[Aqualist] AIATSIS Seminar Event

[Barrows, Timothy]

From: Anna Johnstone [Anna.Johnstone at aiatsis.gov.au]


Your invitation to an AIATSIS Special Seminar Event

12.00pm, Friday 20 August 2010

The Mabo Room, AIATSIS

This seminar will be webcast @ www.aiatsis.gov.au


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Dating the rock art of central inland WA

Esmée Webb
The most commonly used method for dating archaeological deposits in Australia is radiocarbon assay. Usually such assays are carried out on charcoal because it is ubiquitous and, when found in conjunction with stone artefacts and other signs of past human activity, assumed to be the product of that activity even if no 'hearths' are found. Interpreting the results of radiocarbon dating is not always straightforward, however, particularly if the charcoal samples came from rockshelter deposits, because they are frequently subjected to bioturbation by burrowing or aestivating animals.
This seminar will discuss the results of radiocarbon dating charcoal from a number of rockshelters in the semi-arid zone of Western Australia. Some of the shelters house art work, some do not. In the former cases, the aim was to estimate when the artwork might have been made, based on when the period over which the shelter was occupied and/or the age of the charcoal in sediment directly overlying motifs. The results proved difficult to interpret, however. The possible reasons for the chronostratigraphic confusion at these sites will be discussed.
Esmée Webb holds double - honours in Mediaeval History and Philosophy from the University of York; Certificates in Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of London and a Master of Science in Quaternary Studies from London-Guildhall University.  She taught externally for the Universities of Cambridge and London for over a decade before moving to Perth in 1988 to undertake doctoral research at the University of Western Australia into the archaeological record of the Murchison Basin in central Western Australia.
Since returning to Western Australia in 1996, Esmée has successfully completed a National Estate Grant Project at Walga Rock and collaborated with RG Gunn and Thoo Thoo Warninha Aboriginal Corporation on five research projects funded by AIATSIS during which over 120 rock art sites and many surface artefact scatters, water sources and stone arrangements were recorded, mostly for the first time.
Esmée has been a Research Associate at Edith Cowan University (ECU) for the last 12 years.  During this period, she collaborated with Gunn and the South West Aboriginal Land & Sea Council (SWALSC) on two research projects, funded by ECU, to refind and re-record in detail the rock art of Southwestern Australia.

Location: Lawson Crescent on Canberra's Acton Peninsula.
More Info: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/events/special.html

For more information: www.aiatsis.gov.au, or contact publicprograms at aiatsis.gov.au, tel: 02 6261 4221.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by speakers during the AIATSIS Seminar Series do not necessarily reflect those of AIATSIS, and the Institute accepts no responsibility for them.