Abstract

Lake Woods is a large freshwater body on the northern edge of Australia’s arid zone where research since the late 1960s has suggested late Pleistocene, later Holocene, and recent human occupations. We report on surface collections and test excavations undertaken at four sites on the western side of the lake basin in 2019. Each site produced a distinctive lithic assemblage, characterised by different types of shaped and retouched lithics and grindstones. Some material matches the ethnographic descriptions of W. Murgatroyd and R. Paton of local stone tool technology. Our work also confirms the hypothesis of M. Smith that there was later Holocene occupation in the area; and is not inconsistent with the hypothesis of J. Bowler that there was a late Pleistocene occupation around the lake, but definitive evidence of this remains ambiguous. Grindstones occur at all sites, indicating that the harvesting of grass seeds was consistently an important subsistence component for people living by the lake. Distinctive lithic types are found at Lake Woods that are characteristic either of tropical northern Australia or arid southern Australia, suggesting the lake was an inter-regional locus for human activity and a potential zone of interaction between different groups at various times in the past.

摘要

伍兹湖是澳大利亚干旱区北部边缘的一个大型淡水水体，自 1960 年代后期以来的研究表明，更新世晚期、全新世晚期和最近的人类职业。我们报告了 2019 年在湖盆西侧的四个地点进行的地表收集和测试挖掘。每个地点都产生了独特的岩屑组合，以不同类型的形状和修饰过的岩屑和磨石为特征。一些材料与当地石器技术的 W. Murgatroyd 和 R. Paton 的人种学描述相符。我们的工作也证实了 M. Smith 的假设，即该地区后来被全新世占领；并且与 J. Bowler 的假设不一致，即湖周围有更新世晚期的占领，但关于这一点的确切证据仍然模棱两可。所有地点都有磨石，这表明收获草籽一直是居住在湖边的人们的重要生计组成部分。在伍兹湖发现了独特的岩屑类型，具有澳大利亚北部热带地区或澳大利亚南部干旱地区的特征，表明该湖是人类活动的跨区域场所，也是过去不同时期不同群体之间潜在的互动区。