Research by the Department of Anthropology, The Australian Museum

Department research activities

An Archaeological Survey on Port Jackson, Sydney

During the period April to December 1975, the Anthropological Society of New South Wales conducted an archaeological survey around Bantry Bay on the northern side of Port Jackson, Sydney

Stylistic analysis of stone arrangements supports regional cultural interactions along the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Stone arrangements are frequently encountered on the Australian mainland and islands. They have high significance values to Indigenous Australians and are usually associated with the material expression and emplacement of socio-religious beliefs and associated ceremonial/ritual activities. Despite their ubiquity, stone arrangements are an understudied site type with their distribution and morphological variability remaining poorly documented and their functional variability poorly understood. Although in most parts of Australia the authorship of stone arrangements is unambiguously Aboriginal, for far north Queensland this is less clear for places where Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, and more recently South Sea Islanders, all with documented traditions of stone arrangement construction and use, are known to have operated. A comparative stylistic analysis of stone arrangements constructed by Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islanders and Island Melanesians of the southwest Pacific reveals that although Lizard Island Group stone arrangements are predominately of Aboriginal authorship, some arrangements exhibit cultural influences from neighbouring areas. In this respect, Lizard Island Group stone arrangements appear to be a further material expression of the Torres Strait Cultural Complex and Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere

The Nakanai Mountain Ranges of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea

This E-Book on the Nakanai Mountains of East New Britain is in four parts. The first section provides an overview of the karst and cave attributes which led to the listing of Nakanai on the Tentative World Heritage List in a Serial Site known as The Sublime Karsts of Papua New Guinea. The next section provides a brief history of the region involving European encounters. This is followed with a brief overview of the archaeology of East New Britain. The fourth section highlights some of the unique flora and fauna of the Nakanai. The final section includes the UNESCO Justification for Significance on the Tentative World Heritage List

Impact 2001

Index Competitive Agricultural Systems in a Global Economy ............................................................. 1 Safe and Secure Food and Fiber Systems ............................................................. 20 Healthy, Well-Nourished Population ............................................................. 28 Greater Harmony Between Agriculture and the Environment ............................................................. 38 Economic Development and Quality of Life for People and Communities ............................................................. 46 Society-Ready Graduates ............................................................. 5

Impact 2001

Index Competitive Agricultural Systems in a Global Economy ............................................................. 1 Safe and Secure Food and Fiber Systems ............................................................. 20 Healthy, Well-Nourished Population ............................................................. 28 Greater Harmony Between Agriculture and the Environment ............................................................. 38 Economic Development and Quality of Life for People and Communities ............................................................. 46 Society-Ready Graduates ............................................................. 5

The Nakanai Mountain Ranges of East New Britain Papua New Guinea. E: Booklet Version 2

NOTES ON THE E-BOOKLET VERSION TWO Between 2016- 2019, a multidisciplinary team of researchers1 from Australia and Papua New Guinea worked in collaboration with local communities to document the cultural values of the Nakanai Mountains and their inextricable link to the spectacular natural landscape. This research aims to contribute to a standalone nomination to the UNESCCO Tentative World Heritage List of the Nakanai Karst Area (NKA) and elevate its recognition as a cultural landscape of outstanding significance. The research team included both anthropologists and archaeologists. Further anthropological and archaeological research is likely to yield further evidence of the richly diverse cultural values of the area. Between July 2018 - December 2019, researchers from James Cook University (JCU) in collaboration with postgraduate researchers from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) were commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme2 in conjunction with the Conservation, Environment Protection Authority to generate awareness of protected area planning processes and to facilitate the gazettal of four Community Protected Areas around Jacquinot Bay and Central Inland Pomio. These protected area processes are ongoing

Genetic Characterization of the Soybean Nested Association Mapping Population

A set of nested association mapping (NAM) families was developed by crossing 40 diverse soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes to the common cultivar. The 41 parents were deeply sequenced for SNP discovery. Based on the polymorphism of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other selection criteria, a set of SNPs was selected to be included in the SoyNAM6K BeadChip for genotyping the parents and 5600 RILs from the 40 families. Analysis of the SNP profiles of the RILs showed a low average recombination rate. We constructed genetic linkage maps for each family and a composite linkage map based on recombinant inbred lines (RILs) across the families and identified and annotated 525,772 high confidence SNPs that were used to impute the SNP alleles in the RILs. The segregation distortion in most families significantly favored the alleles from the female parent, and there was no significant difference of residual heterozygosity in the euchromatic vs. heterochromatic regions. The genotypic datasets for the RILs and parents are publicly available and are anticipated to be useful to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling important traits in soybean

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined

Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects

Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at the forefront of several methodological innovations over the last three decades, archaebotany is now a relatively peripheral concern to most archaeological projects in Australia and New Guinea. In this paper, many practicing archaeobotanists working in these regions argue for a more central role for archaeobotany in standard archaeological practice. An overview of archaeobotanical techniques and applications is presented, the potential for archaeobotany to address key historical research questions is indicated, and initiatives designed to promote archaeobotany and improve current practices are outlined