Australian Coastal Archaeology
J. HALL & I. MCNIVEN (editors),
1999. Australian Coastal Archaeology. Research Papers in Archaeology
and Natural History 31.
ANH Publications, Department
of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University,
Canberra.
This volume represents the outcome of the symposium, "Australian Coastal Archaeology: Current Research and Future Directions" held in 1994. It contains 35 papers summarising the latest results of archaeological research from around the Australian coastline and various parts of the western Pacific. Of particular interest is evidence of Indigenous peoples fishing and shellfishing in Australasia back to 35,000 years BP - some of the earliest evidence in the world of coastal/marine lifeways. Considerable archaeological research over the past 20 years has greatly increased our understanding of different Aboriginal coastal peoples, from the temperate shores of Tasmania through to tropical islands of the Queensland coast. Most papers in Australian Coastal Archaeology discuss changes in coastal use by Aboriginal people over the last 6000 years. A key concern is to what degree such changes reflect changing resource availability associated with sea level fluctuations, and/or social changes in terms of population increases, marine resource intensification, and group boundary reconfigurations.