FAREWELLS, WELCOMES AND CONGRATULATIONS

Welcome to new student members: Jay Chin, Christine Gant-Thompson, Ian Gilligan, Christian Reepmayer and Lorna Tilley (Archaeology and Anthropology), and Janet Finn and Susan Frawley (Archaeology and Natural History). Welcome also to new members Trish Bourke (ACT Heritage), Scott Cane (Culture and Heritage), Helen Cooke (Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination), Carol Cooper (National Museum of Australia), Sarah Forbes (Dept of Immigration), Prue Gaffey (Dept of Environment and Heritage) Allan Lance (Heritage Consulting Australia), Andrew McWilliam (Anthropology RSPAS), Colin Pardoe, Dianne Roberts (Dept of Health) and Cassandra Rowe (Archaeology and

Natural History). We also welcome three new students Tony Barham, Emilie Dotte, Janet Finn and Susan Frawley. Emilie is a first year PhD Cotutelle student between Universite Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne and ANH. Her research project aims to develop an interdisciplinary palaeoenvironmental and anthropological approach, using archaeobotanical, ethnological, ethnohistorical and archaeological data, in order to understand landscape construction dynamics in New Caledonia during precontact times, through the study of forest types changes, practices of human management and the use of woody species. Susan will identify charcoal samples from the Carpenter's Gap site in WA.

In December, CAR sadly farewelled our faithful and long-serving administrator, Amanda Kennedy who has moved to Brisbane with her husband Andy Fairbairn and two young children, Rowan and Jack. Congratulations are due to Andy who has taken up a position as lecturer in Archaeology, School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. We wish them all the best. CAR also farewelled our Director Matthew Spriggs and members of the CAR Management Committee, RSPAS Director Professor Jim Fox and ANH student rep. Stephanie Garling. We would like to thank these people, especially Amanda, for all their hard work. In their place, we welcome Simon Haberle as new Director, Peter Hiscock as new Associate Director and new committee members, RSPAS Director Professor Robin Jeffrey and ANH student rep. Nuno Oliveira. Sally Brockwell is struggling to fill Amanda's very big shoes. We would also like to thank Adam

Black who has slaved over the construction of our new website. ANH farewelled two long-serving staff members and members of CAR, Gill Aitkin and Dominique O'Dea. CAR wishes them all the best in their future endeavours. ANH also welcomed several new staff members: Research Fellow Geoff Clark, three Post-Doctoral Fellows Sophie Collins, Cassandra Rowe and Janelle Stevenson. Geoff will continue his research into Pacific prehistory. Sophie will continue investigations into stone artefact function and use-wear, based on her PhD research. Cassandra takes up a year-long position on the ARC e-Research grant "The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas". We also welcome Geoff Hunt, an ex-Phd student of ANH who is currently employed within an ARC Discovery funded project in northern Vanuatu led by Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford. Geoff is analyzing the shells and lithics and producing section diagrams, collected over five years of excavation

Congratulations to Pim Allison (Archaeology and Anthropology) who has taken up a position as lecturer in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, UK.

Congratulations also go to Annie Clarke (University of Sydney), Jude Philp (Macleay Museum) and Robin Torrence (Australian Museum) who have won an ARC Linkage grant in the last round: Producers and Collectors: Uncovering the Role of Indigenous Agency in the Formation of Museum 2006: $17,325 2007: $34,650 2008: $34,650 2009: $17,325. Project Summary: The research will make a significant contribution to

Australian and world scholarship, show the innovation and leadership of Australian scholars in the study of museum collections, and promote goodwill and better diplomacy with Australia's nearest neighbours in PNG. Through examining the history of social relations between Papua New Guineans and 'outsiders' in a region that has long been the focus of Australian interests, the project will contribute to the National Priority' Understanding our region and the world'. By unlocking information about the origin and history of ethnographic collections from Australia's oldest museum, their cultural significance will be shared more widely.

THESES SUBMITTED

Congratulations to Mandy (Armand) Mijares who submitted his PhD in February 2006 'Unravelling Prehistory: The Archaeology of North-Eastern Luzon'. Mandy who has since returned to the Philippines reports that he is still working on his transfer from the National Museum to the University where he was offered an Assistant Professorship. He is also directing a large excavation next month in one of the urban cities in the south (Cebu City).

Congratulations also to Matiu Prebble and Tom Heinsohn (Archaeology and Natural History), both of whom submitted their PhD theses in June. Tom's thesis was entitled 'Secret Life of the Cuscus and Cassowary: The Crypto-Anthropogenic Factor and Zoogeographic Interpretation in the Indo-Australian Archipelago 1850-2004'. Mat's thesis is entitled 'Islands, Floras and History: An Environmental History of Plant Introduction and Extinction on the Austral Islands, French Polynesia'.

Mat has also been awarded a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship for 2007-2008 from Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, Centre of Research Excellence (University of Auckland). He will undertake his research project 'Using rat-gnawed seeds to date the arrival of the Pacific rat and humans in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands' in ANH in collaboration with Atholl Anderson. Congratulations also go to Pat Faulkner (Archaeology and Anthropology) for submitting his PhD thesis 'The Ebb and Flow: An Archaeological Investigation of Late Holocene Economic Variability on the Coastal Margin of Blue Mud Bay, Northern Australia' and Helen Semeliotis (Archaeology and Anthropology) for submitting her MPhil thesis 'The Core of the Matter: Core Reduction in Prehistoric East Timor'. Pat has recently been working in ANH with Sue O'Connor analyzing shell assemblages from Jerimalai, a rockshelter site near Tutuala in East Timor.

MEMBER'S NEWS

ANH members have been busy in the last six months. Atholl Anderson was on Outside Studies Leave from August - December 2005. His fieldwork and research took him to United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Europe.

As part of the the ARC funded Northern Vanuatu Archaeological project Stuart Bedford visited the island Ambae late last year following reports of pottery being washed out of a coastal site. The site was located on the north-eastern end of the island and proved to be very instructive. Recently eroded stratigraphy revealed cultural remains along a 2km coastal stretch, which had been buried by some 1.5m of tephra. The visit occurred just as the Ambae volcano began to erupt after a ten year hiatus. A spare day enabled a visit to the crater where a newly formed cone was seen emerging from the crater lake (photo). A number of the communities were being evacuated to "safeā€¯ areas, one of which was the north-east! The archaeology indicats that it was has not been all that safe in the past! Last month Stuart returned to Efate in Vanuatu for a further fieldwork season on the Teouma site with Matthew Spriggs and Hallie Buckley (University of Otago).

Adam Brumm has returned from fieldwork on the Indonesian island of Flores, working with Mike Morwood (University of New England) on the famous Homo floresiensis site of Liang Bua. Adam's PhD project is entitled 'Early Hominin Behaviour and Cognition in Southeast Asia: The Mata Menge Site, Central Flores, East Indonesia'

In March Judith Cameron visited Hanoi and ran a three-day conservation workshop at the History Museum that was attended by 25 Vietnamese conservators, as part of her ARC Dongson Textile project with the National Museum of Australia. The workshop was highly successful and UNESCO has asked her to run a further workshop next year.

In June Janet Finn traveled to London to attend a Diatom Research Course and attend the Holivar Conference at the University College London.

CAR Director Simon Haberle, and PhD student Iona Flett (ANH) are currently undertaking two months fieldwork in the Galapagos Islands investigating historical ecology and the record of human impact.

Andy Fairbairn and Geoff Hope's research trip to East Sepik Province PNG late last year took them to Koil Island in the Schouten islands where Glenn Summerhayes excavated a site called Gomogom, and inland to the Seraba Hills area to investigate rockshelters and take pollen cores. They were accompanied by Herman Mandui of the National Museum and Lisa Matisoo-Smith (Anthropology, University of Auckland), who is interested in genetic research on new Guinea populations of Rattus exulans. Unfortunately, the rats she encountered in the Sepik were not this species.

Ben Marwick is continuing his fieldwork in north-western Thailand on stone artefact technology and economics, cultural change and environmental change during the Pleistocene and Holocene. His supervisor Sue O'Connor visited him there for a week after the IPPA Congress in Manila.

Kath Szabó has been working on the Niah Caves Project in Sarawak, co-ordinated by Graeme Barker of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, heading the analysis of the mollusc remains from both the original Harrisson and more recent UK-led excavations at the site. She is currently undertaking fieldwork in the Philippines.

Meredith Wilson (ANH) and Chris Ballard (PAH) have submitted the first nomination for World Heritage status of a cultural site from a Pacific Island state, on behalf of the Vanuatu National Museum and Cultural Centre. The nominated site is Chief Roi Mata's Domain in northwest Efate, and includes the former residence, place of death and spectacular mass burial gravesite of the sixteenth-century paramount chief, Roi Mata. The project, which has run over two years, has also generated a successful community-owned cultural tourism venture centred on the prospective World Heritage site. A final decision on the success of this bid will be made by UNESCO in mid-2008

Janelle Stevenson has recently been to Palawan, in the Philippines, as part of large international team looking at early human occupation in Island Southeast Asia. The project, which is lead by Dr. Helen Lewis and funded by the British Academy, is focused on Ille cave and the surrounding landscape in northeastern Palawan. This landscape has undergone considerable transformation over the last 30 or so years, with large tracts of native forest in the floodplain zone removed for rice cultivation. The project is using a combination of archaeological and palaeonvironmental techniques

to answer the questions about the human history of the area and the accompanying environmental changes. Janelle collected several sediment cores from remnant swamps in the local area, and after AMS dating, the cores will be analysed for pollen, charcoal and diatoms. Although the age of cores is unknown at this stage, it hoped that they will be old enough for comparison with the isotopic analyses being carried out on a number of bat guano sequences from several caves in the region, and which go back beyond the LGM. (See photos below...)

Ille Cave

Coring one of the remnant swamp forests - soon to be a rice field

Kath Szabó has been working on the Niah Caves Project in Sarawak, co-ordinated by Graeme Barker of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, heading the analysis of the mollusc remains from both the original Harrisson and more recent UK-led excavations at the site. She is currently undertaking fieldwork in the Philippines.

Meredith Wilson (ANH) and Chris Ballard (PAH) have submitted the first nomination for World Heritage status of a cultural site from a Pacific Island state, on behalf of

the Vanuatu National Museum and Cultural Centre. The nominated site is Chief Roi Mata's Domain in northwest Efate, and includes the former residence, place of death and spectacular mass burial gravesite of the sixteenth-century paramount chief, Roi Mata. The project, which has run over two years, has also generated a successful community-owned cultural tourism venture centred on the prospective World Heritage site. A final decision on the success of this bid will be made by UNESCO in mid-2008

VISITORS TO ANH

Dr Keith Dobney (Department of Archaeology, University of Durham) visited the department for two weeks en route to Manila for the IPPA conference. He gave a seminar in the CAR series on his research 'Travelling companions and unwelcome guests: New archaeo-zoological approaches to the study of human dispersal and exchange networks' (see abstract below under CAR Seminars).

Paul Mosig and Rachel Peachey were awarded a 3 month Artist in Residence fellowship through the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) to work in the Palaeoworks labs, ANH, with staff and students exploring the intersection between new media art and palaeoecological-archaeological science. They will be in residence from May 8th-August 8th 2006. You can follow their work on the web page here

Dr Mads Ravn (Department of Archaeology, Aarhus University, Denmark) visited the department for two weeks 5th March - 18th March 2006 prior to attending the IPPA Congress in Manila. He worked with Matthew Spriggs on preparing a joint project: 'Globalization in the Past and Present: An Ethno-Archaeological Study of Material Culture and Identity in Melanesia' to take place in the Manus region of the Pacific. It is a joint project between Aarhus University (Prof. Ton Otto, Helle Vandkilde) and the ANU. Mads will be project coordinator for the archaeology. Mads also wrote up an article on the relationship between archaeology and linguistics, which he is planning to be publish in a co-edited volume with Prof. Bill McGregor. He found that ANU was a useful place to write this article, as RSPAS has been in the forefront of comparing results from archaeology and linguistics for years, and he was able to access a number of rare books and articles in the ANU libraries. Finally, he helped set up a database for Prof. Spriggs of Mangaasi, a Lapita site in Vanuatu, which will make a useful comparison with project results from the Manus region.

Tara Lewis and Anna Roach from Monash University were Summer Vacation Scholarship holders with the Palaeoworks group over the summer. Tara worked on macroscopic remains from Sphagnum bog samples collected from the Galapagos Islands. Anna Roach examined the potential of using fungal spore remains as indicators of the presence of pigs in highlands of New Guinea.

Pia Atahan (UWA) and Xun Li (Massey University) were awarded internships at Palaeoworks to work on and contribute to the development of the Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas, supervised by Simon Haberle.

Pia Atahan is nearing the completion of her PhD within the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Western Australia, under the supervision of Professor John Dodson. Pia's research focus is on Eastern China, specifically the Yangtze River Delta, and the investigation of Holocene human-environmental interactions and environmental change. Thesis questions surrounding human impact include the timing of agriculture (rice) within the Yangtze River region. Pia was able to contribute a number of cultivated species and vegetation disturbance indicators to the Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas, as known from tropical China extending into southeast Asia.

Xun Li is currently based at Massey University (New Zealand) working on the palynological reconstruction of the history of vegetation in the Mangawhai area, northern New Zealand, for the last 3000 years. Xun's research is in association with archaeological survey and landscape investigation as a means to investigate whether anthropogenic vegetation changes can be identified and used to date human arrivals. Xun's input to the Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas included key New Zealand taxa and a number of Nothofagus and Phyllocaldus species.

SUMMARY OF CAR MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS TO
THE DEC '05 AUSTRALASIAN ARCHAEOMETRY CONFERENCE

Australasian Archaeometry Conference 12-15 December 2005 (held at ANU, sponsored by CAR and organized by Andy Fairbairn and Sue O'Connor, ANH).

Many papers and posters were presented by staff and students of ANU and members of CAR.

For a full list of papers and abstracts, see here

Besides the papers and workshops there were a number of enjoyable social events, including a wine reception and CAR book launch.

Pim Allison (Archaeology and Anthropology) Measuring Women's Influence on Roman Military Life: Using GIS on Published Excavation Reports from the German Frontier

Pim Allison and Pat Faulkner (Archaeology and Anthropology) convened the GIS and 'Legacy Data' Paper Session and Workshop

Wal Ambrose (ANH), Charlotte Allen (RSES) and S. O'Connor (ANH) Possible Sources for Obsidian Artefacts from Timor, an LA-ICPMS Study

Janet Wilmshurst, Atholl Anderson (ANH), Tom Higham, Trevor Worthy Lured into a Rat Trap? Dating the Earliest Arrival of People in New Zealand

Maxime Aubert (ANH, RSES, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique) Sue O'Connor (ANH), Malcolm McCulloch and Graham Mortimer (RSES) Uranium-Series Dating Carbonate-Covered Rock Art in East Timor (poster)

Tony Barham (ANH) Open Archaeological Sites and Time Stratigraphy - Patterns Of Sediment Residence and Taphonomy on the Wianamatta Shale Regolith Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain, Western Sydney, New South Wales

Tony Barham and Matiu Prebble (ANH) Taphonomic Modes, Sediment Storage and Regional Archaeological Chronologies - An Overview and Context for Integrated Theory

Sophie Bickford (CSIRO) Predictive Spatial Modelling 0f Pre-European Vegetation Patterns from Historical Land Survey Records

Trish Bourke (Charles Darwin University) Examining Late Holocene Marine Reservoir Effect in Archaeological Fauna at Hope Inlet, Beagle Gulf, North Australia

Judith Cameron (ANH) and Eric Archer convened the session Archaeology and Conservation

Judith Cameron (ANH) and Nicola Smith Conservation of Prehistoric Cloth from Dongson Sites in Vietnam

David Bowman, Geoff Cary, Karen King (School of Resources, Environment and Society, ANU) and Jason Beringer convened the workshop Interactions in Fire History Research

Chris Clarkson (UQ) 3D Analysis of Flake Scar Patterning Using a Microscribe

Chris Clarkson (UQ) and Peter Hiscock (Archaeology and Anthropology) Mousterian Notched Tool Reuse at Combe Grenal

Sophie Collins (Archaeology and Anthropology) Exploring Edge Scarring as an Indicator of Artefact Function Using Highly Controlled Mechanised Experimentation

Lisa Cornish (Archaeology and Anthropology) GIS and Legacy Data: A case study of Pompeii and Roman Domestic Space

Tim Denham (Monash) A Multi-Disciplinary Method for the Investigation of Early Agriculture: Learning Lessons from Kuk, Papua New Guinea

Tim Denham (Monash) Multi-scale and Multi-Technique Investigations of the Stratigraphy at Kuk Swamp, Papua New Guinea

Andy Fairbairn (ANH) Clarifying the Macrobotanical Record of Canarium in Papua New Guinea

Andy Fairbairn (ANH) convened the session Studies in Archaeological Science

Barry Fankhauser and Stuart Bedford (ANH) Dissolving Decoration: Calcium Carbonate and its Manifestations in the Archaeological Record of the Pacific

Barry Fankhauser and Stuart Bedford (ANH) Peeling Back the Layers: Chemical Analysis of 3000-Year-Old Painted Lapita pottery

Pat Faulkner (Archaeology and Anthropology) The Problem with Measuring Women's Influence in Roman Military Life: Data Translation, Manipulation and Adventures in GIS

Iona Flett, Simon Haberle, Atholl Anderson, (ANH), Henk Heijnis and Ed Rhodes (RSES) Archaeology and Palaeoecology of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - Multidisciplinary Analytical Techniques (poster)

Jillian Ford (Archaeology and Anthropology) Rock Art Pigments of the Woronora Plateau, NSW (poster)

Ani Fox (Australian Centre for Indigenous History, RSSS) Translating Evidence of Fire into Functional Narrative: A Historian's Nightmare

Stephanie Garling (ANH) Ochreous Interactions in the Post-Lapita? A Preliminary Characterisation Study of Red Ochres from the Western Pacific Using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)

Simon Haberle (ANH) Fire in the Tropics: A Paleoclimatic Assessment of a Charcoal Record from the Atherton Tableland

Simon Haberle (ANH) Fire Histories from the Wet Tropics and the Implications for Palaeoclimatology (poster)

Simon Haberle (ANH) Robinson Crusoe's Legacy: An Environmental History of the Juan Fernández Archipélago (poster)

Simon Haberle, Geoff Hope (ANH), Markus Buchhorn (DOI) and Cassandra Rowe (ANH) The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas (poster)

Simon Haberle (ANH) convened the paper session and workshop Constructing Fire Histories: Methods, Interpretation and Common-Ground across Fire History Research in Australia

Simon Haberle (ANH) convened the workshop The Evidence for Fire in the Past: Anthropogenic Versus Natural Origin

Geoff Hope (ANH) Fire Histories

Ben Jeffares (Philosophy, RSSS) Signals and Noise in Sedimentary Records

Karen King, Geoff Cary (School of Resources, Environment and Society, ANU) and Ross Bradstock Landscape Simulation of Fire Regimes

Oliver Macgregor (Archaeology and Anthropology) Understanding Flaked Stone Artefact Reduction through Controlled Experiments

Oliver MacGregor (Archaeology and Anthropology) and Chris Clarkson (UQ) convened the session Innovative Approaches to Understanding Technology

Ben Marwick (ANH) Identifying Variation in Hoabinhian Lithic Technology: An Index of Flake Cortex Distribution for the Measurement of Cobble Reduction at Tham Lod Rockshelter, NW Thailand

Mandy Mijares (ANH) The Unchanging Flakes? The Penablanca Lithic Technology (poster)

Mandy Mijares (ANH) Understanding Cave Site Formation through Soil Micromorphology: The Eme Cave (poster)

Ladislav Nejman (Archaeology and Anthropology) Testing Models of Intra-Assemblage Variability in Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Assemblages in Central Europe

Sue O'Connor and Tony Barham (ANH) Sediment Storage, Hiatus and Stop-Start Sedimentation in Cave and Rockshelters: Implications for Regional and Archaeological Chronologies

Nuno Oliveira (ANH) Recovering Macrobotanical Remains From East Timor Cave Deposits Through Bucket Flotation And Wet-Sieving (poster)

Nuno Oliveira and Andy Fairbairn (ANH) convened the Poster Session

Fiona Petchey (Waikato) Marine Reservoir Variation in the South Pacific: Current and Future Research

Fiona Petchey (Waikato) and Atholl Anderson (ANH) convened the session Improving the Marine Chronology

Matiu Prebble (ANH) Sedimentary pulses and archaeological pollen signatures: Multiple profiles of Colocasia esculenta agricultural deposits from the remote island Pacific

Glenn Summerhayes (Otago) and Peter Grave convened the session Recent Advances in Artefact Characterisation and Material Analyses.

Matiu Prebble and Tony Barham (ANH) convened the session Sedimentary Stratigraphic Motifs and Taphonomic Modes: Trends, Signatures and Bias in Archaeological Sedimentary Records

Ed Rhodes (RSES), Patricia Fanning, Simon Holdaway and C. Bolton Ancient surfaces? Dating Archaeological Surfaces in Western NSW Using OSL

Ed Rhodes (RSES), Vicky Farwig, Stefan Doerr, Rick Shakesby and Will Blake Luminescence of single quartz grains to determine past heating

Patricia Fanning, Simon Holdaway and Ed Rhodes (RSES) Spatial and temporal geomorphic controls on the archaeological record of Aboriginal hunter-gatherers in arid Australia

Patricia Fanning, Simon Holdaway, Ed Rhodes (RSES) and Justin Shiner convened the session Geoarchaeology and Geochronology and the Australian Archaeological Record

Cassandra Rowe (ANH) Environmental Dynamics in the Torres Strait Region: The Integration of Palaeoecological and Archaeological Data

Matthew Spriggs (Archaeology and Anthropology) GIS and the retreat of the Cornish language: What can it add?

Janelle Stevenson (ANH) and Scott Mooney convened the workshop Techniques in Fire History Research

Martin Worthy (CRES), Bob Wasson, Alan Wade (CRES) and Geoff Hope (ANH) What the 2003 fire demonstrated. Fire as a geomorphic agent of erosion in the Cotter River Catchment, Namadgi National Park, Australian Capital Territory

Report on the IPPA Congress (Manila) March '06

The 18th Congress of IPPA was held on the campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, hosted by the Archaeological Studies Program at the University of the Philippines, by the Archaeology Division at the National Museum of the Philippines, and by the W.G. Solheim II Foundation. The meeting was organised by Peter Bellwood and Doreen Bowdery, in cooperation with colleagues at the University of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines.

Supporting grants were received from the Wenner-Gren Foundation (New York) and the Toyota Foundation (Japan). More than 300 delegates attended from a total of 32 countries, and over 300 papers were presented in four contemporary sessions (totalling 29 altogether) over 5 full days. Session topics covered the full range of Indo-Pacific archaeology, ranging from the Palaeolithic, through Neolithic, Bronze-Iron and early historical periods, into the second millennium AD.

Sessions reflected both geographical and thematic foci, each chosen and chaired by one or more individuals. Many of the delegates were younger archaeologists who had not previously had the chance to attend an international congress outside their own country. This congress gave them international exposure to new networks, experience in presenting to a large international audience, and a strong likelihood of eventual publication of their paper (following refereeing) in the IPPA Bulletin series. Below is a list of papers presented by CAR and ANU members, who were well represented at the conference. For a full listing of conference papers and their abstracts, please visit the IPPA website:

Besides the papers, the IPPA meeting also included a number of enjoyable social occasions, as you can see from the photos:

G.R. Summerhayes, Atholl Anderson, L. Hosoya, R. Ono, S. Asato and S. Shimogi: Recent studies on the Neolithic colonisation of the Yaeyamas, southern Ryukyus

Stuart Bedford and Matthew Spriggs Lapita at Teouma, Efate, Central Vanuatu. One of the first steps in the colonisation of Remote Oceania

Peter Bellwood and Bong Dizon: The Batanes Archaeological Project, and the current state of the "Out of Taiwanā€¯ debate with respect to Neolithic and Austronesian language dispersal.

Peter Bellwood, Nguyen Viet, Bui Van Liem and Judith Cameron: The Dong Xa boat and "Phoenician jointsā€¯: A Dong Son/Western Han/Indo-Roman transfer of technology linking Vietnam and the Mediterranean

Trish Bourke, Sally Brockwell, Pat Faulkner and Betty Meehan The "Little Ice Ageā€¯ in Northern Australia: Environmental and Cultural Implications

Ian Caldwell, Budianto Hakim and David Bulbeck: Early Metal phase Bugis settlement and landscape transformation in the western Cenrana valley, South Sulawesi.

Judith Cameron: The origins and spread of textile technology from South China into Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic Judith also convened the Vietnamese sessions at the IPPA Congress.

Aedeen Cremin: Green porcelain from Quanzhou and Chuzhu: Yuan period wares at Angkor

Ian Gilligan: Human responses to climate change in Tasmania: archaeological evidence for the use of shelter and clothing

Hsiu-Ying Shawna Yang: Fishing sinkers in the Batanes Islands and Taiwan, and further relationship with East Asia

Damian Huffer, Nguyen KD, Hiep TH, Matsumura H.: Social organization at the Neolithic/Bronze Age boundary in northern Vietnam: Man Bac cemetery as a case study

Hung Hsiao-chun and Yoshiyuki Iizuka: Southeastern Taiwan, the Cagayan Valley, and the role of Fengtian nephrite in Neolithic dispersal and interaction

Johan Kamminga The Hoabinhian at Sai Yok in central Thailand

Jean Kennedy: Pacific Bananas: Complex origins, multiple dispersals.

Nina Kononenko: The contribution of use-wear/residue studies of obsidian for understanding changes in settlement and subsistence patterns in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Nina Kononenko Use-wear analysis of obsidian artefacts from the Palaeolithic site of Hopyeong-dong, Korea

Ben Marwick: Beyond typologies: The reduction thesis and its implications for lithic assemblages in Southeast Asia

Ben Marwick, Chowalit Thongcharoenchaikit and Kanda Keosopha: Adzes for sale: Archaeology and tourism in the night-market at Luang Prabang, Lao PDR

Armand Salvador B. Mijares: The Early Austronesian migration to Luzon: Perspectives from the PeƱablanca cave sites

Sue O'Connor: A Matter of balance: An overview of late Pleistocene/early Holocene occupation and the impact of the LGM in Wallacea and the Aru Islands

Peter Lape and Sue O'Connor: Rock art as a potential source of information about past maritime technology in the Asia Pacific region

Nuno Vasco Oliveira: Analysis of macrobotanical remains from Bui Ceri Uato Mane rock shelter, Baucau (East Timor): Preliminary results.

Marc F. Oxenham, Hirofumi Matsumura, Kate Domett, Nguyen Lan Cuong and Nguyen Kim Thuy: The Phung Nguyen Period cemetery Man Bac: preliminary bioarchaeological findings.

Hirofumi Matsumura, Yukio Dodo, Marc F. Oxenham, Nguyen Lan Cuong, Ve The Long, Nguyen Kim Thuy, Lam Thi My Dzung , Mariko Yamagata, Jumei Sawada , Minoru Yoneda , Kenichi Shinoda An early Holocene human skeleton from Hang Cho, northern Vietnam: its implication for a "Two Layersā€¯ hypothesis on the origin of Southeast Asians.

Nimal Perera: Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene human occupation at the Batadomba Lena rock shelter in Sri Lanka

Nimal Perera and Daniel Rayner: Bellan-bandi Pallassa and "Balangoda Man" (Sri Lanka)

Helen Selimiotis: Core Technology at Bui Ceri Uato, East Timor

Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford: Northern Vanuatu as a Pacific crossroads: The archaeology of discovery and interaction.

Matthew Spriggs and Sue O'Connor Sourcing Island Southeast Asian obsidians: What do we know and where do we go from here?

Kath Szabó and Hazel Ramirez: Philippine shell artefacts in local and regional context

Pauline Basilia, Angel Bautista and Kath Szabó: Post-neolithic shell beads from Ille Cave, Palawan: A case of specialisation?

GRADUATE SEMINARS

Ray Reser (ANH) presented his post-fieldwork seminar on 29 May 'Rock Art of the Victoria River Gorge: Images of Trade, Change and Dangerous Places'

RAY'S ABSTRACT: The rock art of the Victoria River District has been well known since at least Augustus Gregory's 1855 expedition through the area. Researchers such as Darrell Lewis, George Chaloupka, Howard McNickle, Ben Gunn, Bruno David, Josephine Flood and others have helped to define a VRD regional style. Recent rock art surveys within the Victoria River Gorge and several adjacent valleys indicate a regional variant to this accepted style. Situated in noticeably different geologic, ecologic and arguably cosmologic terrains, this body of rock art, confined within a well watered system of valleys and gorges, illustrates the rich mythic landscape of its Indigenous creators. This post fieldwork presentation examines the results of the first systematic documentation of these sites within Gregory National Park.

Adam Brumm (ANH) presented his mid-term seminar on 7 July 'The Movius Line Reconsidered, Again: New Insights into the Old World Palaeolithic Sequence from Flores in Eastern Indonesia'.

Nuno Oliveira (ANH) presented his post-fieldwork seminar on 'Food Production and the Agricultural Transition in East Timor: a Palaeobotanical Approach'

NUNO'S ABSTRACT: In the absence of direct proxies, plant domestication and agriculture are usually inferred by indirect ones such as the presence of pottery, animal domesticates and different items of material culture usually identified with agricultural practices. Such is so far the case in East Timor, where the exception are few macrobotanical remains identified during Glover's seminal work in the 1960'. In order to try and cover that gap, two fieldwork seasons were carried out, the first to locate new sites and assess macrobotanical preservation, and a second one that included excavation of a rock shelter aimed at recovering macro plant remains. This seminar will analyze the work done so far, as well as the processes involved in recovering and analyzing excavated plant material

BOOK LAUNCHES

There were several books launched by CAR members in the past six months.

In December CAR launched the Terra Australis publication The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia edited by Sue O'Connor, Matthew Spriggs and Peter Veth, as part of the Australian Archaeometry Conference at a cocktail reception in the Classics Department (see photos below).

Contributors include: Ken Aplin, David Bulbeck, Simon Clarke, Peter Hiscock, Ako Jatmiko, Geoff Hope, Gifford Miller, Husni Mohammed, Widya Nayati, Sue O'Connor, Juliette Pasveer, Aliza, Diniasti Saleh, Kath Szabó, Matthew Spriggs, Peter Veth and Djoko Witjaksono.

In April CAR launched the Terra Australis publication Pieces of the Vanuatu Puzzle: Archaeology of the North, South and Centre by Stuart Bedford in the Coombs Tea Room, RSPAS.

In May, two books by Peter Bellwood were launched by the Director of RSPAS, Professor Robin Jeffrey, in conjunction with the launch of the ANU College of the Asia and the Pacific. The books are First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (Bellwood) and Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History (Bellwood and Ian Glover).

First Farmers has won two prestigious international awards: The Association for American Publishers Award for excellence in professional and scholarly publishing, and the Society for American Archaeology Book Award to honour a recently published book that is expected to have a major impact on the direction and character of archaeological research.

(see photos below)

Photography - Darren Boyd

Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples (published by Pacific Linguistics) was launched by Jim Allen on 30 March in the Coombs Tea Room, RSPAS. It was edited by Andy Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson and Robin Hide and includes contributions from Bryant Allen, Michael Alpers, Robert Attenborough, Kuldeep Bhatia, Susan Bulmer, Sal Cerchio, John Chappell, Barry Craig, Melissa Crowther, Tim Denham, Mark Donohue, Simon Easteal, Benjamin Evans,

William Foley, Francoise Friedlaender, Jonathan Friedlaender, Fred Gentz, Jack Golson, Simon Haberle, Rosalind Harding, Nerida Harley, Terence Hays, Robin Hide, Geoff Hope, Frederika Kaestle, George Koki, John McDonough, Penelope Main, D. Andrew Merriwether, Andrea Mettenmeyer, Charles Mgone Mary-Jane Mountain, Andy Pawley, Ger Reesink, Paul Roscoe, Malcolm Ross, Moses Schanfield, Theodore Schurr, Lydia Smith, Jim Specht, Pamela Swadling, Nicola van Dijk, Bert Voorhoeve, Belinda Whittle, Xiaojiang Gao and Yan-tat Liu.

WORKSHOPS

In April, CAR organized a workshop on archaeological photography run by Mr Bob Miller from the University of Canberra, and held Coombs Building. The course was popular and attracted a full complement of 15 participants, including graduate students from A+A and ANH, as well as undergraduates and others from outside ANU. The feedback was very positive and it was suggested that CAR runs the course again next year.

In the mid-semester break, Sue O'Connor (ANH) and Pat

Faulkner (A+A) organized a successful five day shell analysis workshop in ANH, which was attended by eight undergraduates from A+A. The course included hands-on analysis of shell assemblages from a site in East Timor, lectures by Sue O'Connor and Trish Bourke (Charles Darwin University) and supervision by Pat Faulkner. It was free and the students were provided with handouts and with lunch. There was positive feedback from the students who found it a valuable practical experience. It was suggested that CAR could coordinate a similar workshop later in the year.

CAR EVENTS

The annual graduate student welcome was held on 7 April, indoors in the AD Hope Building because of the cold and blustery conditions outside. There was a somewhat disappointing turn-out, perhaps due to the

inclement weather and the proximity to the Easter break. Next year it will be held earlier in the academic year when hopefully we can expect better weather.