Distribution and types of cultural features
The distribution of cultural features in the landscape seems to be largely determined by availability of water and food resources. Cultural material is commonly grouped together in extensive complexes. Two basic patterns of habitation have been recognised for large complexes of cultural features. In the first, evidence of specialised activities, such as food preparation or stone tool making, radiates out from habitation campsites located close to water sources. Rock art is found on boulders immediately associated with the campsite and farther away. The second pattern occurs in valley areas. Here, the distribution of cultural features is linear in form, with evidence of activities extending along the valley floor and onto any level areas among the boulders forming the steep valley slopes. Standing stones occur on ridgelines and vantage points. These complexes are undoubtedly camping areas to which people would have returned regularly over a long time span and where they would have performed a wide range of largely domestic activities. They are located in sheltered valleys, along the coast near productive shell beds or fishing areas, or close to sources of fine-grained stone suitable for artefact manufacture. Local granophyre is the most common raw material used for stone artefact manufacture. Finer-grained forms were preferred for tool-making and outcrops of these often have substantial evidence of quarrying. Small numbers of artefacts made of raw materials from sources on the mainland are also found.
Particular cultural components also occur in isolation. Small scatters of shells and stone artefacts are common. Some are just small scatters of stone artefacts or even isolated artefacts; these represent more transient or specialised activities, such as the manufacture or repair of tools by one person, or a short-term camping place, or even tools lost while travelling. Artefacts are also sometimes found cached in crevices between rocks. Small scatters of shells perhaps represent ‘meal-time camps’. Some locations, such as standing stones and some art complexes, are likely to have been places where ceremonial activities took place.
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Quarried block of fine-grained granophyre, with waste flakes |
Grinding patches provide indirect evidence of the processing of plant foods. A study of the grinding patches recorded during the Dampier Archaeological Project in the early 1980s showed that they were most common in camping areas close to spinifex grasslands, suggesting that they were mainly used for grinding spinifex seeds into flour. Many grinding patches had clearly been used over long periods of time, from the amount of wear and the fact that their surfaces had often been rejuvenated and re-roughened through pecking or incising lines.
Twenty-one excavations have been conducted in the Dampier Archipelago, and subsurface deposits at four further sites have also been sampled by auger. Unfortunately, only the excavated material from shell middens at Skew Valley and Georges Valley has been analysed in any detail. However, most midden sites contain evidence that a range of marine resources were used, including crabs, fish, turtles and dugong. There is also evidence that land animals were hunted, including euro, wallaby, flying fox and quoll. Bird bones also occur in excavated sites.
A series of enigmatic stone features has been recorded in the Dampier Archipelago. These fall into three broad categories: standing stones, pits, and ‘walls’, or linear features of heaped stones. There is also one example of a complex stone arrangement comprising ten stone circles, a cairn, a linear stone feature and 79 small conical mounds. There are many examples elsewehere in Australia, including the Pilbara, of Aboriginal people building stone structures either for ceremonial purposes or for domestic purposes such as hut bases, fish traps, or hunting hides.
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Standing stone |
Standing stones are elongated natural stones that have been intentionally placed in an upright position in crevices in the bedrock or in gaps between boulders. They are sometimes wedged in place by other stones. They can occur by themselves or in more complex arrangements of standing stones. They are commonly on ridge crests or other prominent points. Occasionally petroglyphs occur on the stones themselves. Some of these stones are known to be thalu sites, associated with increase ceremonies, and are known to contemporary Aboriginal people. Stone pits and stone ‘walls’ are generally much more controversial, because it is difficult to distinguish artificial structures from natural geomorphic features on the boulder slopes. Pits have been interpreted as hunting hides, while many stone ‘walls’ create ‘terraces’ which act as soil traps. However, whether they are natural or artificial, some linear features also have mythological associations for Aboriginal people today. The diversity and density of stone features recorded on the Burrup is much greater than anywhere else in the Pilbara. However, it is difficult to interpret these without knowing which structures are artificial and which are natural features. A comprehensive geomorphological and archaeological study to resolve the issue is long overdue.
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