C E Dortch
Biographic Data
| ID | 1416675 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C E Dortch |
| GIVEN NAMES | C E |
| FAMILY NAME | Dortch |
| SIGNATURE | DORTCH C E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Australian Museum |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 90 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Grand hypotheses: Palaeodemographic modelling in Western Australia's South‐west
Appraised are two palaeodemographic models proposed for Late Quaternary Aboriginal cultural history in Western Australia's South‐west. Both are grounded on two ideas: (1) wetter conditions regionally lead to replacement of open vegetative associations by forest unsuited for foraging populations; (2) large‐scale shifts in stone artefact 'discard rates' recorded in occupation deposits indicate regional population changes. The original model propose…
Aboriginal occupation on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, provisionally dated by Aspartic Acid Racemisation assay of land snails to greater than 50 ka
The generally accepted age for the earliest human occupation of Australia is about 60,000 years (e.g. Chappell et al. 1996), with many dates centred around 30,000 to 40,000 years (e.g. Pearce and Barbetti 1981; Dortch 1984; Allen and Holdaway 1995; Dortch and Dortch 1996). Recent, but disputed, archaeological evidence at Jinmium in the Northern Territory indicates a much earlier date of occupation of 116,000 years (FuUagar et al. 1996; Spooner 19…
The erosion factor in sea floor investigations of prehistoric occupation deposits
Assessing erosion of submerged occupation sites by high energy water flow is of paramount importance in underwater prehistoric investigations. Surge, waves, currents and tidal action in marine waters generally have far more destructive power than water flow and waves in estuaries and rivers. Fresh-water lakes provide still gentler conditions favouring the preservation of underwater sites, e.g. the series of former open air sites preserved on the …
New perceptions of the chronology and development of Aboriginal fishing in South-Western Australia
Aboriginal fishing in south‐western Australia was significantly affected by Late Holocene physical and biological changes along this region's l,600km‐long littoral. About 4000 BP sedimentological processes, in part generated by climatic factors, altered coastal configurations and estuarine hydrologies, blocking marine lagoons from the sea and causing partial filling and seasonal barring of estuary floors and entrances. These geomorphological chan…
Rottnest and Garden Island Prehistory and The Archaeological Potential of The Adjacent Continental Shelf, Western Australia
For several decades Quaternary investigators have examined the geology and fossil record of Rottnest Island, 19 km offshore Fremantle, Western Australia, and, more recently, have searched the island for evidence of prehistoric human occupation. My own sporadic searches over the past 12 years, including a week's examination of deflation surfaces and other likely find-spots in August 1990, have yielded only two stone artefacts. These are as yet the…
Aboriginal Sites In A Submerged Landscape At Lake Jasper, Southwestern Australia
Western Australian Museum diver/archaeologists have identified submerged Aboriginal sites at depths to 10 m on the floor of Lake Jasper, a 4 sq km freshwater lake located in the D'Entrecasteaux National Park, 6 km from the Southern Ocean coast in the extreme southwestern corner of Western Australia (Lat. 34° 24'30 S. Long. 115° 40'30 E.). The lake is in a swampy corridor of coastal sand plain between a low plateau (40-60 m a.s.l.) to the north, a…
An 11,000 BP Radiocarbon Date from the Arumvale Site, Southwestern Australia
The Arumvale open-air prehistoric occupation site, located in a sandy soil near Devil's Lair in southwestern Australia, has yielded rich quartz and Eocene fossiliferous (bryozoan) chert artefact assemblages typical of those present in this region from the late Pleistocene to the early to middle Holocene (Dortch and McArthur 1985)
Correct Provenance and Radiocarbon Age of an ‘Early Phase’ Grindstone, Miriwun Rockshelter, Kimberley, Northwest Australia
Correct Provenance and Radiocarbon Age of an ‘Early Phase’ Grindstone, Miriwun Rockshelter, Kimberley, Northwest Australia." Australian Archaeology, 23(1), pp. 85–86
Excavations Outside the Former (North) Entrance to Devil's Lair, Southwestern Australia
This paper records the 1976-77 excavations outside the former (north) entrance to the limestone cave of Devil's Lair, in the southwest corner of Western Australia. These excavations were aimed at determining whether there was any archaeological material associated with this older entrance which could be related to the late Pleistocene occupation inside the cave. Of special relevance is the interpretation of the cave's sedimentological history giv…
The Malimup Middens: Evidence for Mollusc Eating in Prehistoric South-western Australia
Apparent Association of Bryozoan Chert Artefacts and Quartz Geometric Microliths at an Open-Air Site, Arumvale, South-Western Australia
Bryozoan chert is well known as a stone much used by Aborigines in western coastal districts of southwestern Australia from late Pleistocene times until approximately the attainment of mid-Holocene high sea levels, when the sources of this stone are thought to have been submerged (Glover 1984). Artefacts of this material thus provide a useful chronological marker, just as geometric microliths and other microlithic tools are generally thought to b…
Prehistoric Stone Artefacts on Some Offshore Islands in Western Australia
Aboriginal sites on Australian offshore islands reflect one or more of the following forms of occupation. 1. Prehistoric occupation of elevated areas which were later cut off by glacio-eustatic sea-level rise to become islands. In the case of Tasmania, this occupation continued uninterrupted until the modern era, though several of the larger islands in Bass Strait occupied during the later Pleistocene, and Kangaroo Island off South Australia, wer…
Walga Rock and Billibilong Spring: Two archaeological sequences from the Murchison Basin, Western Australia
Between 1978 and 1981 researchers from the Institut du Quaternaire, Universite de Bordeaux, and the Western Australian Museum carried out four seasons of archaeological and geological investigations in the semi-arid Murchison Basin, some 600 km north-northeast of Perth, Western Australia. This project follows the initial studies of earlier researchers, mostly from the Western Australian Museum
Dating Problems at the Ellen Brook Site, Southwestern Western Australia
This brief account discusses two problematical radiocarbon dates from an Aboriginal campsite exposed in a 5000 sq m blow-out in coastal dunes on the north bank of Ellen Brook, a small stream roughly halfway between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste in extreme southwestern Western Australia. The site, which was first reported some 15 years ago, is immediately northeast of the historic Ellen Brook homestead, and about 800 m from the rocky coast
Recognition of Indigenous Development and External Diffusion in Australian Prehistory
Arguments have been put forward for both indigenous development and external diffusion as factors that have led to the development of Australian prehistory. The article contends that in any general view of continental prehistory, neither can be ignored
Phases and Traditions in Australian Stone Industries
In the past decade, typo-technological developments in Australian regional stone industrial sequences have been framed in terms of both phases and traditions. The two different concepts, both having spatial and temporal significance are briefly defined and evaluated
Recent Research in South Western Prehistory
The Devil's Lair investigations continue to be the most important single research project in the prehistory of south western Australia. The small group of excavators from the Western Australian Museum (J. Balme, C. Dortch, D. Merrilees and J. Porter) completed their fifth field season in April 1975
A Twelve Thousand Year Old Occupation Floor in Devil's Lair, Western Australia
New perceptions of the chronology and development of Aboriginal fishing in South-Western Australia
Aboriginal fishing in south‐western Australia was significantly affected by Late Holocene physical and biological changes along this region's l,600km‐long littoral. About 4000 BP sedimentological processes, in part generated by climatic factors, altered coastal configurations and estuarine hydrologies, blocking marine lagoons from the sea and causing partial filling and seasonal barring of estuary floors and entrances. These geomorphological chan…
Walga Rock and Billibilong Spring: Two archaeological sequences from the Murchison Basin, Western Australia
Between 1978 and 1981 researchers from the Institut du Quaternaire, Universite de Bordeaux, and the Western Australian Museum carried out four seasons of archaeological and geological investigations in the semi-arid Murchison Basin, some 600 km north-northeast of Perth, Western Australia. This project follows the initial studies of earlier researchers, mostly from the Western Australian Museum
Grand hypotheses: Palaeodemographic modelling in Western Australia's South‐west
Appraised are two palaeodemographic models proposed for Late Quaternary Aboriginal cultural history in Western Australia's South‐west. Both are grounded on two ideas: (1) wetter conditions regionally lead to replacement of open vegetative associations by forest unsuited for foraging populations; (2) large‐scale shifts in stone artefact 'discard rates' recorded in occupation deposits indicate regional population changes. The original model propose…
Rottnest and Garden Island Prehistory and The Archaeological Potential of The Adjacent Continental Shelf, Western Australia
For several decades Quaternary investigators have examined the geology and fossil record of Rottnest Island, 19 km offshore Fremantle, Western Australia, and, more recently, have searched the island for evidence of prehistoric human occupation. My own sporadic searches over the past 12 years, including a week's examination of deflation surfaces and other likely find-spots in August 1990, have yielded only two stone artefacts. These are as yet the…
Aboriginal Sites In A Submerged Landscape At Lake Jasper, Southwestern Australia
Western Australian Museum diver/archaeologists have identified submerged Aboriginal sites at depths to 10 m on the floor of Lake Jasper, a 4 sq km freshwater lake located in the D'Entrecasteaux National Park, 6 km from the Southern Ocean coast in the extreme southwestern corner of Western Australia (Lat. 34° 24'30 S. Long. 115° 40'30 E.). The lake is in a swampy corridor of coastal sand plain between a low plateau (40-60 m a.s.l.) to the north, a…
Prehistoric Stone Artefacts on Some Offshore Islands in Western Australia
Aboriginal sites on Australian offshore islands reflect one or more of the following forms of occupation. 1. Prehistoric occupation of elevated areas which were later cut off by glacio-eustatic sea-level rise to become islands. In the case of Tasmania, this occupation continued uninterrupted until the modern era, though several of the larger islands in Bass Strait occupied during the later Pleistocene, and Kangaroo Island off South Australia, wer…
Apparent Association of Bryozoan Chert Artefacts and Quartz Geometric Microliths at an Open-Air Site, Arumvale, South-Western Australia
Bryozoan chert is well known as a stone much used by Aborigines in western coastal districts of southwestern Australia from late Pleistocene times until approximately the attainment of mid-Holocene high sea levels, when the sources of this stone are thought to have been submerged (Glover 1984). Artefacts of this material thus provide a useful chronological marker, just as geometric microliths and other microlithic tools are generally thought to b…
Dating Problems at the Ellen Brook Site, Southwestern Western Australia
This brief account discusses two problematical radiocarbon dates from an Aboriginal campsite exposed in a 5000 sq m blow-out in coastal dunes on the north bank of Ellen Brook, a small stream roughly halfway between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste in extreme southwestern Western Australia. The site, which was first reported some 15 years ago, is immediately northeast of the historic Ellen Brook homestead, and about 800 m from the rocky coast
A Twelve Thousand Year Old Occupation Floor in Devil's Lair, Western Australia
An 11,000 BP Radiocarbon Date from the Arumvale Site, Southwestern Australia
The Arumvale open-air prehistoric occupation site, located in a sandy soil near Devil's Lair in southwestern Australia, has yielded rich quartz and Eocene fossiliferous (bryozoan) chert artefact assemblages typical of those present in this region from the late Pleistocene to the early to middle Holocene (Dortch and McArthur 1985)
Excavations Outside the Former (North) Entrance to Devil's Lair, Southwestern Australia
This paper records the 1976-77 excavations outside the former (north) entrance to the limestone cave of Devil's Lair, in the southwest corner of Western Australia. These excavations were aimed at determining whether there was any archaeological material associated with this older entrance which could be related to the late Pleistocene occupation inside the cave. Of special relevance is the interpretation of the cave's sedimentological history giv…
Recent Research in South Western Prehistory
The Devil's Lair investigations continue to be the most important single research project in the prehistory of south western Australia. The small group of excavators from the Western Australian Museum (J. Balme, C. Dortch, D. Merrilees and J. Porter) completed their fifth field season in April 1975
Recognition of Indigenous Development and External Diffusion in Australian Prehistory
Arguments have been put forward for both indigenous development and external diffusion as factors that have led to the development of Australian prehistory. The article contends that in any general view of continental prehistory, neither can be ignored
A Twelve Thousand Year Old Occupation Floor in Devil's Lair, Western Australia
Recent Research in South Western Prehistory
The Devil's Lair investigations continue to be the most important single research project in the prehistory of south western Australia. The small group of excavators from the Western Australian Museum (J. Balme, C. Dortch, D. Merrilees and J. Porter) completed their fifth field season in April 1975
Phases and Traditions in Australian Stone Industries
In the past decade, typo-technological developments in Australian regional stone industrial sequences have been framed in terms of both phases and traditions. The two different concepts, both having spatial and temporal significance are briefly defined and evaluated
Recognition of Indigenous Development and External Diffusion in Australian Prehistory
Arguments have been put forward for both indigenous development and external diffusion as factors that have led to the development of Australian prehistory. The article contends that in any general view of continental prehistory, neither can be ignored
Dating Problems at the Ellen Brook Site, Southwestern Western Australia
This brief account discusses two problematical radiocarbon dates from an Aboriginal campsite exposed in a 5000 sq m blow-out in coastal dunes on the north bank of Ellen Brook, a small stream roughly halfway between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste in extreme southwestern Western Australia. The site, which was first reported some 15 years ago, is immediately northeast of the historic Ellen Brook homestead, and about 800 m from the rocky coast
Walga Rock and Billibilong Spring: Two archaeological sequences from the Murchison Basin, Western Australia
Between 1978 and 1981 researchers from the Institut du Quaternaire, Universite de Bordeaux, and the Western Australian Museum carried out four seasons of archaeological and geological investigations in the semi-arid Murchison Basin, some 600 km north-northeast of Perth, Western Australia. This project follows the initial studies of earlier researchers, mostly from the Western Australian Museum
Prehistoric Stone Artefacts on Some Offshore Islands in Western Australia
Aboriginal sites on Australian offshore islands reflect one or more of the following forms of occupation. 1. Prehistoric occupation of elevated areas which were later cut off by glacio-eustatic sea-level rise to become islands. In the case of Tasmania, this occupation continued uninterrupted until the modern era, though several of the larger islands in Bass Strait occupied during the later Pleistocene, and Kangaroo Island off South Australia, wer…
The Malimup Middens: Evidence for Mollusc Eating in Prehistoric South-western Australia
Apparent Association of Bryozoan Chert Artefacts and Quartz Geometric Microliths at an Open-Air Site, Arumvale, South-Western Australia
Bryozoan chert is well known as a stone much used by Aborigines in western coastal districts of southwestern Australia from late Pleistocene times until approximately the attainment of mid-Holocene high sea levels, when the sources of this stone are thought to have been submerged (Glover 1984). Artefacts of this material thus provide a useful chronological marker, just as geometric microliths and other microlithic tools are generally thought to b…
An 11,000 BP Radiocarbon Date from the Arumvale Site, Southwestern Australia
The Arumvale open-air prehistoric occupation site, located in a sandy soil near Devil's Lair in southwestern Australia, has yielded rich quartz and Eocene fossiliferous (bryozoan) chert artefact assemblages typical of those present in this region from the late Pleistocene to the early to middle Holocene (Dortch and McArthur 1985)
Correct Provenance and Radiocarbon Age of an ‘Early Phase’ Grindstone, Miriwun Rockshelter, Kimberley, Northwest Australia
Correct Provenance and Radiocarbon Age of an ‘Early Phase’ Grindstone, Miriwun Rockshelter, Kimberley, Northwest Australia." Australian Archaeology, 23(1), pp. 85–86
Excavations Outside the Former (North) Entrance to Devil's Lair, Southwestern Australia
This paper records the 1976-77 excavations outside the former (north) entrance to the limestone cave of Devil's Lair, in the southwest corner of Western Australia. These excavations were aimed at determining whether there was any archaeological material associated with this older entrance which could be related to the late Pleistocene occupation inside the cave. Of special relevance is the interpretation of the cave's sedimentological history giv…
Aboriginal Sites In A Submerged Landscape At Lake Jasper, Southwestern Australia
Western Australian Museum diver/archaeologists have identified submerged Aboriginal sites at depths to 10 m on the floor of Lake Jasper, a 4 sq km freshwater lake located in the D'Entrecasteaux National Park, 6 km from the Southern Ocean coast in the extreme southwestern corner of Western Australia (Lat. 34° 24'30 S. Long. 115° 40'30 E.). The lake is in a swampy corridor of coastal sand plain between a low plateau (40-60 m a.s.l.) to the north, a…
Rottnest and Garden Island Prehistory and The Archaeological Potential of The Adjacent Continental Shelf, Western Australia
For several decades Quaternary investigators have examined the geology and fossil record of Rottnest Island, 19 km offshore Fremantle, Western Australia, and, more recently, have searched the island for evidence of prehistoric human occupation. My own sporadic searches over the past 12 years, including a week's examination of deflation surfaces and other likely find-spots in August 1990, have yielded only two stone artefacts. These are as yet the…
New perceptions of the chronology and development of Aboriginal fishing in South-Western Australia
Aboriginal fishing in south‐western Australia was significantly affected by Late Holocene physical and biological changes along this region's l,600km‐long littoral. About 4000 BP sedimentological processes, in part generated by climatic factors, altered coastal configurations and estuarine hydrologies, blocking marine lagoons from the sea and causing partial filling and seasonal barring of estuary floors and entrances. These geomorphological chan…
The erosion factor in sea floor investigations of prehistoric occupation deposits
Assessing erosion of submerged occupation sites by high energy water flow is of paramount importance in underwater prehistoric investigations. Surge, waves, currents and tidal action in marine waters generally have far more destructive power than water flow and waves in estuaries and rivers. Fresh-water lakes provide still gentler conditions favouring the preservation of underwater sites, e.g. the series of former open air sites preserved on the …
Aboriginal occupation on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, provisionally dated by Aspartic Acid Racemisation assay of land snails to greater than 50 ka
The generally accepted age for the earliest human occupation of Australia is about 60,000 years (e.g. Chappell et al. 1996), with many dates centred around 30,000 to 40,000 years (e.g. Pearce and Barbetti 1981; Dortch 1984; Allen and Holdaway 1995; Dortch and Dortch 1996). Recent, but disputed, archaeological evidence at Jinmium in the Northern Territory indicates a much earlier date of occupation of 116,000 years (FuUagar et al. 1996; Spooner 19…
Grand hypotheses: Palaeodemographic modelling in Western Australia's South‐west
Appraised are two palaeodemographic models proposed for Late Quaternary Aboriginal cultural history in Western Australia's South‐west. Both are grounded on two ideas: (1) wetter conditions regionally lead to replacement of open vegetative associations by forest unsuited for foraging populations; (2) large‐scale shifts in stone artefact 'discard rates' recorded in occupation deposits indicate regional population changes. The original model propose…
Archaeology (17 works) · Geography (17 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 works) · Geology (8 works) · Prehistory (7 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (6 works) · History (6 works) · History (5 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (5 works)