Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:34:39.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resisting the cold in ice age Tasmania: thermal environment and settlement strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ian Gilligan
Ian Gilligan*
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology & Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200 Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Humans had reached Tasmania by 35 000 years bp and were in residence at the peak of the last ice age. Curiously, the settlements in the coldest period are concentrated in the highest and most southerly places, and the colder the weather became, the more sites were occupied. The author deduces that early people specially sought out the rock shelters of the highlands to combat wind chill.

Keywords

cave sitescold adaptationshelterTasmanian Aborigines
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 313 , 1 September 2007 , pp. 555 - 568
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiello, L. & Wheeler, P.. 2003. Neanderthal thermoregulation and the glacial climate, in van Andel, T.H. & Davies, W. (ed.) Neanderthals and modern humans in the European landscape during the last glaciation: Archaeological results of the Stage 3 project: 147–66. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Allen, J. 1996a. Bone Cave, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 91–122. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Allen, J. 1996b. Warreen Cave, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 135–67. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Allen, J. & Cosgrove, R.. 1996. Stone Cave, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 123–33. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Allen, J. & Porch, N.. 1996. Warragarra rockshelter, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 195–217. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Bowden, A. R. 1983. Relict terrestrial dunes: legacies of a former climate in coastal northeastern Tasmania. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Supplementband 45: 153–74.Google Scholar
Bowdler, S. 1984. Hunter Hill, Hunter Island: archaeological investigations of a prehistoric Tasmanian site. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Brown, S. 1993. Mannalargenna Cave: a Pleistocene site in Bass Strait, in Smith, M. A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.) Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia: 258–71. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Brown, S., Kee, S., McGowan, A., Middleton, G., Nash, M., Prince, B., Ricketts, N. & West, D.. 1991. A preliminary survey for Aboriginal sites in the Denison River Valley, March 1989. Australian Archaeology 32: 26–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia. 2006. Climate averages. http://www.bom.gov.au Google Scholar
Colhoun, E.A. 2000. Vegetation and climate change during the Last Interglacial-Glacial cycle in western Tasmania, Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 155: 195–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, K. J. 1983. Hypothermia: the facts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, R. 1995. Late Pleistocene behavioural variation and time trends: the case from Tasmania. Archaeology in Oceania 30: 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrove, R. 1996a. ORS 7 rockshelter, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 69–89. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, R. 1996b. Nunamira Cave, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 43–68. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, R. 1999. Forty-two degrees south: the archaeology of late Pleistocene Tasmania. Journal of World Prehistory 13: 357–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrove, R. & Pike, A.-Tay. 2004. The middle palaeolithic and late Pleistocene Tasmania hunting behaviour: a reconsideration of the attributes of modern human behaviour. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14: 321–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrove, R., Allen, J. & Marshall, B.. 1990. Palaeo-ecology and Pleistocene human occupation in south central Tasmania. Antiquity 64: 59–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'Entrecasteaux, B. 2001. Voyage to Australia and the Pacific 1791-1793. (ed. & trans. Duyker, E. & Duyker, M.). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
EPICA. 2004. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 429: 623–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fanger, P. O. 1970. Thermal comfort: analysis and applications in environmental engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Freslov, J. 1993. The role of open sites in the investigation of Pleistocene phenomena in the inland southwest of Tasmania, in Smith, M. A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.) Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia: 233–9. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Gilligan, I. J. In press. Another Tasmanian paradox: clothing and thermal adaptations in Aboriginal Australia (BAR International Series). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Goede, A. 1974. The exploration history of Judds Cavern, Cracroft area, Tasmania. Journal of the Sydney Speleological Society 18: 239–47.Google Scholar
Goede, A. & Murray, P.. 1977. Pleistocene man in south central Tasmania: evidence from a cave site in the Florentine Valley. Mankind 11: 2–10.Google Scholar
Harris, S., Ranson, D. & Brown, S.. 1988. Maxwell River archaeological survey 1986. Australian Archaeology 27: 89–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hensel, H. 1981. Thermoreception and temperature regulation. London: Academic Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Hesse, P. P. & McTainsh, G. H.. 1999. Last glacial maximum to early Holocene wind strength in the mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere from aeolian dust in the Tasman Sea. Quaternary Research 52: 343–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, M. 1954. Shelter effect: investigations into the aerodynamics of shelter and its effects on climate and crops. Copenhagen: Danish Technical Press.Google Scholar
Jessen, C. 2001. Temperature regulation in humans and other mammals. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1965. Observations on the geomorphology of a coastal cave near Wynyard, Tasmania. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 99: 15–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R. 1971. Rocky Cape and the problem of the Tasmanians. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1974. Tasmanian tribes, in Tindale, N. B. (ed.) Aboriginal tribes of Australia: their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names: 317–54. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Jones, R. 1990. From Kakadu to Kutikina: the southern continent at 18 000 years ago, in Gamble, C. & Soffer, O. (ed.) The world at 18 000 BP, volume 2: low latitudes: 264–95. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Jones, R., Ranson, D., Allen, J. & Kiernan, K.. 1983. The Australian National University - Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service archaeological expedition to the Franklin River, 1982. Australian Archaeology 16: 57–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R., Cosgrove, R., Allen, J., Cane, S., Kiernan, K., Webb, S., Loy, T., West, D. & Stadler, E.. 1988. An archaeological reconnaissance of karst caves within the southern forests region of Tasmania, September 1987. Australian Archaeology 26: 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorgensen, J. 1829. History of the origin, rise, and progress, of the Van Diemen, s Land Company. London: Robson, Blades & Co.Google Scholar
La Billardière, M. 1800. Voyage in Search of La Pérouse. London: John Stockdale.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K. & Chappell, J.. 2001. Sea level change through the last glacial cycle. Science 292: 679–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNiven, I. 1996. Mid- to late Holocene shell deposits at Hibbs Bay, southwest Tasmania: implications for Aboriginal occupation and marine resource exploitation, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 219–47. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Middleton, G. J. 1979. S. S. S. Franklin River expedition 1977. Journal of The Sydney Speleological Society 23: 51–91.Google Scholar
Parsons, K. C. 2003. Human thermal environments: the effects of hot, moderate, and cold environments on human health, comfort and performance. London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Pike-Tay, A. & Cosgrove, R.. 2002. From reindeer to wallaby: recovering patterns of seasonality, mobility, and prey selection in the Palaeolithic Old World. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 9: 101–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plomley, N.J.B. (ed.) 1966. Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson 1829-1834. Hobart: Tasmanian Historical Research Association.Google Scholar
Pocock, C. 1993. Excavation of limestone caves in the Nelson River valley, central western Tasmania, in Smith, M. A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.) Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia: 240–6. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Porch, N. & Allen, J.. 1995. Tasmania: archaeological and palaeo-ecological perspectives. Antiquity 69: 714–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quayle, R. G. & Steadman, R. G.. 1998. The Steadman wind chill: an improvement over present scales. Weather and Forecasting 13:1187–93.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sim, R. 1991. Prehistoric archaeological investigations on King and Flinders Islands, Bass Strait, Tasmania. Unpublished MA thesis, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Sim, R. 1998. The archaeology of isolation? Prehistoric occupation in the Furneaux group of islands, Bass Strait, Tasmania. Unpublished PhD thesis, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Stern, N. & Marshall, B.. 1993. Excavations at Mackintosh 90/1 in western Tasmania: a discussion of stratigraphy, chronology and site formation. Archaeology in Oceania 28: 9–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, N. & Allen, J.. 1996. Pallawa Trounta shelter, in Allen, J. (ed.) Report of the Southern Forests Archaeological Project, volume 1: 169–93. Bundora: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Vanderwal, R. L. 1977. The Shag Bay rockshelter, Tasmania. The Artefact 2: 161–70.Google Scholar
Vanderwal, R. L. & Horton, D.. 1984. Coastal southwest Tasmania: the prehistory of Louisa Bay and Maatsuyker Island. (Terra Australis 9). Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar