To explore the potential for phytolith analysis in Australian arid zone sediments silica phytoliths (plant microfossils) were isolated from archaeological sediments collected at three arid zone sites. Line drawings of phytoliths extracted from archaeological deposits and contemporary plant material provided a reference point for purposes of classification, analysis and quantification. Various changes in these phytoliths were observed from the earliest occupation through to the Holocene, which correlate with changes in lithic artefacts. In particular, the appearance of grass seed grinders was recorded in the cultural assemblage after the introduction of new grass taxa. The timing of the change has some correlation with the final inundation of the land barrier to the north and sea level stabilisation. Other analyses suggest a continuous reduction in precipitation. These positive results indicate that phytolith analysis has great potential in arid areas, providing a window into vegetation history and contributing data to an archaeological site history.

This impeccably-researched volume skillfully reports and discusses advances in phytolith research, addressing in particular the use of phytoliths for deciphering fundamental issues in earth science and human history. Comprising thirty reviews and original papers, findings are presented in the following five sections: · phytoliths in palaeoclimatology and palaeoecology · phytoliths, diet and health · archaeological structures, ancient agricultures and palaeoethnobotany · methodology, taxonomy and taphonomy · soil-plant interaction.

This is the first book-length study of the archaeology of Australia's deserts, exploring the cultural and environmental history of these drylands.

This book is an introduction to the archaeology of Australia from prehistoric times to the eighteenth century AD. It is the only up-to-date textbook on the subject and is designed for undergraduate courses, based on the author's considerable experience of teaching at the Australian National University. Lucidly written, it shows the diversity and colourfulness of the history of humanity in the southern continent. The Archaeology of Ancient Australia demonstrates with an array of illustrations and clear descriptions of key archaeological evidence from Australia a thorough evaluation of Australian prehistory. Readers are shown how this human past can be reconstructed from archaeological evidence, supplemented by information from genetics, environmental sciences, anthropology, and history. The result is a challenging view about how varied human life in the ancient past has been.

The study of phytoliths—inorganic silica remnants plants leave behind when they die and decay—has developed dramatically over the last twenty years. New publications have documented a diverse array of phytoliths from many regions around the globe, while new understandings have emerged as to how and why plants produce phytoliths. Together, these developments make phytoliths a powerful tool in reconstructing past environments and human uses of plants. In Phytoliths, Dolores Piperno makes sense of the discipline for both those working directly with phytoliths in the field or the lab as well as for those who rely on the results of phytolith studies for their own research. Including over a hundred images, Piperno's book will be of great benefit to archaeologists and paleobotanists in the classroom or the lab.

This series reports the results of archaeologicaland related research within South-East Asia,but particularly in Australia, Papua New Guineaand island Melanesia.This issue brings together many of the papers andposters presented at a conference on phytolith andstarch research in the region held at The AustralianNational University in Canberra in August 2001.The conference attracted participants from withinAustralia as well as from New Zealand, China,Belgium, the United States and Argentina. Subjectsinclude a history of phytolith researchers in Australia,techniques for the use and analysis of phytolith andstarch research, taphonomy and phytolithapplications.The modern era of Australian phytolith researchbegan in the 1980s and, with increasing numbers ofuniversities adding elements of phytolith studies forstudents, and the high quality of research beingconducted now, phytolith research in Australia can beconsidered to have come of age.Such progress in the realms of archaeology,palaeoenvironmental studies and pedology is reflectedin this collection.

The SAGE Handbook of Environmental Change is an extensive survey of the interdisciplinary science of environmental change, including recent debates on climate change and the full range of other natural and anthropogenic changes affecting the Earth-ocean-atmosphere system in the past, present and future. It examines the historic importance, present status and future prospects of the field over two volumes. With more than 40 chapters, the books situate the defining characteristics and key paradigms within a state-of-the-art review of the field, including its changing nature and diversity of approaches, evidence base, key theoretical arguments, resonances with other disciplines and relationships between theory, research and practice. Opening with a detailed, contextualizing essay by the editors, the work is arranged into six parts: Part One: Approaches to Understanding Environmental Change Part Two: Evidence of Environmental Change and the Geo-ecological Response Part Three: Causes, Mechanisms and Dynamics of Environmental Change Part Four: Key Issues of Human-induced Environmental Changes and Their Impacts Part Five: Patterns, Processes and Impacts of Environmental Change at the Regional Scale Part Six: Responses of People to Environmental Change and Implications for Society Global in its coverage, scientific and theoretical in its approach, the books bring together an international set of respected editors and contributors to provide an exciting, timely addition to the literature on climate change. With the subjects′ interdisciplinary framework, this book will appeal to academics, researchers, postgraduates and practitioners in a variety of disciplines including, geography, geology, ecology, environmental science, archaeology, anthropology, politics and sociology.

An introduction to the Poaceae (grasses). Essays review Australian research on phylogeny, classification, anatomy, physiology, ecology, palaeobotany, and biogeography of Australian grasses. There is also a detailed synopsis of the economic attributes of grasses on a genus by genus basis.

Plants are fundamental to life; they are used by all human groups and most animals. They provide raw materials, vitamins and essential nutrients and we could not survive without them. Yet access to plant use before the Neolithic can be challenging. In some places, plant remains rarely survive and reconstructing plant use in pre-agrarian contexts needs to be conducted using a range of different techniques. This lack of visible evidence has led to plants being undervalued, both in terms of their contribution to diet and as raw materials. This book outlines why the role of plants is required for a better understanding of hominin and pre-agrarian human life, and it offers a variety of ways in which this can be achieved. Wild Harvest is divided into three sections. In section 1 each chapter focuses on a specific feature of plant use by humans; this covers the role of carbohydrates, the need for and effects of processing methods, the role of plants in self-medication among apes, plants as raw materials, and the extent of evidence for plant use prior to the development of agriculture in the Near East. Section 2 comprises seven chapters which cover different methods available to obtain information on plants, and the third section has five chapters, each covering a topic related to ethnography, ethnohistory, or ethnoarchaeology, and how these can be used to improve our understanding of the role of plants in the pre-agrarian past.

"This volume brings together a collection of papers from a diverse field of international scholars exploring the multiple ways that East Timorese communities are making and remaking their connections to land and places of ancestral significance. The work is explicitly comparative and highlights the different ways Timorese language communities negotiate access and transactions in land, disputes and inheritance especially in areas subject to historical displacement and resettlement. Consideration is extended to the role of ritual performance and social alliance for inscribing connection and entitlement. Emerging through analysis is an appreciation of how relations to land, articulated in origin discourses, are implicated in the construction of national culture and differential contributions to the struggle for independence."--Publisher's description.