Mike W Morley
Biographic Data
| ID | 159291 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mike W Morley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mike W |
| FAMILY NAME | Morley |
| SIGNATURE | MORLEY M W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Flinders University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7730-9637 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 232 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Scaling down to look further back
Microarchaeology is rapidly reshaping how archaeologists approach ancient sites and narratives, unlocking millimetre to molecular-scale insights into the deep past. The establishment of the Australian Microarchaeology and Palaeosciences Facility (AusMAP) marks a major investment in micro-analytical methods, from sediment microstratigraphy and chemical characterisation to biomolecular identification. Here, we outline AusMAP's structure, protocols …
Phytoliths from Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai country (southeastern Australia) reveal the gathering of whole grasses for burning practices inside the cave
Archaeobotanical evidence paired with GunaiKurnai cultural knowledge has established that plants were central to activities of the Old Ancestors in Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai Country. Here, we undertake a study of phytoliths from the stratified archaeological deposits to provide a complimentary line of evidence of people–plant relations across 25,000 years of cave engagement. Alongside the phytoliths of the archaeological sediments, we analyse the …
Years of Aboriginal Mining at Sugarloaf Hill in the Riverland Region of South Australia
Silcrete and chert are commonly represented in Aboriginal archaeological lithic assemblages across large parts of the southwestern Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB). In South Australia (SA), these materials were sourced from a series of quarries located along the incised course of the Murray River through the upper Riverland region. However, only cursory details have been recorded for these quarries and there remains a lack of reliable chronological dat…
Marshill Rockshelter (Eastern Cape, South Africa)
This paper reports on a new archaeological research project in the Stormberg region of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province that began in 2018. After four prospecting surveys, an archaeological site — Marshill Rockshelter — was selected that could offer a long diachronic chronostratigraphic framework from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene in order to understand the deep past of this region and the long-term occupation of a mountain environment…
Life beyond the lakes
Modelling Mobility of Hunter-Gatherer Populations
Understanding mobility of past hunter-gatherer populations requires dynamic approaches which incorporate uncertainty. Least cost models assume complete knowledge of the terrain on the part of the traveller, while ethnographic examples tend to be specific to the groups and territories studied. Most least cost models also assume that origin points, destination points, or both, are known in advance, limiting their utility for exploring movement pote…
The Indigenisation of Australian Archaeology
Investigating the palaeoenvironmental context of Late Pleistocene human dispersals into Southeast Asia
We review palaeoenvironmental applications of stable isotope analysis to Late Pleistocene archaeological sites across Southeast Asia (SEA), a region critical to understanding the evolution of Homo sapiens and other co-existing Late Pleistocene (124–11.7 ka) hominins. Stable isotope techniques applied to archaeological deposits offer the potential to develop robust palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, to contextualise the occupational and non-occu…
Coastal landscape changes at Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar
Unguja Ukuu, located on the Zanzibar Archipelago, eastern Africa, was an active Indian Ocean trading settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. As part of recent archaeological excavations aimed at understanding the site’s transregional trade networks, geoarchaeological analyses were undertaken to document the geomorphic context of the ancient settlement. Here, we outline the results of these field and laborato…
Connections between the Levant and the Balkans in the late Middle Pleistocene
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5
The acid test
Caves in tropical regions form a key resource for those reconstructing human evolution and dispersals. However, the complex sedimentary records they contain remain under-interpreted because of the poorly constrained effects of humid tropical climates upon archaeological site formation processes. Guano-driven phosphatic diagenesis impacts archaeological preservation in caves, but atypical features observed in guano layers in prominent Southeast As…
Taphonomic Analyses of Cave Breccia in Southeast Asia
Karst-derived breccia is the most analysed deposit in fossil-bearing Southeast Asian caves due to its superior preservation potential for human, faunal, archaeological, and palaeontological data. The study of breccia can provide a better understanding of human and faunal histories, and an opportunity to investigate site taphonomy and insights into environments of deposition and post-depositional processes. We review the literature on approaches u…
The Pleistocene geoarchaeology and geochronology of Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam
This paper presents the results of geoarchaeological and geochronological investigations at Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam. Beneath the published, terminal Pleistocene sequence, recent excavations have uncovered a ~5 m stratigraphic sequence containing flaked stone artifacts and sedimentary features that indicate extensive post‐depositional change. As the effects of tropical conditions on Pleistocene cave sediments are poorly resolved, a range of …
The geoarchaeology of hominin dispersals to and from tropical Southeast Asia
Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis at Liang Bua in Indonesia
Follow the Senqu
Geoarchaeological research in the humid tropics
Initial micromorphological results from Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia)
Affad 23
Archaeological evidence for indigenous human occupation of Southern Arabia at the Pleistocene/ Holocene transition
The Neolithic peopling of Arabia is a subject of increasing debate, as different scenarios are proposed to describe the relatively sudden appearance of seemingly homogeneous archaeological sites throughout the south of the Peninsula during the Early Holocene. Such sites are identified by the co-occurrence of a laminar core reduction strategy with its supposed fossile directeur, the “ Fasad point.” This techno-typological package has been used by …
The Campanian Ignimbrite (Y5) tephra at Crvena Stijena Rockshelter, Montenegro
Clearly defined distal tephras are rare in rockshelter sediment records. Crvena Stijena, a Palaeolithic site in Montenegro, contains one of the longest (> 20 m) rockshelter sediment records in Europe with deposits ranging in age from Middle Pleistocene to mid-Holocene. A distinctive tephra is clearly exposed within the well stratified record approximately 6.5 m below the present land surface. We present geochemical data to confirm that this tephr…
Afromontane foragers of the Late Pleistocene
A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia)
The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2008
The second (2008) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project has significantly advanced understanding of the Haua Fteah stratigraphy and of the archaeology and geomorphology of the landscape in which the cave is located. The excavations of the McBurney backfill have reached a total depth of 7.5 m below the present ground surface, the depth at which two human mandibles were found in the 1950s excavations. Reconnaissance at the Hagfet…
Afromontane foragers of the Late Pleistocene
A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia)
Initial micromorphological results from Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia)
The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2008
The second (2008) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project has significantly advanced understanding of the Haua Fteah stratigraphy and of the archaeology and geomorphology of the landscape in which the cave is located. The excavations of the McBurney backfill have reached a total depth of 7.5 m below the present ground surface, the depth at which two human mandibles were found in the 1950s excavations. Reconnaissance at the Hagfet…
Geoarchaeological research in the humid tropics
Connections between the Levant and the Balkans in the late Middle Pleistocene
Archaeological evidence for indigenous human occupation of Southern Arabia at the Pleistocene/ Holocene transition
The Neolithic peopling of Arabia is a subject of increasing debate, as different scenarios are proposed to describe the relatively sudden appearance of seemingly homogeneous archaeological sites throughout the south of the Peninsula during the Early Holocene. Such sites are identified by the co-occurrence of a laminar core reduction strategy with its supposed fossile directeur, the “ Fasad point.” This techno-typological package has been used by …
Affad 23
Coastal landscape changes at Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar
Unguja Ukuu, located on the Zanzibar Archipelago, eastern Africa, was an active Indian Ocean trading settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. As part of recent archaeological excavations aimed at understanding the site’s transregional trade networks, geoarchaeological analyses were undertaken to document the geomorphic context of the ancient settlement. Here, we outline the results of these field and laborato…
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5
The acid test
Caves in tropical regions form a key resource for those reconstructing human evolution and dispersals. However, the complex sedimentary records they contain remain under-interpreted because of the poorly constrained effects of humid tropical climates upon archaeological site formation processes. Guano-driven phosphatic diagenesis impacts archaeological preservation in caves, but atypical features observed in guano layers in prominent Southeast As…
The Pleistocene geoarchaeology and geochronology of Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam
This paper presents the results of geoarchaeological and geochronological investigations at Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam. Beneath the published, terminal Pleistocene sequence, recent excavations have uncovered a ~5 m stratigraphic sequence containing flaked stone artifacts and sedimentary features that indicate extensive post‐depositional change. As the effects of tropical conditions on Pleistocene cave sediments are poorly resolved, a range of …
Life beyond the lakes
The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2008
The second (2008) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project has significantly advanced understanding of the Haua Fteah stratigraphy and of the archaeology and geomorphology of the landscape in which the cave is located. The excavations of the McBurney backfill have reached a total depth of 7.5 m below the present ground surface, the depth at which two human mandibles were found in the 1950s excavations. Reconnaissance at the Hagfet…
The Campanian Ignimbrite (Y5) tephra at Crvena Stijena Rockshelter, Montenegro
Clearly defined distal tephras are rare in rockshelter sediment records. Crvena Stijena, a Palaeolithic site in Montenegro, contains one of the longest (> 20 m) rockshelter sediment records in Europe with deposits ranging in age from Middle Pleistocene to mid-Holocene. A distinctive tephra is clearly exposed within the well stratified record approximately 6.5 m below the present land surface. We present geochemical data to confirm that this tephr…
Afromontane foragers of the Late Pleistocene
A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia)
Archaeological evidence for indigenous human occupation of Southern Arabia at the Pleistocene/ Holocene transition
The Neolithic peopling of Arabia is a subject of increasing debate, as different scenarios are proposed to describe the relatively sudden appearance of seemingly homogeneous archaeological sites throughout the south of the Peninsula during the Early Holocene. Such sites are identified by the co-occurrence of a laminar core reduction strategy with its supposed fossile directeur, the “ Fasad point.” This techno-typological package has been used by …
Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis at Liang Bua in Indonesia
Follow the Senqu
Geoarchaeological research in the humid tropics
Initial micromorphological results from Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia)
Affad 23
The geoarchaeology of hominin dispersals to and from tropical Southeast Asia
The Pleistocene geoarchaeology and geochronology of Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam
This paper presents the results of geoarchaeological and geochronological investigations at Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam. Beneath the published, terminal Pleistocene sequence, recent excavations have uncovered a ~5 m stratigraphic sequence containing flaked stone artifacts and sedimentary features that indicate extensive post‐depositional change. As the effects of tropical conditions on Pleistocene cave sediments are poorly resolved, a range of …
Taphonomic Analyses of Cave Breccia in Southeast Asia
Karst-derived breccia is the most analysed deposit in fossil-bearing Southeast Asian caves due to its superior preservation potential for human, faunal, archaeological, and palaeontological data. The study of breccia can provide a better understanding of human and faunal histories, and an opportunity to investigate site taphonomy and insights into environments of deposition and post-depositional processes. We review the literature on approaches u…
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5
The acid test
Caves in tropical regions form a key resource for those reconstructing human evolution and dispersals. However, the complex sedimentary records they contain remain under-interpreted because of the poorly constrained effects of humid tropical climates upon archaeological site formation processes. Guano-driven phosphatic diagenesis impacts archaeological preservation in caves, but atypical features observed in guano layers in prominent Southeast As…
Investigating the palaeoenvironmental context of Late Pleistocene human dispersals into Southeast Asia
We review palaeoenvironmental applications of stable isotope analysis to Late Pleistocene archaeological sites across Southeast Asia (SEA), a region critical to understanding the evolution of Homo sapiens and other co-existing Late Pleistocene (124–11.7 ka) hominins. Stable isotope techniques applied to archaeological deposits offer the potential to develop robust palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, to contextualise the occupational and non-occu…
Coastal landscape changes at Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar
Unguja Ukuu, located on the Zanzibar Archipelago, eastern Africa, was an active Indian Ocean trading settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. As part of recent archaeological excavations aimed at understanding the site’s transregional trade networks, geoarchaeological analyses were undertaken to document the geomorphic context of the ancient settlement. Here, we outline the results of these field and laborato…
Connections between the Levant and the Balkans in the late Middle Pleistocene
The Indigenisation of Australian Archaeology
Life beyond the lakes
Modelling Mobility of Hunter-Gatherer Populations
Understanding mobility of past hunter-gatherer populations requires dynamic approaches which incorporate uncertainty. Least cost models assume complete knowledge of the terrain on the part of the traveller, while ethnographic examples tend to be specific to the groups and territories studied. Most least cost models also assume that origin points, destination points, or both, are known in advance, limiting their utility for exploring movement pote…
Scaling down to look further back
Microarchaeology is rapidly reshaping how archaeologists approach ancient sites and narratives, unlocking millimetre to molecular-scale insights into the deep past. The establishment of the Australian Microarchaeology and Palaeosciences Facility (AusMAP) marks a major investment in micro-analytical methods, from sediment microstratigraphy and chemical characterisation to biomolecular identification. Here, we outline AusMAP's structure, protocols …
Phytoliths from Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai country (southeastern Australia) reveal the gathering of whole grasses for burning practices inside the cave
Archaeobotanical evidence paired with GunaiKurnai cultural knowledge has established that plants were central to activities of the Old Ancestors in Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai Country. Here, we undertake a study of phytoliths from the stratified archaeological deposits to provide a complimentary line of evidence of people–plant relations across 25,000 years of cave engagement. Alongside the phytoliths of the archaeological sediments, we analyse the …
Years of Aboriginal Mining at Sugarloaf Hill in the Riverland Region of South Australia
Silcrete and chert are commonly represented in Aboriginal archaeological lithic assemblages across large parts of the southwestern Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB). In South Australia (SA), these materials were sourced from a series of quarries located along the incised course of the Murray River through the upper Riverland region. However, only cursory details have been recorded for these quarries and there remains a lack of reliable chronological dat…
Marshill Rockshelter (Eastern Cape, South Africa)
This paper reports on a new archaeological research project in the Stormberg region of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province that began in 2018. After four prospecting surveys, an archaeological site — Marshill Rockshelter — was selected that could offer a long diachronic chronostratigraphic framework from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene in order to understand the deep past of this region and the long-term occupation of a mountain environment…
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 works) · Geography (20 works) · Archaeology (19 works) · Geology (13 works) · Pleistocene (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Paleontology (11 works) · Cave (10 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (10 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (8 works)