Abstract
Recent theories of socio-economic change in hunter-gatherer societies have referred to associated changes in intensity and mode of resource exploitation. These ideas are examined in the light of pollen and charcoal analyses of an Australian coastal wetland system which allow, at the local scale, (1) documentation of resource availability, (2) identification of resource use, particularly where fire technology is involved, and (3) examination of the effect of environmental change on the archeological record. Evidence of plant food management through fire around 6800 BP suggests a longer history of deliberate swamp exploitation than indicated by the archeological record, and lends support to models which propose long-term gradual change in zones of high productivity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, J. (1985). Comments on complexity and trade: A view from Melanesia.Archaeology in Oceania 20(2): 49–58.
Bailey, G. N. (1975). The role of molluscs in coastal economies: The results of midden analysis in Australia.Journal of Archaeological Science 2: 45–62.
Bailey, G. N. (1977). Shell mounds, shell middens and raised beaches in the Cape York Peninsula.Mankind 11: 132–143.
Bailey, G. N. (1978). Shell middens as indicators of postglacial economies: A territorial perspective. In Mellars, P. (ed.),The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe. Duckworth, London, pp. 37–64.
Beaton, J. M. (1983). Comment. Does intensification account for changes in the Australian Holocene archaeological record?Archaeology in Oceania 18(3): 94–97.
Beaton, J. M. (1985). Evidence for a coastal occupation time-lag at Princess Charlotte Bay (North Queensland) and implications for coastal colonization and population growth theories for Aboriginal Australia.Archaeology in Oceania 20(1): 1–20.
Bender, B. (1978). Gatherer-hunter to farmer: A social perspective.World Archaeology 10: 205–222.
Birdsell, J. (1977). The recalibration of a paradigm for the first peopling of Greater Australia. In Allen, J., Golson, J., and Jones, R. (eds.),Sunda and Sahul. Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. Academic Press, London, pp. 113–167.
Boserup, E. (1965).The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. Allen and Unwin, London.
Bowler, J. M., Hope, G. S., Jennings, J. N., Singh, G., and Walker, D. (1976). Late Quaternary climates of Australia and New Guinea.Quaternary Research 6: 359–394.
Bray, J. R. (1962). Estimates of energy budget for aTypha cattail marsh.Science 136: 1119–1120.
Brookfield, H. C. (1972). Intensification and disintensification in Pacific agriculture: A theoretical approach.Pacific Viewpoint 13: 30–48.
Brookfield, H. C. (1984). Intensification revisited.Pacific Viewpoint 25: 15–44.
Brookfield, H. C. (1986). Intensification intensified.Archaeology in Oceania 21: 177–180.
Brookfield, H. C., and Hart, D. (1971).Melanesia: A Geographical Interpretation of an Island World. Methuen, London.
Chappell, J., and Grindrod, A. (eds.) (1983).Proceedings of the First CLIMANZ Conference 1981. Department of Biogeography and Geomorphology, Australian National University, Canberra.
Churchill, D. M. Galloway, R. W., and Singh, G. (1978). Closed lakes and the palaeoclimatic record. In Pittock, A. B., Frakes, L. A., Jenssen, D., Peterson, J. A., and Zillman, J. W. (eds).Climatic Change and Variability: A Southern Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 97–108.
Clark, R. L. (1982). Point count estimation of charcoal in pollen preparations and thin sections of sediments.Pollen et Spores 24(3–4): 523–535.
Clark, R. L. (1983a).Fire History from Fossil Charcoal in Lake and Swamp Sediments. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.
Clark R. L. (1983b). Pollen and charcoal evidence for the effects of Aboriginal burning on the vegetation of Australia.Archaeology in Oceania 18(1): 32–37.
Coutts, P. J. F. (1982). Aboriginal subsistence strategies in the Western District of Victoria. In Coutts, P. J. F., and Lorblanchet, M. (eds.)Records of the Victorian Archaeological Survey 12 (Appendix 1). Aboriginal and Rock Art in the Grampians, Victoria, Australia, pp. 99–105.
Coutts, P. J. F., Witter, D., Mcllwraith, M., and Frank, R. (1976). The Mound People of Western Victoria: A review.Records of the Victorian Archaeological Survey 1: 1–54.
Crowley, G. M. (1981).The Late Quarternary Environmental History of the Lake Bolac Region of Western Victoria, and Its Implications for Aboriginal Occupation. Unpublished B.Sc. (Hons) thesis, Department of Geography, Monash University, Clayton.
Dawson, J. (1881).The Australian Aborigines. George Robertsong, Melbourne.
Dodson, J. R. (1975).Late Quaternary Vegetation History of Southeastern South Australia. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.
Gaughwin, D. (1983).Coastal Economies and the Western Port Catchment. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Division of Prehistory, La Trobe University, Bundoora.
Godfrey, M. C. S. (1980). An archaeological survey of the Discovery Bay Coastal Park. Unpublished report for the National Parks Service, Victoria.
Godfrey, M. C. S. (1983). Historical sources as aids to archaeological interpretation—examples from Discovery Bay, Victoria.The Artefact 8(1–2): 55–60.
Godfrey, M. C. S. (1984).Seasonality and Shellfishing at Discovery Bay, Victoria. Unpublished M. A. thesis, Division of Prehistory, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Gott, B. (1982a). Ecology of root use by the Aborigines of southern Australia.Archaeology in Oceania 17: 59–67.
Gott, B. (1982b).Kunzea pomifera—Dawson's “Nurt.”The Artefact 7(1–2): 13–17.
Hallam, S. J. (1975).Fire and Hearth. A study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in Southwestern Australia. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.
Hallam, S. J. (1986a). Yams, alluvium and “villages” on the west coastal plains. In Ward, G. K. (ed.),Archaeology at ANZAAS,Canberra. Canberra Archaeological Society, pp. 116–132.
Hallam, S. J. (1986b). Plant usage and management in Southwest Australian societies. Paper presented to World Archaeology Congress, Southampton.
Harris, D. R. (1977). Subsistence strategies across Torres Strait. In Allen, J., Golson, J., and Jones, R. (eds.),Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. Academic Press, London, pp. 421–463.
Head, L. (1983). Environment as artefact: A geographic perspective on the Holocene occupation of Southwestern Victoria.Archaeology in Oceania 18(2): 73–80.
Head, L. (1984).Environment as Artefact. A Palaeoecological Contribution to the Prehistory of Southwestern Victoria. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Monash University, Melbourne.
Head, L. (1985). Pollen analysis of sediments from the Bridgewater Caves archaeological site, southwestern Victoria.Australian Archaeology 20: 1–15.
Head, L. (1986). Palaeoecological contributions to Australian prehistory.Archaeology in Oceania 21: 121–129.
Head, L. (1988). Holocene vegetation, fire and environmental history of the Discovery Bay region, Southwestern Victoria.Australian Journal of Ecology, 13: 21–49.
Head, L., and Stuart, I. M. F. (1980).Change in the Aire: Palaeoecology and Prehistory in the Aire Basin, Southwestern Victoria. Monash Publications in Geography, No. 24.
Hughes, P. J., and Lampert, R. J. (1982). Prehistoric population change in southern coastal New South Wales. In Bowdler, S. (ed.),Coastal Archaeology in Eastern Australia. A.N.U. Press, Canberra, pp. 16–28.
Jones, R. (1977). The Tasmanian paradox. In Wright R. V. S. (ed.),Stone tools as Cultural Markers: Change, Evolution and Complexity. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, pp. 189–204.
Jones, R. (1980). Hunters in the Australian coastal savannah. In Harris, D. R. (ed.),Human Ecology in Savannah Environments. Academic Press, London, pp. 107–146.
Kemp, E. M. (1981). Pre-Quaternary fire in Australia. In Gill, A. M., Groves, R. H., and Noble, I. R. (eds.),Fire and the Australian Biota. Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, pp. 3–21.
Kershaw, A. P. (1981). Quaternary vegetation and environments. In Keast, A. (ed.),Ecological Biogeography of Australia. Junk, The Hague, pp. 83–101.
Ladd, P. G. (1981). The relevance of palynology to archaeology in Australia.The Artefact 6(1–2): 17–34.
Lampert, R., and Hughes, P. J. (1974). Sea level change and Aboriginal coastal adaptations in southern New South Wales.Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania IX(3): 226–235.
Lang, G. S. (1865).Aborigines of Australia in Their Original Condition and in Their Relations with White Men. Melbourne.
Lewis, H. T. (1980). Indian fires of Spring.Natural History 89: 76–83.
Lewis, H. T. (1982). Fire technology and resource management in Aboriginal North America and Australia. In Williams, N. M. and Hunn, E. S. (eds.),Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers. Westview, Colorado, pp. 45–67.
Lourandos, H. (1977). Aboriginal spatial organization and population; South-western Victoria reconsidered.Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania XII(3): 202–225.
Lourandos, H. (1980a). Change or stability?: Hydraulics, hunter-gatherers and population in temperate Australia.World Archaeology 11(3): 245–264.
Lourandos, H. (1980b).Forces of Change: Aboriginal Technology and Population in Southwestern Victoria. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.
Lourandos, H. (1983). Intensification: A late Pleistocene-Holocene archaeological sequence from south-western Victoria.Archaeology in Oceania 18(2): 81–94.
Lourandos, H. (1985). Intensification and Australian prehistory. In Price, T. D., and Brown, J. A. (eds.),Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers. The Emergence of Cultural Complexity. Academic Press, pp. 385–426.
Luebbers, R. A. (1978).Meals and Menus: A Study of Change in Prehistoric Coastal Settlements in South Australia. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.
Meehan, B. (1977). Man does not live by calories alone: The role of shellfish in a coastal cuisine. In Allen, J., Golson, J., and Jones, R. (eds.),Sunda and Sahul. Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. Academic Press, London, pp. 493–532.
Meehan, B. (1982).Shell Bed to Shell Midden. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Canberra.
Odum, H. T., and Copeland, B. J. (1974). A functional classification of the coastal systems of the United States. In McNahan, E. A., Odum H. T., and Copeland, B. J. (eds.),Coastal Ecological Systems in the United States. The Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C., pp. 5–84.
Osborn, A. J. (1982). Aboriginal coastal population density: Toward the resolution of a paradox.American Antiquity, New Paper Series.
Perlman, S. M. (1980). An optimum diet model, coastal variability, and hunter-gatherer behavior. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.),Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory (Vol. 3). Academic Press. New York, pp. 257–310.
Ross, A. (1985). Archaeological evidence for population change in the middle to late Holocene in southeastern Australia.Archaeology in Oceania 20: 81–89.
Runciman, W. (1982). Origins of States: The case of archaic Greece.Comparative Studies in Society and History 24: 351–377.
Shafi, M. I., and Yarranton, G. A. (1973). Vegetational heterogeneity during a secondary (postfire) succession.Canadian Journal of Botany 51: 73–90.
Sherratt, A. (1980). Water, soil and seasonality in early cereal cultivation.World Archaeology 11(3): 313–330.
Sherratt, A. (1981). Plough and pastoralism: Aspects of the secondary products revolution. In Hodder, I., Isaac, G., and Hammond, N. (eds.),Pattern of the Past. Studies in Honour of David Clarke. C.U.P., Cambridge, pp. 261–305.
Stockton, J. (1983). The prehistoric population of northwest Tasmania.Australian Archaeology 17: 67–78.
Thom, B. G. (1974). Coastal erosion in Eastern Australia.Search 5(5): 198–209.
Thom, B. G., and Chappell, J. (1975). Holocene sea levels relative to Australia.Search 6(3): 90–93.
Thom, B. G., Polach, H. A., and Bowman, G. M. (1978).Holocene Age Structure of Coastal Sand Barriers in NSW, Australia. Department of Geography, Royal Military College, Duntroon.
Thom, B. G., Short, A., and Hobday, D. (1983).Modern Coastal Deposition in Gippsland. The Earth Resources Foundation, University of Sydney.
Whittaker, R. H., and Likens, G. E. (1975). The biosphere and man. In Lieth, H., and Whittaker, R. H. (eds.),Primary Productivity of the Biosphere. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 305–328.
Witter, D. C. (1977). The archaeology of the Discovery Bay Area, Victoria.Memoirs of the Victorian Archaeological Survey 2: 51–72.
Witter, D. C., and Witter, A. (1983). An archaeological survey of Apollo Bay and the Otways. Unpublished report for the Victoria Archaeological Survey, Melbourne.
Yoffee, N. (1985). Perspectives on “trends towards social complexity in prehistoric Australia and Papua New Guinea”.Archaeology in Oceania 20(2): 41–48.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Head, L. The Holocene Prehistory of a coastal wetland system: Discovery Bay, Southeastern Australia. Hum Ecol 15, 435–462 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00887999
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00887999