Papers by Chae Byrne
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021
Archaeological wood-charcoal (anthracology) analysis from the oldest Western Australian Desert si... more Archaeological wood-charcoal (anthracology) analysis from the oldest Western Australian Desert site, Karnatukul. The results highlight the resilience of Australia's iconic Wattle species (Acacia) and its 50,000 years of shared history with Western Desert people.
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While archaeobotany is increasingly part of archaeological projects in Oceania, the specific sub-... more While archaeobotany is increasingly part of archaeological projects in Oceania, the specific sub-discipline focusing on wood charcoal macro-remains (anthracology) continues to be a much underdeveloped field of research in Australia and the Pacific. To initiate a regional framework for anthracology, we present here a review of studies based on wood charcoal analyses that have been implemented in Oceania, and we then present anthracological principles and methods developed in other parts of the world. We use three recent case studies, from New Caledonia, and tropical and semi-arid Australia, to illustrate the application of anthracological methods in the region. Finally, we consider the potential for the discipline to be successfully developed in Oceania, discussing identified challenges and prospects for anthracology to address key archaeological questions in the region. We argue the discipline has the potential to throw light on both palaeoenvironmental conditions and palaeoethnobotanical practices at a site, and can also offer insights in relation to mobility patterns and resource management in the past.
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PloS one, 2018
The re-excavation of Karnatukul (Serpent's Glen) has provided evidence for the human occupati... more The re-excavation of Karnatukul (Serpent's Glen) has provided evidence for the human occupation of the Australian Western Desert to before 47,830 cal. BP (modelled median age). This new sequence is 20,000 years older than the previous known age for occupation at this site. Re-excavation of Karnatukul aimed to contextualise the site's painted art assemblage. We report on analyses of assemblages of stone artefacts and pigment art, pigment fragments, anthracology, new radiocarbon dates and detailed sediment analyses. Combined these add significantly to our understanding of this earliest occupation of Australia's Western Desert. The large lithic assemblage of over 25,000 artefacts includes a symmetrical geometric backed artefact dated to 45,570-41,650 cal. BP. The assemblage includes other evidence for hafting technology in its earliest phase of occupation. This research recalibrates the earliest Pleistocene occupation of Australia's desert core and confirms that people ...
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PLOS ONE, 2018
The re-excavation of Karnatukul (Serpent’s Glen) has provided evidence for the human occupation o... more The re-excavation of Karnatukul (Serpent’s Glen) has provided evidence for the human occupation of the Australian Western Desert to before 47,830 cal. BP (modelled median age). This new sequence is 20,000 years older than the previous known age for occupation at this site. Re-excavation of Karnatukul aimed to contextualise the site’s painted art assemblage. We report on analyses of assemblages of stone artefacts and pigment art, pigment fragments, anthracology, new radiocarbon dates and detailed sediment analyses. Combined these add significantly to our understanding of this earliest occupation of Australia’s Western Desert. The large lithic assemblage of over 25,000 artefacts includes a symmetrical geometric backed artefact dated to 45,570–41,650 cal. BP. The assemblage includes other evidence for hafting technology in its earliest phase of occupation. This research recalibrates the earliest Pleistocene occupation of Australia’s desert core and confirms that people remained in this part of the arid zone during the Last Glacial Maximum. Changes in occupation intensity are demonstrated throughout the sequence: at the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition, the mid-Holocene and then during the last millennium. Karnatukul documents intensive site use with a range of occupation activities and different signalling behaviours during the last 1,000 years. This correlation of rock art and occupation evidence refines our understanding of how Western Desert peoples have inscribed their landscapes in the recent past, while the newly described occupation sequence highlights the dynamic adaptive culture of the first Australians, supporting arguments for their rapid very early migration from the coasts and northern tropics throughout the arid interior of the continent.
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Archaeology in Oceania, 2019
The establishment of north-west Australia’s nineteenth-century pearlshell fisheries led to the fi... more The establishment of north-west Australia’s nineteenth-century pearlshell fisheries led to the first occupation of many arid offshore islands since the early mid-Holocene. The nature of this occupation, and how crews subsisted on such remote landscapes, remains poorly understood. We investigate a rare instance of an archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological record for this colonial-era activity at Bandicoot Bay, Barrow Island. Varied taxonomic representation suggests an atypical subsistence strategy for a maritime industry, involving broad exploitation of resources over several local landscapes and an absence of remains of provisioned food. Identified plant taxa largely conform to resources known ethnographically to have been exploited by north-west Aboriginal communities, and many relate to traditional food practices. The spatial patterning of charred wood and bone suggests multiple burning activities and areas of specific use. Conditions of wood fuel on the island may have prompted the augmentation of fuel, indicated by the presence of non-local wood charcoal and high proportions of calcined bone. These findings (i) are consistent with the hypothesis that the site’s occupants originated from the north-west as part of coerced pearling labour and (ii) provide unique insight into the role offshore islands may have occupied in the management of this industry’s labour forces.
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by Sean Ulm, Tiina Manne, Kane Ditchfield, Fiona Hook, Alan Hogg, Vladimir Levchenko, Jane Skippington, Chae Byrne, David Zeanah, Szilvia Bajkan, and C. Placzek Archaeological deposits from Boodie Cave on Barrow Island, northwest Australia, reveal some of th... more Archaeological deposits from Boodie Cave on Barrow Island, northwest Australia, reveal some of the oldest evidence for Aboriginal occupation of Australia, as well as illustrating the early use of marine resources by modern peoples outside of Africa. Barrow Island is a large (202km2) limestone continental island located on the North-West Shelf of Australia, optimally located to sample past use of both the Pleistocene coastline and extensive arid coastal plains. An interdisciplinary team forming the Barrow Island Archaeology Project (BIAP) has addressed questions focusing on the antiquity of occupation of coastal deserts by hunter-gatherers; the use and distribution of marine resources from the coast to the interior; and the productivity of the marine zone with changing sea levels. Boodie Cave is the largest of 20 stratified deposits identified on Barrow Island with 20m3 of cultural deposits excavated between 2013 and 2015. In this first major synthesis we focus on the dating and sedimentology of Boodie Cave to establish the framework for ongoing analysis of cultural materials. We present new data on these cultural assemblages – including charcoal, faunal remains and lithics – integrated with micromorphology, sedimentary history and dating by four independent laboratories. First occupation occurs between 51.1 and 46.2ka, overlapping with the earliest dates for occupation of Australia. Marine resources are incorporated into dietary assemblages by 42.5ka and continue to be transported to the cave through all periods of occupation, despite fluctuating sea levels and dramatic extensions of the coastal plain. The changing quantities of marine fauna through time reflect the varying distance of the cave from the contemporaneous shoreline. The dietary breadth of both arid zone terrestrial fauna and marine species increases after the Last Glacial Maximum and significantly so by the mid-Holocene. The cave is abandoned by 6.8ka when the island becomes increasingly distant from the mainland coast.
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While archaeobotany is increasingly part of archaeological projects in Oceania, the specific sub-... more While archaeobotany is increasingly part of archaeological projects in Oceania, the specific sub-discipline focusing on wood charcoal macro-remains (anthracology) continues to be a much underdeveloped field of research in Australia and the Pacific. To initiate a regional framework for anthracology, we present here a review of studies based on wood charcoal analyses that have been implemented in Oceania, and we then present anthracological principles and methods developed in other parts of the world. We use three recent case studies, from New Caledonia, and tropical and semi-arid Australia, to illustrate the application of anthracological methods in the region. Finally, we consider the potential for the discipline to be successfully developed in Oceania, discussing identified challenges and prospects for anthracology to address key archaeological questions in the region. We argue the discipline has the potential to throw light on both palaeoenvironmental conditions and palaeoethnobotanical practices at a site, and can also offer insights in relation to mobility patterns and resource management in the past.
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Anthracology (charcoal analysis) can inform about
palaeoenvironments and human choices concerning... more Anthracology (charcoal analysis) can inform about
palaeoenvironments and human choices concerning
the use of wood resources. While charcoal is commonly
recovered during excavations, anthracology is poorly
developed in Australian archaeology. This paper presents
the first application of anthracology in the Midwest of
Western Australia, at the Weld-RS-0731 (WA Department of
Aboriginal Affairs Site ID 28793) site in the Weld Range. It
uses methodological approaches developed by European
anthracologists but not previously applied to Australian
charcoal assemblages. The diversity and frequency of
taxa identified in the late Holocene Weld-RS-0731 charcoal
assemblages correspond to known vegetation communities,
similar to those found in the area today. Nevertheless, the
assemblages’ compositions demonstrate the targeting of
specific habitats, as well as the purposeful selection and
avoidance of certain taxa. Our results confirm that wood
gathering was not a separate specialist activity, but likely
occurred alongside other subsistence tasks.
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Conference Presentations by Chae Byrne
Australian Archaeological Association, 2017
Anthracological (archaeological wood charcoal) analyses have internationally based their palaeoen... more Anthracological (archaeological wood charcoal) analyses have internationally based their palaeoenvironmental interpretations on the 'Principle of Least Effort' (PLE) and its application to wood collecting behaviors; i.e. that all species are collected as fuelwood in direct proportion to their abundance in the environment, according to evolving degrees of selectivity related to occupation phase of a site and biodiversity of its environment. First developed in relation to anthracology by Shackleton and Prins in the 1990's, the PLE has since received some attention by ethnoarchaeologists and anthracologists but has remained somewhat of a side-concern in the discipline. Based on the two dozen or so of published works covering the topic, there are 5 main factors that can influence wood gathering:
(1) function of the fire, (2) availability of taxa in the landscape, (3) avoidance of specific taxa and/or landscape units, (4) conditions of the wood, (5) conditions of the firewood collection trip. While the archaeological context can provide information to interpret the function of the fire, local sociocultural information and perceptions of the landscape are of paramount importance to interpret the results of anthracological analyses. Indeed, to infer the relation between the anthracological diagram and the availability of taxa around a site (for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions), the selection choices have to be recognised and these have to be based on sound local sociocultural frameworks of interpretations as part of the overall study of the site’s taphonomy. We suggest that in Australia where there is rich ethnobotanical information available, one of the most elusive and important form of wood selection might be recognised: avoidance.
Is it then possible, in anthracological diagrams, to demonstrate and use evidence of absence as an artefact of its own: giving information about past behaviours and choices, economic or sociocultural practices and ways to experience the landscape?
=> We consider a range of Australian anthracology case studies showing peculiar absence/low frequency of ecologically abundant taxa in parallel to ethnobotanical data that could support culturally motivated avoidance as the reason for this.
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Papers by Chae Byrne
palaeoenvironments and human choices concerning
the use of wood resources. While charcoal is commonly
recovered during excavations, anthracology is poorly
developed in Australian archaeology. This paper presents
the first application of anthracology in the Midwest of
Western Australia, at the Weld-RS-0731 (WA Department of
Aboriginal Affairs Site ID 28793) site in the Weld Range. It
uses methodological approaches developed by European
anthracologists but not previously applied to Australian
charcoal assemblages. The diversity and frequency of
taxa identified in the late Holocene Weld-RS-0731 charcoal
assemblages correspond to known vegetation communities,
similar to those found in the area today. Nevertheless, the
assemblages’ compositions demonstrate the targeting of
specific habitats, as well as the purposeful selection and
avoidance of certain taxa. Our results confirm that wood
gathering was not a separate specialist activity, but likely
occurred alongside other subsistence tasks.
Conference Presentations by Chae Byrne
(1) function of the fire, (2) availability of taxa in the landscape, (3) avoidance of specific taxa and/or landscape units, (4) conditions of the wood, (5) conditions of the firewood collection trip. While the archaeological context can provide information to interpret the function of the fire, local sociocultural information and perceptions of the landscape are of paramount importance to interpret the results of anthracological analyses. Indeed, to infer the relation between the anthracological diagram and the availability of taxa around a site (for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions), the selection choices have to be recognised and these have to be based on sound local sociocultural frameworks of interpretations as part of the overall study of the site’s taphonomy. We suggest that in Australia where there is rich ethnobotanical information available, one of the most elusive and important form of wood selection might be recognised: avoidance.
Is it then possible, in anthracological diagrams, to demonstrate and use evidence of absence as an artefact of its own: giving information about past behaviours and choices, economic or sociocultural practices and ways to experience the landscape?
=> We consider a range of Australian anthracology case studies showing peculiar absence/low frequency of ecologically abundant taxa in parallel to ethnobotanical data that could support culturally motivated avoidance as the reason for this.
palaeoenvironments and human choices concerning
the use of wood resources. While charcoal is commonly
recovered during excavations, anthracology is poorly
developed in Australian archaeology. This paper presents
the first application of anthracology in the Midwest of
Western Australia, at the Weld-RS-0731 (WA Department of
Aboriginal Affairs Site ID 28793) site in the Weld Range. It
uses methodological approaches developed by European
anthracologists but not previously applied to Australian
charcoal assemblages. The diversity and frequency of
taxa identified in the late Holocene Weld-RS-0731 charcoal
assemblages correspond to known vegetation communities,
similar to those found in the area today. Nevertheless, the
assemblages’ compositions demonstrate the targeting of
specific habitats, as well as the purposeful selection and
avoidance of certain taxa. Our results confirm that wood
gathering was not a separate specialist activity, but likely
occurred alongside other subsistence tasks.
(1) function of the fire, (2) availability of taxa in the landscape, (3) avoidance of specific taxa and/or landscape units, (4) conditions of the wood, (5) conditions of the firewood collection trip. While the archaeological context can provide information to interpret the function of the fire, local sociocultural information and perceptions of the landscape are of paramount importance to interpret the results of anthracological analyses. Indeed, to infer the relation between the anthracological diagram and the availability of taxa around a site (for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions), the selection choices have to be recognised and these have to be based on sound local sociocultural frameworks of interpretations as part of the overall study of the site’s taphonomy. We suggest that in Australia where there is rich ethnobotanical information available, one of the most elusive and important form of wood selection might be recognised: avoidance.
Is it then possible, in anthracological diagrams, to demonstrate and use evidence of absence as an artefact of its own: giving information about past behaviours and choices, economic or sociocultural practices and ways to experience the landscape?
=> We consider a range of Australian anthracology case studies showing peculiar absence/low frequency of ecologically abundant taxa in parallel to ethnobotanical data that could support culturally motivated avoidance as the reason for this.