North of the Cape and South of the Fly: The Archaeology of Settlement and Subsistence on the Murray Islands, Eastern Torres Strait

This dissertation describes analyses and contextualises the results of archaeological investigations carried out between 1998 and 2000 on Mer and Dauar in Torres Strait. Along with Waier these small volcanic islands are commonly known as the Murray Islands, and form the most eastern group of the formation of islands scattered between northeastern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea. Unlike the research into human occupation and subsistence in Australia and New Guinea, the archaeology of the Torres Strait Islands is by contrast a relatively recent academic pursuit. Over the last 30 years various researchers have postulated the timing of first human occupation of Torres Strait, the development of maritime and horticultural subsistence systems and the emergence of ethnohistorically documented trade networks. A lack of archaeological data, however, has prevented informed consideration of these issues. ...