Stone assemblages from the surroundings of Tennant Creek (Northern Territory, Australia) Part II Macrolithic and edge-ground tools
Attila Péntek*
* Independent Researcher E-mail: attila.pentek@yahoo.com ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3471-897X
Cite as Péntek, A. (2022). Stone assemblages from the surroundings of Tennant Creek (Northern Territory, Australia) Part II. Macrolithic and edge-ground tools. Litikum – Journal of the Lithic Research Roundtable, 10, pp. 9–22. https://doi.org/10.23898/litikuma0031
Abstract. A large part of the Australian collection of the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, 766 stone artefacts altogether, was donated in November 1977 by László Pintér, a Hungarian citizen who had immigrated from his hometown Tata to Sydney. The stone artefacts have been processed by the author. The results of the processing are presented in two parts. This first part contains the description of the 731 flaked stone artefacts, while the planned second part will describe 15, partly macrolithic, partly edge-ground artefacts. Twenty artefacts will not be described. Most of these are grinding, polishing and smoothing stones with macroscopically undefined functions, for which only a formal description would be possible. In addition to the descriptions of the finds, the papers include detailed descriptions of specific Australian stone tools, based on the available archaeological and ethnographic literature. For the first part of the study, see Péntek (2021)
Keywords: Australia, Northern Territory, macrolithic and edge-ground tools, Warramunga and Walbiri tribes, Museum of Ethnography in Budapest
Data availability statement: The author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding statement: The author received no financial support for the research and/or the publication of this article.
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and transform the material, under the following terms: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
List of references
Ahmad, M., Munson, T. J. (2013). Northern Territory Geological Survey, Geology and mineral resources of the Northern Territory, Special Publication 5, Chapter 9: Warramunga Province. Darwin: Northern Territory Geological Survey
Attenbrow, V., Graham, I., Kononenko, N., Corkill, T., Byrnes, J., Barron, L., Grave, P. (2012). Crossing the Great Divide: A ground-edged hatchet-head from Vaucluse, Sydney. Archaeology in Oceania, 47, pp. 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2012.tb00114.x
Basedow, H. (1925). The Australian Aboriginal. Adelaide: F. W. Preece and Sons
Bird, C. F. M., Frankel, D. (2001). Excavations at Koongine Cave: Lithics & Land-use in the Terminal Pleistocene & Holocene of South Australia. Proceedings of the Prehistory Society, 67, pp. 49-83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00001614
Bowdler, S. (1994). The Hoabinhian in Australia: a retrospective review. Vietnam Social Sciences, 5(43), pp. 87–94.
Bowdler, S 2006. The Hoabinhian: Early Evidence for SE Asian Trade Networks? In: E. A. Bacus, I. C. Glover & V. C. Pigott, eds. Uncovering Southeast Asia’s past: Selected papers from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists. London: The British Museum, pp. 355–359.
Brzezicki, A. B. (2015). Getting a Handle on Ground Stone: A Technological Analysis of the Ground Stone Axes, Adzes, and Gouges in the George Frederick Clarke Collection. MA Thesis, University of New Brunswick
Bulmer, S. (1964). Prehistoric Stone Implements from the New Guinea Highlands. Oceania, 34(4), pp. 246–268. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1964.tb00268.x
Bulmer, S. (1975). Settlement and economy in prehistoric Papua New Guinea: a review of the archeological evidence. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 46(31), pp. 7–75. https://doi.org/10.3406/jso.1975.2688
Bulmer, S., Bulmer, R. (1964). The Prehistory of the Australian New Guinea Highlands. American Anthropologist, 66(4), pp. 39–76.
Colani, M. (1927). L’âge de la pierre dans la province de Hoa Binh (Tonkin). Mémoires du Service Géologique de l’Indochine, 14, 86
Corkill, T. (2005). Sourcing stone from the Sydney region: a hatchet job. Australian Archaeology, 60, pp. 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2005.11681803
Davidson, D. S. (1938). Stone Axes of Western Australia. American Anthropologist, 40, pp. 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1938.40.1.02a00050
Dibden, J. (1996). Hatchet Hatchment: A Study of Style in a Collection of Ground-Edge Hatchet Heads from South Eastern NSW. Unpublished BA Honours thesis, The Australian National University, Canberra
Dickson, F. P. (1976). Australian Ground Stone Hatchets: Their Design and Dynamics. Australian Archaeology, 5(1), pp. 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.1976.12093306
Dickson, F. P. (1980). Making Ground Stone Tools. Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 15(3), pp. 162–167.
Dubreuil, L., Savage, D., Delgado-Raack, S., Plisson, H., Stephenson, B., de la Torre, I. (2015). Current analytical frameworks for studies of use-wear on ground stone tools In: J.M. Marreiros, J.F. Gibaja Bao & N. Bicho, (eds). Use-Wear and Residue Analysis in Archaeology, Dortrecht: Springer, pp. 105–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08257-8_7
Geneste, J.-M., David, B., Plisson, H., Clarkson, C., Delannoy, J-J., Petchey, F., Whear, R. (2010). Earliest evidence for ground-edge axes: 35,400±410 cal BP from Jawoyn Country, Arnhem Land. Australian Archaeology, 71, pp. 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2010.11689385
Geneste, J.-M., David, B., Plisson, H., Delannoy, J-J., Petchey, F. (2012). The Origins of Ground-edge Axes: New Findings from Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land (Australia) and Global Implications for the Evolution of Fully Modern Humans. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 22, pp. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774312000017
Gorman, C .F. (1970). Excavations at Spirit Cave, North Thailand: some interim interpretations. Asian Perspectives: The Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific (Honolulu), 13, pp. 79–107.
Haldar, S.K., Tišljar, J. (2014). Introduction to Mineralogy and Petrology. Amsterdam: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-408133-8.00003-1
Hiscock, P., O’connor, S., Balme, J., Maloney, T. (2016). World’s earliest ground-edge axe production coincides with human colonisation of Australia, Australian Archaeology, 82(1), pp. 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2016.1164379
Horne, G., Aiston, G. (1924). Savage Life in Central Australia. London: Macmillan and Co.
Ivanac, J. F. (1954). The geology and mineral deposits of the Tennant Creek goldfield, Northern Territory. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin No. 22
Jackson, G. K. (1939). Aboriginal Middens of Point Cartwright District. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 11, pp. 289–295.
Ji, X., Kuman, K., Clarke, R. J., Forestier, H., Li, Y., Ma J., Qiu K., Li, H., Wu, Y. (2015). The oldest Hoabinhian technocomplex in Asia (43.5 ka) at Xiaodong rockshelter, Yunnan Province, southwest China. Quaternary International, 400, pp. 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.080
Lampert, R. J. (1980). Variation in Australia’s Pleistocene stone industries. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 68(36), pp. 190–206. https://doi.org/10.3406/jso.1980.3037
Lampert, R. J. (1981a). Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern New South Wales. Terra Australis 1. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University
Lampert, R. J. (1981b). The Great Kartan Mystery. Terra Australis 5. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University
MacIntosh, N. W. G. (1951). Archaeology of Tandandjal Cave. South-West Arnhem Land. Oceania, 21(3), pp. 178-204. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1951.tb00533.x
Marwick, B. (2008). Stone artefacts and recent research in the archaeology of mainland Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers. Before Farming: The Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers, 4, pp. 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3828/bfarm.2008.4.1
Matthews, J. M. (1964). The Hoabinhian in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.
Matthews, J. M. (1968). A review of the ‘Hoabinhian’ in Indo-China. Asian Perspectives 9, pp. 86–95.
McBryde, I. (1962). Archaeological Field Survey Work in Northern South Wales. Oceania, 33(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1962.tb00762.x
McBryde, I. (1976). Seelands and Sai Yok Pebble Tools: A Further Consideration. Australian Archaeology, 4, pp. 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.1976.12093297
McCarthy, F. D. (1941a). Chipped Stone Implements of the Aborigines. The Australian Museum Magazine, 7(8), pp. 257–263.
McCarthy, F. D. (1941b). Two pebble industry sites of Hoabinhien I type on the north coast of New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 21(1), pp. 21–26. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.21.1941.522
McCarthy, F. D. (1943a). An analysis of the knapped implements from eight Elouera industry stations on the South Coast of New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 21(3), pp. 127–153. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.21.1943.528
McCarthy, F. D. (1943b). Trimmed pebble implements of Kartan type from ancient kitchen-middens at Clybucca, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 21(3), 164–167. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.21.1943.531
McCarthy, F. D. (1947). An Analysis of the large Stone Implements from five Workshops on the north coast of New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 21, pp. 411–430. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.21.1947.559
McCarthy, F. D. (1948). The Lapstone Creek excavation: two culture periods revealed in eastern New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 22(1), pp. 1–34. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.22.1948.587
McCarthy, F. D. (1951). Stone Implements from Tandandjal Cave – An Appendix. In MacIntosh, N. W. g. “Archaeology of Tandandjal Cave. South-West Arnhem Land.” Oceania, 21(3), pp. 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1951.tb00534.x
McCarthy, F. D., Davidson, F. A. (1943). The Elouera industry of Singleton, Hunter River, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, 21(4), pp. 210–230. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.21.1943.536
McCarthy, F. D., Bramwell, E., Noone, H. V. V. (1967 [1946]). The stone implements of Australia. Australian Museum Memoir, 9, pp. 1–94. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1967.9.1946.515
McNiven, I. J. (1993). Tula adzes and bifacial points on the east coast of Australia. Australian Archaeology, 36, pp. 22–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.1993.11681479
Mitchell, S. R. (1959). The Woodworking Tools of the Australian Aborigines. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 89, pp. 191–199. https://doi.org/10.2307/2844269
Moser, J. (2012). The Hoabinhian Definition—In the Past and Today: A Short Historical Review of Defining the Hoabinhian. In: M. L. Tjoa-Bonatz, A. Reinecke, & D. Bonatz (eds). Crossing Borders: Selected Papers from the 13th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Singapore: National University of Singapore, pp. 3–12. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1nthm4.6
Mulvaney, K. J. (1997). More than a Chip Off the Old Block. A Prehistoric Sandstone Quarry: the Notion of Production and Exchange. Unpublished M. A. thesis, Northern Territory University, Darwin.
Péntek, A. (2021). Stone assemblages from the surroundings of Tennant Creek (Northern Territory, Australia) Part I – Flaked stone assemblage. Litikum – Journal of the Lithic Research Roundtable, 9, pp. 45–69. https://doi.org/10.23898/litikuma0030
Randal, M. A., Brown, M. C. (1969). Explanatory Notes on the Helen Springs Geological Sheet. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, explanatory notes SE/S, pp. 3–10.
Rosenberg, D., Rowan, Y., Gluhak, T. (2016). Introduction. Leave no stone unturned: Perspectives on ground stone artefact research, Journal of Lithic Studies, 3(3), pp. 1–15. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.v3i3.1766
Smith, M. A. (1986). An investigation of possible Pleistocene occupation at Lake Woods, Northern Territory. Australian Archaeology, 22, pp. 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.1986.12093045
Spencer, W. B. (1922). Guide to the Ethnological Collection of the National Museum of Victoria. (3rd edit.) Melbourne: A.J. Mullett, Govt. Printer
Spencer, W. B., Gillen, F. J. (1899). The Native Tribes of Central Australia. London: Macmillan and Co. https://doi.org/10.2307/2842887
Spencer, W. B., Gillen, F. J. (1904). The Northern Tribes of Central Australia. London: Macmillan and Co.
Spencer, W. B., Gillen, F. J. (1912). Across Australia. London: Macmillan and Co.
Tibbett, K. (2003). Hammer dressed stone hatchets in the Lake Eyre Basin. Archaeology in Australia, 38, pp. 37–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2003.tb00519.x
Tindale, N. B. (1937). Relationship of the extinct Kangaroo Island culture with cultures of Australia, Tasmania and Malaya. Records of the South Australian Museum, 6, pp. 39–60.
Tindale, N. B. (1957). Culture succession in southeastern Australia from Late Pleistocene to the present. Records of the South Australian Museum, 13, pp. 1–49.
Tindale, N. B. (1965). Stone implement making among the Nakako, Ngadadjara, and Pitjandjara of the Great Western Desert. Records of the South Australian Museum 15, pp. 131–164.
Tindale, N. B. (1974). Aboriginal Tribes of Australia. Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Canberra: Australian National University Press
Tindale, N. B. (1985). Australian Aboriginal techniques of pressure-flaking stone implements. In: M. G. Plew, J. C. Woods & M. G. Pavesic (eds). Stone Tool Analysis: Essays in Honour of Don E. Crabtree, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 1–33.
Tindale, N. B., Maegraith, B. G. (1931). Traces of an extinct Aboriginal Population on Kangaroo Island. Records of the South Australian Museum, 4, pp. 275–289.
Tugby, D. J. (1958). A Typological Analysis of Axes and Choppers from Southeast Australia. American Antiquity, 24(1), pp. 24–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/276738
Turpin, T. (1983). The social and economic significance of the movement of stone edge-ground hatchets in Australia, Journal of Australian Studies, 7(12), pp. 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058309386864
Tylor, E. B. (1895). On the Occurrence of Ground Stone Implements of Australian Type in Tasmania. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 24, pp. 335‒340.
Ulm, S., Cotter, S., Cotter, M., Lilley, I., Clarkson, C., Reid, J. (2005). Edge-ground hatchets on the southern Curtis Coast, central Queensland: A preliminary assessment of technology, chronology and provenance. In: I. Macfarlane, M.-J. Mountain, & R. Paton, Eds. Many exchanges: Archaeology, history, community and the work of Isabel McBryde, Aboriginal History Monograph 11. Canberra: ANU Press, pp. 323–342.
Valoch, K. (1979). Stone tool assemblages from Arnhem Land. In: J. Jelínek, Anthropology of the Rembrranga People, A Contribution of the Czechoslovak Anthropos Expedition to Arnhem Land N.T. Australia. Anthropologie XVII, Brno: Anthropos Institute, pp. 107–325.
Walker, J. J. (2016). Evidence of Aboriginal Networking: non-destructive pXRF characterization of ground-edge hatchets from south-east South Australia. Unpublished MSc Thesis, University of New England
White, J. P. (1972). Ol Tumbuna. Terra Australis 1. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University
Yi, S., Lee, J. J., Kim, S., Yoo, Y., Kim, D. (2008). New data on the Hoabinhian: investigations at Hang Cho cave, northern Vietnam. Indo-Pacific Prehistoric Association Bulletin, 28, pp. 73–79. https://doi.org/10.7152/bippa.v28i0.12018
