This thesis analyses an extensive bone deposit from Allen's Cave,
which is situated on the southern Nullarbor, South Australia. Excavation
of the site in 1989 yielded evidence for 38,000 years of human occupation,
the first 25,000 years of which took place under extremely arid conditions.
A taphonomic analysis of the bone debris was undertaken in order to
identify patterns of Aboriginal arid zone subsistence and occupation. The
bone debris consists of skeletal material from a range of small to large prey.
The smaller species are both better represented and preserved than larger
species. Primary deposition by owls and carnivores and significant
modification of human-deposited bone is clearly demonstrated.
Previous vertebrate analyses which have aimed at identifying humandeposited
bone from such mixed and. fragmented deposits were found to
display on-going methodological problems. These problems were largely
based on misunderstandings about the behavior of predators associated with
the cave sites. Therefore a comprehensive review of the taphonomic
effects of a range of carnivores in human occupation sites has been
undertaken.
Revision of earlier methodologies also revealed that expectations
concerning the capacity of the highly fragmented and diminished amount of
human discard to provide evidence of subsistence and occupation were
overstated. Thus a taphonomic methodology focussing on the far greater
quantity of non-cultural bone debris has been formulated for Allen's Cave.
It is anticipated that this will also be applicable to similar deposits in sites
elsewhere