Author: Fraser Vickery
Vickery, Fraser, 2016 Ara Irititja Mituni (Tracking the Past) An investigation into Aboriginal occupation and resource use Island Lagoon, South Australia. , Flinders University, School of Humanities and Creative Arts
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Abstract
This thesis presents the results of an archaeological investigation of the distribution and
character of archaeological sites in the landscape around Island Lagoon. This work has been
undertaken in order to determine whether there is discernible pattern of social and economic
activity or the use of a particular technology that might tell us specifically when Aboriginal
people occupied Island Lagoon and how they utilised the natural resources in the region.
The Island Lagoon region is located in the south-west of Kokatha country and is a very
significant place for Kokatha people. Island Lagoon also has significant mythological importance
to Kokatha. The specific objective for this work was to attempt to determine where Island
Lagoon fits in terms of settlement of the arid inland of Australia and whether sites around the
lagoon can contribute further information that might help confirm settlement models that have
been proposed for our desert regions. This work also uses Island Lagoon as a case study to
explore the issues of Aboriginal response to the climatic variability and changing environments
of the late Pleistocene and through the Holocene, in terms of inland settlement patterns, society,
economies and resource use and technologies.
The research provided evidence that Kokatha ancestors primarily utilised the dune and lunette
landsystems to the SW of Island Lagoon away from the immediate edge of the Lagoon. In those
locations they had access to temporary water resources in the claypans and canegrass swamps
provided by episodic rainfall events. Those sites were also close to good quality raw materials
on the neighbouring silcrete plains. The sites were clearly workshop floors and were used to
manufacture tools for later use. All surveyed and sampled sites consistently provided evidence
of assemblages that reflect the Australian small tool culture of the mid to late Holocene,
probably after 2,000 BP. The evidence gathered during this project indicated that all sites were
probably used by Kokatha male ancestors to make toolkits that included scrapers and points,
from the high quality silcrete, for hafting to hunt and to work wood.
Keywords: Indigenous, Archaeology, South Australia, Kokatha, Woomera, Island Lagoon.
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2016
School: School of Humanities and Creative Arts
Supervisor: Dr Michael Morrison