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The lithification of a sandy environment
Author(s) -
Webb Cathie
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
archaeology in oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1834-4453
pISSN - 0728-4896
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4453.1993.tb00301.x
Subject(s) - knapping , archaeology , stone tool , flake , geology , pleistocene , cobble , lithification , geography , paleontology , sediment , ecology , habitat , fishery , biology
Kinchega National Park is located in semi‐arid western New South Wales and like much of this sand plain country contains no local stone sources. Lithic material for tool production required transportation for a minimum distance of 40 kilometres. A recent survey of the surface archaeology has shown that many large pebbles and cobbles occur across the landscape. These are mainly of silcrete and quartzite which are also the most common raw materials represented in the flake industry. I argue that these cobbles were imported to serve as multi‐function utilities, being used variously as ‘portable quarries’ for obtaining stone for knapping purposes, as grindstones for seed or ochre and also as anvils for breaking materials including, presumably, other stone. Possible strategies for the importation and distribution of the cobbles over the landscape are discussed. While they occur as surface material and cannot be confidently dated, it is considered most likely that their importation began during the late Pleistocene.