Technology

The toolkits possessed by Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in Australia were, in relative terms, very simple (see Hunter-Gatherers, Ancient). Formal tools were few but included waisted stone hatchets (ground edge axes) from the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea at c. 40 ka, stone hatchets from Northern Australia in deposits dating to over 30 ka, and bone points from Devil’s Lair dating to nearly 30 ka. In general, artifact manufacture was effectively determined by both raw material type and flaking quality. Pleistocene assemblages were initially classified as the Core Tool and Scraper Tradition with the Small Tool Tradition attributed to later Holocene assemblages. These labels have now been discarded as regional variations in assemblages have become apparent and it has been established that flaked stone artifact assemblages can be more productively evaluated on the basis of the continuum of a reduction sequence rather than on morphological types. Attributing a function to the many and varied artifacts produced in these reduction strategies is best determined by functional studies that also incorporate use-wear and residue analyses.

Expedient flaked stone tools dominate Pleistocene assemblages. These assemblages are mostly small in number (<200), and are generally made of locally available stone. The few exceptions to these are the rich artifact assemblages from southwest Tasmania, excavated as part of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project; and from the Cuddie Springs site in central northern New South Wales. Notably, grindstone fragments have also been recovered from horizons dated to c. 30 ka at Cuddie Springs. On the basis of functional studies, these grindstones are argued to have been used for grass seed processing among other tasks. Of the other artifacts found at this site, some were used to prepare and maintain wooden tools, others were used for food processing with butchering tools also being common. Like other Pleistocene archaeological sites, stone raw materials At Cuddie Springs are dominated by locally available silcrete. At this site some raw materials, for example, feldspar porphyry, have been imported from distances greater than 100 km.