Abstract
Bioarchaeological research in Australia has lagged behind that in other regions due to understandable concerns arising from the disregard of Indigenous Australians rights over their ancestors’ remains. To improve this situation, bioarchaeologists working in Australia need to employ more community-oriented approaches to research. This paper reports a project in which we employed such an approach. The project focused on burials in the Flinders Group, Queensland. Traditional Owners played a key role in the excavations and helped devise analyses that would deliver both scientific contributions and socially relevant outcomes. The fieldwork and laboratory analyses yielded a number of interesting results. Most significantly, they revealed that the pattern of mortuary practices recorded by ethnographers in the region in the early 20th century—complex burial of powerful people and simple interment of less important individuals—has a time depth of several hundred years or more. More generally, the project shows that there can be fruitful collaboration between archaeologists and Indigenous communities in relation to the excavation and scientific analysis of Aboriginal ancestral remains.
Resumen
La investigación bioarqueológica en Australia se ha quedado a la zaga de la de otras regiones debido a preocupaciones comprensibles que surgen del desprecio a los derechos de los indígenas australianos sobre los restos de sus antepasados. Para mejorar esta situación, los bioarqueólogos que trabajan en Australia deben emplear enfoques de investigación más orientados a la comunidad. Este documento informa sobre un proyecto en el que empleamos este enfoque. El proyecto se centró en los entierros en Flinders Group, Queensland. Los propietarios tradicionales jugaron un papel clave en las excavaciones y ayudaron a diseñar análisis que entregarían contribuciones científicas y resultados socialmente relevantes. El trabajo de campo y los análisis de laboratorio arrojaron una serie de resultados interesantes. Más significativamente, revelaron que el patrón de prácticas mortuorias registradas por etnógrafos en la región a principios del siglo XX —entierro complejo de personas poderosas y simple entierro de individuos menos importantes— tiene una profundidad temporal de varios cientos de años o más. En términos más generales, el proyecto muestra que puede haber una fructífera colaboración entre arqueólogos y comunidades indígenas en relación con la excavación y el análisis científico de restos ancestrales aborígenes.
Résumé
La recherche bioarchéologique en Australie a pris du retard par rapport aux autres régions en raison d’inquiétudes compréhensibles ayant découlé du peu d’égards accordées aux droits des indigènes australiens sur les restes de leurs ancêtres. Les bioarchéologues qui travaillent en Australie ont besoin pour améliorer cette situation d’adopter des approches de recherche qui soient plus centrées sur la communauté. Cet article présente un projet pour lequel nous avons recouru à une telle approche. Le projet s’est consacré aux tombes se trouvant dans le Flinders Group, Queensland. Les propriétaires traditionnels ont joué un rôle essentiel dans les fouilles et ils ont apporté une aide pour la conception d’analyses ayant resulté en des contributions scientifiques mais ayant aussi eu des conséquences socialement pertinentes. Le travail de terrain et les analyses en laboratoire ont produit plusieurs résultats intéressants. Ils ont révélé plus particulièrement que le modèle des pratiques mortuaires consigné par les ethnographes dans la région au début du 20ème siècle, à savoir enterrement complexe des personnes de pouvoir et simple enterrement pour les individus moins importants, a une profondeur temporelle de plusieurs centaines d’années sinon plus. De manière plus générale, le projet démontre qu’il peut exister une collaboration fructueuse entre les archéologues et les communautés indigènes pour ce qui relève des fouilles et de l’analyse scientifique des restes ancestraux aborigènes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, S., Westaway, M. C., Zhao, J., Feng, Y., Nguyen, A., Flinders, C., & Collard, M. (in preparation). Isotopic analyses of prehistoric human remains from the Flinders Group, Queensland, Australia, support an association between burial practices and status.
Beaton, J. M. (1985). Evidence for a coastal occupation time-lag at Princess Charlotte Bay and implications for coastal colonization and population growth theories for Aboriginal Australia. Archaeology in Oceania, 20(1), 1–20.
Blakey, M. L. (2010). African burial ground project: Paradigm for cooperation? Museum International, 62(1–2), 61–68.
Bronk Ramsey, C. (2009). Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon, 51(1), 337–360.
Brothwell, D. R. (1981). Digging up bones: The excavation, treatment, and study of human skeletal remains. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Buikstra, J. E., & Ubelaker, D. H. (1994). Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Report 44, Fayeteville.
Campbell, J. (2002). Invisible invaders: Smallpox and other diseases in aboriginal Australia, 1780–1880. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Collard, M., Wasef, S., Adams, S., Wright, K., Mitchell, R. J., Wright, J. L., et al. (2020). Giving it a burl: Towards the integration of genetics, isotope chemistry, and osteoarchaeology in Cape York, Tropical North Queensland, Australia. World Archaeology, 51(4), 602–619.
Donlon, D., Thorne, A., & McIntyre-Tamwoy, S. (2002). Aboriginal skeletal remains manual. Unpublished report, New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney.
Hale, H. M., & Tindale, N. B. (1934). Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland. Records of the South Australian Museum, 5, 63–172.
Herrscher, E., Fenner, J. N., Valentin, F., Clark, G., Reepmeyer, C., Bouffandeau, L., et al. (2018). Multi-isotopic analysis of first Polynesian diet (Talasiu, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 18, 308–317.
Hogg, A. G., Hua, Q., Blackwell, P. G., Niu, M., Buck, C. E., Guilderson, T. P., et al. (2013). SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0-50,000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1889–1903.
Horsfall, N. (1991). Report on visit to Flinders Island Group, Princess Charlotte Bay. Unpublished report, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Brisbane.
King, P. P. (1827). Narrative of a survey of the inter-tropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed Between the Years 1818 and 1822. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lambert, P. M., & Walker, P. L. (2018). Bioarchaeological ethics: Perspectives on the use and value of human remains in scientific research. In M. A. Katzenberg & A. L. Grauer (Eds.), Biological anthropology of the human skeleton (3rd ed., pp. 1–42). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Larnach, S. L., & Macintosh, N. W. (1970). The craniology of the aborigines of Queensland. Sydney: University of Sydney Press.
Madewell, J. E., Ragsdale, B. D., & Sweet, D. E. (1981). Radiologic and pathologic analysis of solitary bone lesions, part I: Internal margins. Radiologic Clinics of North America, 19(4), 715–748.
McNiven, I. (2006). Colonial diffusionism and the archaeology of external influences on Aboriginal culture. In B. David, B. Barker, & I. J. McNiven (Eds.), The social archaeology of indigenous societies (pp. 85–106). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Meehan, B. (1971). The form, distribution and antiquity of Australian Aboriginal Mortuary Patterns. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.
Moore, D. (1978). Cape York Aborigines: Fringe participants in the Torres Strait trading system. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 11(3), 319.
Moore-Jansen, P. M., Janz, R. L., & Ousley, S. D. (1994). Data collection procedures for forensic skeletal material. Unpublished report for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Murphy, B. P., & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2007). Seasonal water availability predicts the relative abundance of C3 and C4 grasses in Australia. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16, 160–169.
O’Donnabhain, B., & Lozada, M. C. (Eds.). (2014). Archaeological human remains: Global perspectives. New York: Springer.
O’Donnabhain, B., & Lozada, M. C. (Eds.). (2018). Archaeological human remains: Legacies of imperialism. Communism and colonialism. Cham: Springer.
Phenice, T. W. (1969). A newly developed visual method of sexing the os pubis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 30(2), 297–301.
Reimer, P. J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J. W., Blackwell, P. G., Bronk Ramsey, C., et al. (2013). IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1869–1887.
Rhodes, E. G., Polach, H. A., Thom, B. G., & Wilson, S. R. (1980). Age structure of Holocene coastal sediments: Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Radiocarbon, 22, 718–727.
Roth, W. E. (1898). On the Aboriginals occupying the ‘Hinterland’ of Princess Charlotte Bay, Unpublished manuscript, Mitchell Library, Sydney.
Roth, W. E. (1907). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 9. Burial ceremonies, and disposal of the dead. Records of the Australian Museum, 6(5), 365–403.
Sutton, P. (2005). Science and sensibility on a foul frontier: Flinders Island, 1935. In B. Rigsby & N. Peterson (Eds.), Donald Thomson: The man and scholar. Canberra: Academy of the Social Sciences & Museum Victoria.
Sutton, P., Rigsby, B., & Chase, A. (1993). Traditional groups of the Princess Charlotte Bay region, Appendix 2. In P. Sutton (Ed.), Flinders Islands and Melville National Parks Land Claim. Cairns: Cape York Land Council.
Taylor, J. C. (1977). A pre-contact Aboriginal medical system on Cape York Peninsula. Journal of Human Evolution, 6(4), 419–432.
Walsh, G. (1985). Restricted report of historic sites officer: Site recording report and site development suggestions, Flinders Group. Brisbane: QPWS.
Wasef, S., Wright, J. L., Adams, S., Westaway, M. C., Flinders, C., Willerslev, E., et al. (2020). Insights into Aboriginal Australian Mortuary Practices: Perspectives From Ancient DNA. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00217.
Webb, S. (1995). The palaeopathology of aboriginal Australians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Webb, S. (2009). Palaeopathology of aboriginal Australians: Health and disease across a hunter-gatherer continent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, T. D., & Folkens, P. A. (1991). Human osteology. San Diego: Academic Press.
Wright, J. L., Wasef, S., Heupink, T. H., Westaway, M. C., Rasmussen, S., Pardoe, C., et al. (2018). Ancient nuclear genomes enable repatriation of Indigenous human remains. Science Advances, 4(12), eaau5064.
Acknowledgements
SA, DW, SW, MC and MCW are grateful to CF and the other members of the Cape Melville, Flinders and Howick Islands Aboriginal Corporation for the invitation to work with them. Thanks are also due to Peter Sutton, the Queensland Police, and Queensland’s Marine Parks and Department of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Partnerships. Thank you to David McGahan, Doug Williams, Duncan Wright, Cemre Ustunkaya and Brook Hendrey for assistance with fieldwork and analyses. Our work was primarily funded through an ARC Linkage grant (LP140100387). Additional support was provided by the Canada Research Chairs Program (228117 and 231256), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (203808 and 36801), and the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (862-804231 and 962-805808).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Adams, S., Collard, M., Williams, D. et al. A Community Bioarchaeology Project in the Flinders Group, Queensland, Australia. Arch 16, 436–459 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-020-09411-w
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-020-09411-w