Innovation and change in northern Australian Aboriginal spear technologies
The Case for Reed Spears
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6038762 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H Allen (0000-0001-8199-7364, University of Auckland), K Akerman (0000-0001-5823-7818, Private Consultant) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | S1 |
| Pages | 83-93 |
| Publication date | 2015-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeology in Oceania/Archæology & physical anthropology in Oceania (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0728-4896 • E-ISSN: 1834-4453 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/arco.5051 |
| OpenAlex | W1483292702 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 19 |
Unlike the majority of spears used by Australian Aboriginal people, reed spears were a lightweight form that made optimal use of spearthrower technology. In the Kimberleys, reed spears were mounted with small pressure‐flaked stone projectile points. Small projectile points occur in the archaeological record of both the Kimberleys and western Arnhem Land. Outside the Kimberleys, however, there is no record of how these were mounted and used. This paper reviews the evidence for reed spears and small projectile points across the Northern Territory and north‐western Western Australia, concluding that they represent associated technologies the primary role of which lay in feuding and conflicts
Archaeological record · Archaeology · Geography · Physics · Projectile · Projectile point · Spear · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Dr Tim Ryan Maloney 11 June 1988–2 November 2024
The Origins of War
Flaked Stone Tools of Holocene Sahul
Archaeological Adhesives
An Analysis of Motif Clusters at the Nanguluwurr Rock Art Site, Kakadu National Park, N. T. Australia
The agency of artefacts
The Antler, Ivory, and Bone Artefacts from Maszycka Cave (Southern Poland). New Signals from a Late Upper Palaeolithic Key Site
Archaeology of the recent
Two rare shield depictions from the Burrungkuy rock art region of Western Arnhem Land, Australia
The atlatl among prehispanic hunter-gatherer from the southeastern Lowlands, South America
Lithic utility and risk
The archaeology of Maliwawa
The effect of retouch intensity on mid to late Holocene unifacial and bifacial points from the Kimberley
Interpopulational variation in human brain size
Retouched, rejuvenated, recycled and occasionally hafted as projectiles
A Black Civilization.
Spear and spearthrower evolution in the Kimberley region, N.W. Australia
Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia
Contemporary Changes in the Construction of a Northern Australian form of Spearthrower
Ethnography and Prehistoric Archaeology in Australia
Dentate and Related Stone Biface Points from Northern Australia
Ethnography and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge
Lithics in the Land of the Lightning Brothers
Notes on the Kimberley Stone-Tipped Spear Focusing on the Point Hafting Mechanism
Australia's Ancient Warriors
New dates for point technology in the Kimberley
The power of stone
Australian Aboriginal Paintings in Western and Central Arnhem Land
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |