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Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait readers of this article are warned that it may contain images of ancestral remains. Compiling a history of archaeology is critical for evaluating, understanding and contextualising the current state of the discipline. While oral histories provide vivid accounts of people, events and decisions from sources with direct relationships to these moments in time, they have played a limited role in building historical narratives of archaeology as a discipline. A moderated conversation between Emeritus Professors David Frankel and Jim Allen and Professor Susan Lawrence on the early and more recent history of archaeology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, held during the university's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017, provides a glimpse of the discipline's past, present and future in Australia. This paper presents the key themes and topics from this conversation with accompanying excerpts, providing an important case study of how oral history can assist with archiving this discipline. Warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait readers of this article are warned that it may contain images of ancestral remains. Compiling a history of archaeology is critical for evaluating the current state of the discipline. While oral histories provide valuable accounts of important people, events and decisions through time, they have played a limited role in historical narratives of the discipline. This paper provides an important case study of how oral histories can assist with archiving this discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal culturally modified trees are a distinctive feature of the Australian archaeological record, generating insights into Aboriginal interactions with wood and bark, which rarely survive in archaeological contexts. However, they are under-studied, in decline and typically presumed to pre-date the 20th century. Here we investigate the origin of a scar with a stone tool embedded in the scar overgrowth, located in the Central Tablelands, New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country. We consider three datasets for this purpose: the tree and scar features; macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the embedded stone; and chronology and age of the tree and scar. The origin of the scar and its relationship with the stone tool are unclear. However, the results, together with documentary and oral evidence, suggest that Aboriginal people quarried the stone and probably used it as a wedge to lever bark from the tree, or to make a sign. The results provide a rare glimpse into the continuation of Aboriginal cultural practices and knowledge transmission in the second half of the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Willandra Lakes in semi-arid southeastern Australia provide some of the most continuous combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records on the continent. These are best preserved within the transverse shoreline (lunette) dunes on their downwind margins. Following final lake retreat c. 15 ka avulsion of the dominant fluvial inflow eastwards, the Willandra lunettes periodically reactivated, experiencing erosion, aeolian redeposition and alluvial sheetwash. These reworked sedimentary archives reflect regional climatic conditions rather than those of the entire catchment. Yet the focus of most study in the region to date has remained on the late Pleistocene. The general paucity of Holocene data has contributed to a perception that people largely abandoned the area in favour of the perennial Murray and Darling Rivers to the south and west. Our study reconstructs past geomorphological conditions and patterns of human mobility in adjacent Lakes Mungo and Durthong over the last c. 15 ka subsequent to final lake retreat, including the most recent 150 years since Europeans established pastoralism in the region. Our data show that Indigenous people did not abandon the area as previously assumed, but developed effective strategies for responding to the changed environmental conditions. Final lake retreat transitioned into a phase of aeolian accumulation c. 15–12 ka, indicating locally dry conditions. Subsequent aeolian reactivation peaked during arid phases experiencing less rainfall in the early Holocene and twice in the most recent 1000 years prior to European settlement in the area. Alluvial sheetwash was deposited onto lake floors during the mid-Holocene, and again in the early decades of European settlement. Aeolian reactivation, likely driven by European pastoral activities, increases in the most recent 150 years. Our study underscores the necessity of integrating geomorphological and archaeological investigations over landscape scales in order to optimise our understanding of interactions between people and their environment through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equus Cave, Buxton-Norlim Limeworks, near Taung, North West Province, South Africa, was first excavated between 1978 and 1982. While the site dates to the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene the precise age of the different layers is debated, as is the technological assignment of the deepest deposits, which are said to contain both Later or Middle Stone Age elements. While the faunal assemblage and some of the human remains have been published, the archaeology has never been fully analysed or reported. New excavations in 2012 revealed numerous artefacts including ochre, something not previously noted for this site. Comparison of total lithic artefact counts versus faunal NISPs and MNls shows that the height of human occupation occurred during the Holocene, with preliminary analysis of the >6000 lithic assemblage indicating a dominance of notched artefacts, which, coupled with the presence of 16 bone points, is characteristic of other Holocene Wilton (Later Stone Age) sites in the region. The focus of this paper is the 16 bone points, which include projectile points and link-shafts, and how these items were manufactured and used. The results provide one of the first detailed descriptions of Later Stone Age bone tools, including rare specimens that are mostly complete or still preserve the tips, making an important contribution to our limited understanding of Later Stone Age bone tool technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]