Puntutjarpa Rockshelter and the Australian desert culture

Excavations at Puntutjarpa Rockshelter, in the Western Desert of Australia, reveal a continuous human occupation of this site from at least 10,000 years ago to the historic present. Analysis has stressed systematic comparisons of ethnographic Western Desert aborigine stone technology, camp sites, 'native wells,' and other archaeologically visible aspects of behavior with specific archaeological features and artifacts discovered in the excavations. Comparison also includes a preliminary assessment of paleoecological conditions based upon faunal remains and sediments deposited at the site. Although some changes are evident in the stone toolkit, these are outweighed by evidence for cultural continuities pointing to a relatively stable adaptation to rigorous post-Pleistocene conditions in the Western Desert which has continued to the present (the ethnographic Ngatatjara aborigines and other Pitjantjatjara-speaking people of the Western Desert). This stability is viewed in relation to a risk-minimizing model, in which human behavior, both ethnographically and as reflected by evidence at Puntutjarpa, is most economically explained in terms of overcoming or reducing risks inherent in obtaining basic resources in a risky environment. This adaptive model is termed the Australian desert culture. A specific discovery at Puntutjarpa of interest to Australian archaeologists is the documented occurrence of small, hafted stone scrapers (termed Micro-adzes) from the earliest dated levels there. These finds support the idea of an early appearance for the Australian 'small tool tradition,' at least with regard to this class of small tool. Backed blades and other types of small tools appeared later in the sequence, around 4000 years ago. Despite these changes in small tools, Large cores and Flake-scrapers appeared early in the sequence and continued in remarkably stable frequencies throughout. Seed-grinding activities are represented at Puntutjarpa from the earliest occupational levels to the historic period.