La Trobe

The archaeology of eastern Lutruwita (Tasmania)

journal contribution
posted on 2025-03-20, 00:39 authored by Richard CosgroveRichard Cosgrove, John WebbJohn Webb, Jillian GarveyJillian Garvey, Jeff Theys, Rhys Jones
Fifty years have passed since the first systematic archaeological surveys and excavations were conducted in Lutruwita (Tasmania). Despite numerous Late Pleistocene archaeological discoveries in the southwest region, no indisputable pre-Holocene sites have been found in eastern Tasmania. This profound difference raises questions about how Aboriginal people utilised the Lutruwita landscape; first as a projecting peninsula into the Southern Ocean and then as an island cut off by rising seas c.14000 years ago. To examine the difference between east and west further, legacy data excavated by one of us (RJ) in 1964 at the Oatlands OL1 site and stored at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) has been analysed. The results of pXRF chemical analysis of artefact raw material, radiocarbon dating and studies of faunal remains have produced information that highlights the Holocene interaction between people in eastern Lutruwita. Despite the current lack of Late Pleistocene evidence from eastern Lutruwita, this pattern appears to be different from land use models for Late Pleistocene southwestern Lutruwita. With new information from the OL1 rock shelter site we can now contrast the Late Pleistocene hunting economics with the exceptionally well-preserved faunal remains found in the Holocene site, OL1.

Funding

Australian Research Council DP150100586

History

Publication Date

2024-10-15

Journal

Archaeology in Oceania

Volume

59

Issue

3

Pagination

495-515

Publisher

Wiley

ISSN

0728-4896

Rights Statement

© 2024 The Author(s). Archaeology in Oceania published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of University of Sydney. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.