from fibre,
provenanced to Laura and held at Queensland Museum. This comparison demonstrated the
uniformity of standardised manufacturing techniques of string and of string-based objects
such as bags and fishnets and suggested a range of possible source objects for many of the
archaeological fibre fragments. These possible uses allow inferences to be made into the
lifeways of the Aboriginal peoples who occupied Windmill Way.
Keywords: fibre, fibrecraft, plant fibre, string, dillybag, netting, material culture, ethnography, archaeology, archaeobotany, Australian Aboriginal, Quinkan Country, Laura, Cape York Peninsula,
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2024
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Heather Burke