Patricia Fanning
Biographic Data
| ID | 197638 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patricia Fanning |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patricia |
| FAMILY NAME | Fanning |
| SIGNATURE | FANNING P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3113-1444 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 459 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Beyond consumption and discard
Paleolithic artifact deposits at Wadi Dabsa, Saudi Arabia
Surface artifacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo‐Arabian belt, a pivotal region in dispersals out of Africa. Discarded by hominins, these artifacts are key to understanding past landscape use and dispersals, yet behavioral interpretation of present‐day artifact distributions cannot be carried out without understanding how geomorphological processes have controlled, and continue to control, artifact …
Flaked stone assemblage variability across the Weipa region of western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Shell mounds located on the coastal and estuarine fringes are the best-known archaeological feature in the Weipa region, northwestern Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Other archaeological deposits have received less attention, with stone artefacts thought to be all but absent reflecting the lack of raw material suitable for flaking in the region. Cultural heritage surveys on the bauxite plateau in the Weipa region undertaken since 2003 have change…
Modeling Relationships Between Space, Movement, and Lithic Geometric Attributes
Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulation to explore how different combinations of reduction, selection, transport, and discard of stone art…
Selected samples
Aboriginal Use of Fire in a Landscape Context
A case study from western New South Wales, Australia, illustrates the age, preservation, and distribution of late Holocene heat-retainer hearths that are abundant in the semiarid archaeological record in the region. These hearths were constructed as underground ovens with stone heat retainers. They appear archaeologically as eroded concentrations of heat-fractured stone sometimes protecting charcoal deposits. We explore geomorphic processes influ…
Geoarchaeology in action
Modelling the palimpsest
Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit models of deposit formation. Here, an exploratory agent-based model based on the concept of the palim…
Quartz and silcrete raw material use and selection in late Holocene assemblages from semi-arid Australia
Human–environment interactions at regional scales
We match stone artefact distributions and assemblage compositions at the local geographical scale to measures of both complex topography and environmental history, as suggested by the work of Bailey and King. By comparing two study regions that have different topographic complexity measures, one in western New South Wales, Australia, and the other in Oglala National Grassland, North American Great Plains, we show that people created distinct long…
Geoarchaeology of Aboriginal Landscapes in Semi-arid Australia
This book provides readers with a unique understanding of the ways in which Aboriginal people interacted with their environment in the past at one particular location in western New South Wales. It also provides a statement showing how geoarchaeology should be conducted in a wide range of locations throughout Australia. One of the key difficulties faced by all those interested in the interaction between humans and their environment in the past is…
Shell mounds as the basis for understanding human-environment interactions in far north Queensland, Australia
The Weipa shell mounds have a long history of archaeological research that has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the emergence of late Holocene coastal economies in northern Australia. However, much of this work has focused on broad comparisons of mounds between multiple locations rather than detailed studies of multiple mounds from single locations. This level of analysis is required to understand the record of both human o…
Landscape scale and human mobility
A Holocene lake-margin aeolian sequence from interior Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and evidence for human occupation
Aeolian sequence and the archaeological record in the fuegian steppe, Argentina
Heat-retainer hearth identification as a component of archaeological survey in western NSW, Australia
Concentrationsofheat-fracturedrockarecommoninsomeareasofwesternNewSouthWales,Australia, andarefrequentlyidentifiedduringarchaeologicalsurveysastheerodedremainsofheat-retainerhearths, a type of earth oven used in the past byAboriginal people to cook food. However, it can be difficult to consistentlyidentifythesefeaturessinceheat-fracturedrocks,likeotherclastslyingonthesurface,canbe dispersedorconcentratedbyavarietyofgeomorphicprocesses.Inthispaper…
The surface archaeological record in arid Australia
The conventional approach to assessing the archaeological record in most parts of the world involves a combination of excavation of stratified deposits and extensive survey of surface deposits. Although widely applied in Australia, in both research‐based and management archaeology, the method does not conform well to the nature of the surface archaeological record here. Over much of semi‐arid and arid Australia, archaeological “sites” are, in fac…
Developing a Landscape History as Part of a Survey Strategy
Challenging intensification
An intensification theory was developed in Australian archaeology in the early 1980s from a desire to make the study of Australian hunter-gatherers closer to theoretical developments in hunter-gatherer studies elsewhere. An apparent increase in the quantity and range of archaeological deposits was interpreted as demonstrating a combination of population increase and increased social complexity beginning 2—3000 years BP. Data were amassed in suppo…
Assemblage Formation as a Result of Raw Material Acquisition in Western New South Wales, Australia
Quarries are often defined as locations where people in the post gained access to raw material. Here we consider the definition of quarries in a raw material-rich environment. Stone artifacts found adjacent to two silcrete outcrops that might be labeled as “quarries” are compared with those found at a creek-side “occupation “location in western New South Wales, Australia. We investigate these attributions by considering the technology of raw mate…
Footprints in the sand
Here is a paper of pivotal importance to all prehistorians attempting to reconstruct societies from assemblages of shells or stone artefacts in dispersed sites deposited over tens of thousands of years. The authors demonstrate the perilous connections between the distribution and content of sites, their geomorphic formation process and the models used to analyse them. In particular they warn against extrapolating the enticing evidence from Pleist…
An Assessment and Archaeological Application of Cortex Measurement in Lithic Assemblages
We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a repeated pattern of the selective removal of artifacts away from their location of manufacture. These f…
Burkes Cave and Flaked Stone Assemblage Variability in Western New South Wales, Australia
In 1970, Harry Allen excavated a small section of creek terrace adjacent to Burkes Cave in the Scope Range of western New South Wales, revealing a stratified deposit dated by a single radiocarbon determination to c.2000 BP. An analysis of the stone artefact assemblage was never fully published. In this paper we present a description of the technological characteristics and composition of the stone artefact assemblage from this important site and …
Absence of evidence or evidence of absence? Understanding the chronology of Indigenous occupation of western New South Wales, Australia
Radiocarbon determinations obtained from heat retainer hearths in four sampling locations in western New South Wales, Australia are reported, with age estimates ranging from the mid Holocene until the last few centuries BP. Hearths are first considered in their geomorphic setting to determine the likely age of the surfaces into which they were dug and the reasons why they are still extant today. Second, the radiocarbon determinations are analysed…
Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales, Australia
Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in …
An Assessment and Archaeological Application of Cortex Measurement in Lithic Assemblages
We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a repeated pattern of the selective removal of artifacts away from their location of manufacture. These f…
Hunter-Gatherers and the Archaeology of Discard Behavior
An analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the last two millennia. Methods are proposed whereby conflated stone artifact assemblages from different lo…
New approaches to open site spatial archaeology in Sturt National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Surface scatters of stone artefacts are ubiquitous in the Australian landscape and form the basis for the majority of archaeological conservation decisions. The research reported here proposes a distributional approach for analysing this record founded on the artefact as the minimal recording unit rather than the site. A method of assemblage definition is proposed to permit the study of assemblage composition across space. The method is applied t…
Absence of evidence or evidence of absence? Understanding the chronology of Indigenous occupation of western New South Wales, Australia
Radiocarbon determinations obtained from heat retainer hearths in four sampling locations in western New South Wales, Australia are reported, with age estimates ranging from the mid Holocene until the last few centuries BP. Hearths are first considered in their geomorphic setting to determine the likely age of the surfaces into which they were dug and the reasons why they are still extant today. Second, the radiocarbon determinations are analysed…
Variability in the Chronology of Late Holocene Aboriginal Occupation on the Arid Margin of Southeastern Australia
Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales, Australia
Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in …
Quartz and silcrete raw material use and selection in late Holocene assemblages from semi-arid Australia
Stone artifact scatters in western NSW, Australia
Surface scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts have been exposed in many parts of inland Australia by accelerated erosion that followed the introduction of pastoralism by European settlers in the 19th century. This paper reports on a set of techniques developed to investigate and quantify the effects of these post‐discard disturbance processes in Sturt National Park in northwest NSW, Australia. Backwards, stepwise, linear regression showed the in…
Assemblage Formation as a Result of Raw Material Acquisition in Western New South Wales, Australia
Quarries are often defined as locations where people in the post gained access to raw material. Here we consider the definition of quarries in a raw material-rich environment. Stone artifacts found adjacent to two silcrete outcrops that might be labeled as “quarries” are compared with those found at a creek-side “occupation “location in western New South Wales, Australia. We investigate these attributions by considering the technology of raw mate…
Modeling Relationships Between Space, Movement, and Lithic Geometric Attributes
Evidence for changes in human mobility is fundamental to interpretations of transitions in human socioeconomic organization. Showing changes in mobility requires both archaeological proxies that are sensitive to movement and a clear understanding of how different mobility configurations influence their patterning. This study uses computer simulation to explore how different combinations of reduction, selection, transport, and discard of stone art…
Modelling the palimpsest
Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit models of deposit formation. Here, an exploratory agent-based model based on the concept of the palim…
Challenging intensification
An intensification theory was developed in Australian archaeology in the early 1980s from a desire to make the study of Australian hunter-gatherers closer to theoretical developments in hunter-gatherer studies elsewhere. An apparent increase in the quantity and range of archaeological deposits was interpreted as demonstrating a combination of population increase and increased social complexity beginning 2—3000 years BP. Data were amassed in suppo…
Shell mounds as the basis for understanding human-environment interactions in far north Queensland, Australia
The Weipa shell mounds have a long history of archaeological research that has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the emergence of late Holocene coastal economies in northern Australia. However, much of this work has focused on broad comparisons of mounds between multiple locations rather than detailed studies of multiple mounds from single locations. This level of analysis is required to understand the record of both human o…
The surface archaeological record in arid Australia
The conventional approach to assessing the archaeological record in most parts of the world involves a combination of excavation of stratified deposits and extensive survey of surface deposits. Although widely applied in Australia, in both research‐based and management archaeology, the method does not conform well to the nature of the surface archaeological record here. Over much of semi‐arid and arid Australia, archaeological “sites” are, in fac…
Burkes Cave and Flaked Stone Assemblage Variability in Western New South Wales, Australia
In 1970, Harry Allen excavated a small section of creek terrace adjacent to Burkes Cave in the Scope Range of western New South Wales, revealing a stratified deposit dated by a single radiocarbon determination to c.2000 BP. An analysis of the stone artefact assemblage was never fully published. In this paper we present a description of the technological characteristics and composition of the stone artefact assemblage from this important site and …
Aboriginal Use of Fire in a Landscape Context
A case study from western New South Wales, Australia, illustrates the age, preservation, and distribution of late Holocene heat-retainer hearths that are abundant in the semiarid archaeological record in the region. These hearths were constructed as underground ovens with stone heat retainers. They appear archaeologically as eroded concentrations of heat-fractured stone sometimes protecting charcoal deposits. We explore geomorphic processes influ…
Human–environment interactions at regional scales
We match stone artefact distributions and assemblage compositions at the local geographical scale to measures of both complex topography and environmental history, as suggested by the work of Bailey and King. By comparing two study regions that have different topographic complexity measures, one in western New South Wales, Australia, and the other in Oglala National Grassland, North American Great Plains, we show that people created distinct long…
Footprints in the sand
Here is a paper of pivotal importance to all prehistorians attempting to reconstruct societies from assemblages of shells or stone artefacts in dispersed sites deposited over tens of thousands of years. The authors demonstrate the perilous connections between the distribution and content of sites, their geomorphic formation process and the models used to analyse them. In particular they warn against extrapolating the enticing evidence from Pleist…
Developing a Landscape History as Part of a Survey Strategy
Selected samples
Paleolithic artifact deposits at Wadi Dabsa, Saudi Arabia
Surface artifacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo‐Arabian belt, a pivotal region in dispersals out of Africa. Discarded by hominins, these artifacts are key to understanding past landscape use and dispersals, yet behavioral interpretation of present‐day artifact distributions cannot be carried out without understanding how geomorphological processes have controlled, and continue to control, artifact …
Geoarchaeology in action
New approaches to open site spatial archaeology in Sturt National Park, New South Wales, Australia
Surface scatters of stone artefacts are ubiquitous in the Australian landscape and form the basis for the majority of archaeological conservation decisions. The research reported here proposes a distributional approach for analysing this record founded on the artefact as the minimal recording unit rather than the site. A method of assemblage definition is proposed to permit the study of assemblage composition across space. The method is applied t…
Stone artifact scatters in western NSW, Australia
Surface scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts have been exposed in many parts of inland Australia by accelerated erosion that followed the introduction of pastoralism by European settlers in the 19th century. This paper reports on a set of techniques developed to investigate and quantify the effects of these post‐discard disturbance processes in Sturt National Park in northwest NSW, Australia. Backwards, stepwise, linear regression showed the in…
Variability in the Chronology of Late Holocene Aboriginal Occupation on the Arid Margin of Southeastern Australia
Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales, Australia
Patricia C. Fanning, Simon J. Holdaway, Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales, Australia, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 29, No. 3/4 (Autumn, 2002 - Winter, 2004), pp. 255-271
Thesis Abstracts
Artifact Visibility at Open Sites in Western New South Wales, Australia
Surface visibility is a significant constraint in archaeological survey, and estimates of surface visibility are a common addition to cultural resource management reports. Despite this, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the factors affecting visibility and quantify their effects. We report the results of such a study based on analysis of surface stone artifacts deposited by prehistoric hunter-gatherers from the Stud Creek area in …
Hunter-Gatherers and the Archaeology of Discard Behavior
An analysis of surface scatters of stone artifacts from late Holocene contexts at Stud Creek, Sturt National Park in the northwest of New South Wales, Australia, is reported. A sedimentological and archaeological chronology for Stud Creek shows archaeological remains are no older than 2000 years and Stud Creek saw repeated occupation during the last two millennia. Methods are proposed whereby conflated stone artifact assemblages from different lo…
Absence of evidence or evidence of absence? Understanding the chronology of Indigenous occupation of western New South Wales, Australia
Radiocarbon determinations obtained from heat retainer hearths in four sampling locations in western New South Wales, Australia are reported, with age estimates ranging from the mid Holocene until the last few centuries BP. Hearths are first considered in their geomorphic setting to determine the likely age of the surfaces into which they were dug and the reasons why they are still extant today. Second, the radiocarbon determinations are analysed…
Burkes Cave and Flaked Stone Assemblage Variability in Western New South Wales, Australia
In 1970, Harry Allen excavated a small section of creek terrace adjacent to Burkes Cave in the Scope Range of western New South Wales, revealing a stratified deposit dated by a single radiocarbon determination to c.2000 BP. An analysis of the stone artefact assemblage was never fully published. In this paper we present a description of the technological characteristics and composition of the stone artefact assemblage from this important site and …
Developing a Landscape History as Part of a Survey Strategy
Challenging intensification
An intensification theory was developed in Australian archaeology in the early 1980s from a desire to make the study of Australian hunter-gatherers closer to theoretical developments in hunter-gatherer studies elsewhere. An apparent increase in the quantity and range of archaeological deposits was interpreted as demonstrating a combination of population increase and increased social complexity beginning 2—3000 years BP. Data were amassed in suppo…
Assemblage Formation as a Result of Raw Material Acquisition in Western New South Wales, Australia
Quarries are often defined as locations where people in the post gained access to raw material. Here we consider the definition of quarries in a raw material-rich environment. Stone artifacts found adjacent to two silcrete outcrops that might be labeled as “quarries” are compared with those found at a creek-side “occupation “location in western New South Wales, Australia. We investigate these attributions by considering the technology of raw mate…
Footprints in the sand
Here is a paper of pivotal importance to all prehistorians attempting to reconstruct societies from assemblages of shells or stone artefacts in dispersed sites deposited over tens of thousands of years. The authors demonstrate the perilous connections between the distribution and content of sites, their geomorphic formation process and the models used to analyse them. In particular they warn against extrapolating the enticing evidence from Pleist…
An Assessment and Archaeological Application of Cortex Measurement in Lithic Assemblages
We describe an experimental test and archaeological application of the solid geometry method for the interpretation of cortical surface area in lithic assemblages proposed by Dibble et al. (2005). Experimental results support the method's accuracy while archaeological application to assemblages from western New South Wales, Australia suggests a repeated pattern of the selective removal of artifacts away from their location of manufacture. These f…
Heat-retainer hearth identification as a component of archaeological survey in western NSW, Australia
Concentrationsofheat-fracturedrockarecommoninsomeareasofwesternNewSouthWales,Australia, andarefrequentlyidentifiedduringarchaeologicalsurveysastheerodedremainsofheat-retainerhearths, a type of earth oven used in the past byAboriginal people to cook food. However, it can be difficult to consistentlyidentifythesefeaturessinceheat-fracturedrocks,likeotherclastslyingonthesurface,canbe dispersedorconcentratedbyavarietyofgeomorphicprocesses.Inthispaper…
The surface archaeological record in arid Australia
The conventional approach to assessing the archaeological record in most parts of the world involves a combination of excavation of stratified deposits and extensive survey of surface deposits. Although widely applied in Australia, in both research‐based and management archaeology, the method does not conform well to the nature of the surface archaeological record here. Over much of semi‐arid and arid Australia, archaeological “sites” are, in fac…
Aeolian sequence and the archaeological record in the fuegian steppe, Argentina
Landscape scale and human mobility
A Holocene lake-margin aeolian sequence from interior Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and evidence for human occupation
Shell mounds as the basis for understanding human-environment interactions in far north Queensland, Australia
The Weipa shell mounds have a long history of archaeological research that has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the emergence of late Holocene coastal economies in northern Australia. However, much of this work has focused on broad comparisons of mounds between multiple locations rather than detailed studies of multiple mounds from single locations. This level of analysis is required to understand the record of both human o…
Geoarchaeology of Aboriginal Landscapes in Semi-arid Australia
This book provides readers with a unique understanding of the ways in which Aboriginal people interacted with their environment in the past at one particular location in western New South Wales. It also provides a statement showing how geoarchaeology should be conducted in a wide range of locations throughout Australia. One of the key difficulties faced by all those interested in the interaction between humans and their environment in the past is…
Modelling the palimpsest
Archaeologists make inferences about past human behaviour based on patterned material residues in various depositional contexts, including existing landsurfaces. These deposits are generated by processes that may obscure patterns at some observational scales while highlighting others, and interpretive differences can arise from a lack of explicit models of deposit formation. Here, an exploratory agent-based model based on the concept of the palim…
Quartz and silcrete raw material use and selection in late Holocene assemblages from semi-arid Australia
Human–environment interactions at regional scales
We match stone artefact distributions and assemblage compositions at the local geographical scale to measures of both complex topography and environmental history, as suggested by the work of Bailey and King. By comparing two study regions that have different topographic complexity measures, one in western New South Wales, Australia, and the other in Oglala National Grassland, North American Great Plains, we show that people created distinct long…
Geoarchaeology in action
Archaeology (29 works) · Geography (29 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (28 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (23 works) · Geology (23 works) · Paleontology (15 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (11 works) · Assemblage (archaeology (8 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Artifact (error (7 works)