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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Influential arguments have been advanced in Australian archaeology concerning the origins and development of social and economic change in the mid-late Holocene (Lourandos 1997). One example used to support this claim is the perceived existence of ceremonial feasting events held in the semi-arid and rugged sandstone gorge systems of central Queensland, attended by large groups of people for extended periods, and underwritten by large quantities of kernels from the cycad Macrozamia moorei (Beaton 1977, 1982; see also Lourandos 1997). However the reexamination of the macrobotanical evidence from archaeological sites in this region using taphonomic analysis, replicative processing experiments, recalculations of seed density and estimations of the minimum numbers of seeds, does not support this model. This re-examination questions the role of Macrozamia seeds in the context of socio-economic change and suggests new interpretations of Macrozamia resource use.
Keywords: ceremony, intensification, Macrozamia, central Queensland, mid-late Holocene
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Large-scale communal public rituals and ceremonies supported by feasts have been argued to have played an important role in the social, economic and political arenas of ancient cultures (Jennings 2005; Potter 1997). In Australia, continent-scale models concerning the development of mid-Holocene ceremonial events and resource intensification have been strongly influenced by Beaton's interpretations of the archaeobotanical records of Cathedral Cave, Wanderer's Cave and Rainbow Cave in the Central Queensland Highlands (CQH). These sites appeared to provide direct archaeological evidence for frequent, large-scale inter-group ceremonial feasting events supported by the processing and consumption of toxic Macrozamia seeds, dating back to the mid-Holocene (Beaton 1977, 1982, 1993). Beaton's arguments were highly influential and have been widely cited by researchers arguing for continental-scale transformative social processes in the mid-late Holocene (Jones 1978; Lourandos 1980a, 1980b, 1983a, 1983b, 1988, 1997; see also David and Denham 2006; Ross 2006).
There has been significant debate about ways of testing high-level models of intensification of socio-political complexity in Holocene Australia (Beaton 1995:798; Bird and Frankel 1991a, 1991b; Bird et al. 1997; Edwards and O'Connell 1995:776; Frankel 1988, 1991a, 1991b, 1993, 1995:654; Godfrey 1989; Hiscock 1981, 2002, 2008; Holdaway et al. 2002; Jones 1980; Lilley 2000; Pardoe 1995). However there have been few detailed reexaminations of archaeological data using the kinds of analytic approaches called for in these debates (although see Attenbrow 2004 and Hiscock 2008).
This paper presents the results of a detailed reexamination of the Macrozamia assemblages from these three sites from the Central Queensland Highlands, excavated by John Beaton in the mid 1970's, and held by the Queensland Museum. The first section of this paper presents an overview of the original model of ceremonial cycad use in the CQH. The second section of the paper presents the methods and results of experimental replicative processing techniques, taphonomic analyses to identify the non-human component of the assemblages, analysis of site formation, and techniques used to derive more accurate density and MNI estimates. The third section argues that the results of the reanalysis fail to support Beaton's arguments for either the use of large quantities of Macrozamia seeds over the last 4300 years, or the regular occurrence of Macrozamia supported ceremonial events in these sites, and argues for the subsistence use of these seeds by small groups of foragers.
Ceremonial cycad feasting in the Central Queensland Highlands
A particularly striking example of socio-economic intensification was argued to have developed 4300 years ago in the rugged sandstone gorges in the Central Queensland Highlands (Beaton 1977, 1991a, 1991b). Although the three rockshelter sites in this region, Cathedral Cave, Wanderer's Cave and Rainbow Cave, contained a range of excavated materials, the large, robust and highly visible seed shells from Macrozamia moorei plants became the focus of archaeological explanations (Beaton 1991a: 12, 24). Beaton estimated that the fractured and carbonised Macrozamia specimens had densities of 400-600 seeds per [m.sup.3] in each of these sites.
The density of Macrozamia shells led to the consideration of the circumstances in which such quantities of seeds would have been eaten and their shells discarded. Beaton's interpretation of the use of Macrozamia seeds in the highland sites was heavily based on the anthropological account made in the late 1970s by Meehan and Jones, who described the use of seeds from the related Cycas sp. by Aboriginal communities living along the Blythe River in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory (Meehan and Jones 1977 Appendix IV, in Beaton 1977:165-166; Morphy pets. com. to Beaton 1977). Here, large-scale multi-group ritual and initiation ceremonies and other large gatherings were underwritten by the collection and processing of large quantities of cycad seeds (Berndt 1951; Harvey 1945:191; Levitt 1981; Spencer 1914; Thomson 1938; for detailed recent accounts of cycad use in the Northern Territory see Bradley 2006). Beaton suggested that "the archaeological evidence is not unequivocal but it is highly suggestive" of the connection between Macrozamia seeds as a communion food attended by an "unusually large gathering" of people for ceremonial events (Beaton 1977:194-195). Beaton took support from Sullivan's arguments for Bunya Nut (Araucaria bidwillii) feasts in southeast Queensland (Sullivan 1977:60) and Flood's (1976:40-44) arguments for ceremonies supported by annual migrations of Bogong Moths (Agrotis infusa) in the southeastern Highlands (Beaton 1977).
But were the interpretations of the Macrozamia assemblages from the CQH correct? The original archaeological interpretations were based on a simple estimate of the density of Macrozamia specimens in the assemblage which was not rigorously quantified and without any taphonomic or site formation analysis to confirm the human origins of the assemblage.
Re-examining the Central Queensland Highland archaeological evidence
Since the time of Beaton's analysis it is now appreciated that macrobotanical remains in archaeological sites are often not a complete, exclusive or unambiguous record of human use, and that there are a diverse range of taphonomic processes that can affect the material deposited which must be analysed prior to forming behavioural interpretations (Schiffer 1976; see also Clarke 1988, 1999:83, Hansen 2001:401; Ladd 1988: 2; Miksicek 1987; Murphy 1992:9; Nelson 1992:240; Pennington and Weber 2004; Rossen et al. 1996:405: Spicer 1991:72). In addition, replicative plant processing experiments have allowed archaeologists to more adequately assess the economic importance of plant species as represented by fragmented archaeobotanical remains (for example see Dennell 1976; Diehl 1996; Margaritis and Jones 2006).
To test Beaton's model a detailed re-examination of the Macrozamia assemblage from Cathedral, Wanderer's and Rainbow Caves was undertaken. A better understanding of Macrozamia use was achieved by focusing on three analyses: 1) to identify and separate human and non-human depositors of the seeds via replicative processing experiments and taphonomic analyses, 2) the assessment of site formation processes affecting the assemblage, and 3) the re-calculation of the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP) and estimating the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) of the Macrozamia assemblages. A 100% sample of the Macrozamia specimens from each site was analysed.
Replicative processing experiments
Building on the work of Beck (1989) and Beck et al. (1988), a replicative experimental research programme was undertaken to identify seed specimens fractured as a result of human processing techniques. The methodology and test variables, including indentor type (hammerstone or wooden baton), presence of sarcotesta, and seed carbonisation extent (see Asmussen 2005) were based on traditional processing methods as described in ethnographic and historical documents (Gardner and Bennetts 1956; Goodale 1971; Levitt 1981; Maiden 1889, 1890; Meehan and Jones 1977; Roth 1901; Thomson 1938; Thozet 1878; Turner 1893).
As a result of this work, a set of diagnostic criteria indicative of human processing were derived using analysis of fracture patterns on individual seeds. The methods used to open the shells, end and side striking, required the very precise application of the right amount of force so as not to crush the kernel. This produced a very distinctive pattern of fracturing unlikely to be replicated by animals or other natural processes. Characteristic features of humanly processed seeds included ringcracks on the sides and ends of the seed where the indentor met the seed, irregularly fractured edges of seeds where the force propagated through the seed, and other small fractures on the...
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