Australian Museum Journal Characterizing Late Pleistocene and Holocene stone artefact assemblages from Puritjarra rock shelter: a long sequence from the Australian Desert
- Shortform:
- Smith, 2006, Rec. Aust. Mus. 58(3): 371–410
- Author(s):
- Smith, Moya A.
- Year published:
- 2006
- Title:
- Characterizing Late Pleistocene and Holocene stone artefact assemblages from Puritjarra rock shelter: a long sequence from the Australian Desert
- Serial title:
- Records of the Australian Museum
- Volume:
- 58
- Issue:
- 3
- Start page:
- 371
- End page:
- 410
- DOI:
- 10.3853/j.0067-1975.58.2006.1470
- Language:
- English
- Date published:
- 29 November 2006
- Cover date:
- 29 November 2006
- ISSN:
- 0067-1975
- CODEN:
- RAUMAJ
- Publisher:
- The Australian Museum
- Place published:
- Sydney, Australia
- Subjects:
- ANTHROPOLOGY; ABORIGINES: AUSTRALIAN; ARCHAEOLOGY
- Digitized:
- 29 November 2006
- Available online:
- 29 November 2006
- Reference number:
- 1470
- EndNote package:
- EndNote file
- Title page:
- Title page (12kb PDF)
- Complete work:
- Complete work (859kb PDF)
Abstract
This paper presents the first detailed study of a large assemblage of late Pleistocene artefacts from the central desert. Analysis of the lithics shows show that Puritjarra rock shelter was used more intensively over time, with significant shifts in the character of occupation at 18,000, 7,500 and 800 B.P., reflecting significant re-organization of activities across the landscape. The same generalized flake and core technology appears to have been used for over 30 millennia with only limited change in artefact typology over this period.