Evaluating human decision-making and seasonal occupation in late Pleistocene Tasmania
Jillian Garvey
Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia j.garvey@latrobe.edu.au

• First site identified during the late 1970sKUTIKINA
CAVE .
• Kutikina excavated by Rhys Jones and colleagues 1981
(Kiernan et al. Nature 1983:31).
• Followed by the Southern Forests Archaeological Project in 1990s by La Trobe University (Richard Cosgrove, Jim
Allen and colleagues) excavated several more caves. e.g. Nunamira, Bone Cave, Warreen, Pallawa Trounta
• In 2005 the Kutikina faunal assemblage was analysed.
• Recent Bennett’s wallaby teeth annuli studies indicate seasonal use of the landscape (Pike-Tay, Cosgrove &
Garvey 2008 JAS).
Top left hand corner: map of
Australia with the southern island state of Tasmania shaded.
Main figure: Tasmania with southwest region indicated and
Kutikina Cave marked by the star.

Parmerpar Meethaner
SW Settlement Pattern &
Chronology (Uncal 14C)
35,000-10,000BP
Warreen 34,780-18,630
Parmerpar Meethaner 34,000 - 750
ORS 7 30,840 - 2,500
Nunamira
Bone Cave
30,420 - 11,630
29,000 - 13,700
Pallawa Trounta 29,800 - 13,410
Kutikina Cave
Mackintosh
19,770 - 14,840
17,000
Southwest Tasmania characterised by:
• >950,000 bones analysed
• Bennett’s wallabies dominate
• Preference for the larger hindlimbs
• Femora and tibiae always split open

Kutikina Cave:
•1m 2 wide, 1.3m deep excavated in 3 units
•Volume 0.583 cubic metres, wet sieved
(3mm) Jones 1987
1981 Kutikina excavation
•11 C14 dates22,000-15,000 (LGM)
•Only published paper on Kutikina excavation or analysis was preliminary report in 1983
Nature: approx 250,000 bones & 30,000 stone tools .
Jones 1987
Inspecting Kutikina
Cave, 1981
• Unpublished preliminary report on faunal sample by Geering 1983.
Jones 1987
Tasmania was joined to mainland Australia during the late Pleistocene

Parallels between Northern and Southern
Hemisphere’s during LGM
Similar:
• Stone tools
• Hearths (fireplaces)
• Hunting patterns
• Butchering patterns
Bennett’s wallaby Macropus rufogriseus
“The specific targetting onto reindeer by the European hunters bears comparison with the similar emphasis on wallabies by subsub-Antarctic palaeo-Tasmanians”
(Kiernan et al. Nature 1983:31).

• Also known as the Rednecked wallaby
• Small wallaby weighing
10-15kg
Male Red kangaroo (70kg) with female grey (45kg)
• Found in SE mainland
Australia & Tasmania
• In Tasmania:
– Seasonal breeders
– Widespread distribution
Female (10kg) Bennett’s wallaby
• Common in zoos and as pets in Europe & Nth America:
– quiet nature
– easy to breed
– excellent lawnmowers
Tamar wallaby (8kg) with joey
Kangaroo skeleton

Typical spit from Kutikina- Bennett’s wallaby dominates

• 269,459 bone fragments, weighing 46.11kg were analysed (Garvey 2006).
• 28,210 or 12% identified to taxon &/or element.
• 21 species identified, 13 of which are potential human prey taxa.
• Of the potential prey BW >92% (MNI 44), Wombats
<7% (MNI 10), minor medium elements.
• Emu and grey kangaroo identified.

small mammals bones relatively complete
= owls
medium mammals
-humans?
-devil, thylacine or quolls?
-natural death ?
humans selected entire wombats humans selected certain elements such as the lower long bones humans selected whole animals
Bennett’s wallaby
( >75%)
Wombat (7%) kangaroo & emu
Images from Van Dyck & Strahan 2008

Garvey 2006
% of Bennett’s wallaby body parts at Kutikina Cave
Representation of Bennett’s wallaby body parts in the three Units at Kutikina Cave. NB if the wallabies were brought back to the cave whole you would expect an even distribution along the 0 line.
Bennett ’ s wallaby represents
<92% of the identified fauna
NISP 6662, MNI 44 (per Unit)
Hindlimb dominates.
Axial and manus under represented.
Numerous cut marks on hindlimbs.
Tibiae and femora always smashed open.
4 th and 5 th metatarsals, large phalanges, calcaneum often smashed open.

Garvey 200x
B cut marks
A chop? marks access marrow
A bone point
A- distal tibia
B- fibula
C- pes phalange
D- distal humerus access marrow percussion size range cut mark location
A
A
D
C

1

• Marrow and meat quantity was evaluated by Garvey 2010
Quaternary International 211(1-2):144-156.
• It seemed that humans were not under selective pressure concerning which parts of the animals they transported.
• Ignored some of the larger ‘meaty’ elements such as the sacrum, preferring the hindlimbs which were found to not only carry large amounts of flesh but also the greatest volume of bone marrow.

50
40
30
20
10
0
100
90
80
70
60
The %MUI for the 4 wallabies and the mean. indicates the highest body part.
Garvey 2010, Quaternary International 211(1-2):144-156
WHERE: CAU- caudal, CER- cervical, CLA- clavicle, CRA- cranial, FEM- femur, HUM- humerus, LUM- lumbar, MANDmandible, MANU- manus, PEL- pelvis, PES- pes, RIB- rib, SAC- sacrum, SCA- scapula, STE- sternum, TIB- tibia, THOthoracic, ULN- ulna
BW1
BW2
BW3
BW4
Mean

Bennett’s wallaby economic utility: Minimum Number of Animals
(MAU) vs Meat Utility Index (MUI)
20
18 TIB
16
14
PES
ULN
CRA
CAU
12
10
8
6
CLA
CER
SCA
HUM
PEL
THO
LUM
Where RED- high in meat/marrow & common in Kutikina;
BLUE- those high in meat/marrow & rare in Kutikina
4 RIB
2
MAND
MANU
STE
SAC
0
0 10 20 30 40
Garvey 2010, Quaternary International 211(1-2):144-156.
50
%MUI
60 70 80 90
FEM
100
WHERE: CAU- caudal, CER- cervical, CLA- clavicle, CRA- cranial, FEM- femur, HUM- humerus, LUM- lumbar, MANDmandible, MANU- manus, PEL- pelvis, PES- pes, RIB- rib, SAC- sacrum, SCA- scapula, STE- sternum, TIB- tibia, THO- thoracic,
ULN- ulna

• Fatty acid analysis, in particular oleic acid (a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid), argued to be a good indicator of unsaturated fat quality (Binford
1978).
• It has been found that in caribou, and ungulates in general, unsaturated fats increase as you move away from the body core temperature or the heart
(Meng et al. 1969; West and Shaw 1975).
• High % unsaturated fatty acids in the distal limbs causes lowering a of melting temperature and oiler marrow (Irving et al. 1957; Morin 2007).
• While extensive work has occurred on ungulates, there has been no analysis of marsupial bone marrow.
– Test to see if a similar pattern occurs in the Bennett’s wallaby.
– How does age, sex, altitude, and season effect bone marrow quality?

• Total Fat (FOLCH) and Fatty Acid Profile (FAMES) determined.
• 14 fatty acids measured per sample.
• Fatty acid concentration of wallaby bone marrow decreased in saturated fats distally
• Largest fatty acid changes occurred in the monounsaturated Oleic acid (C 18=1) and Palmitoleic (C16:1) both increased distally
• Saturated Palmitic acid (C16:0) and Stearic acid (C18:0) both decreased accordingly
• These results are similar to that identified in caribou Rangifer tarandus (Meng et
al. 1969), Dall sheep Ovis dalli (West and Shaw 1975), and in the desert bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis cremnobates (Turner 1979).

Caribou
After Hume et al. 1987
Wallaby after Meng et al. 1969;
© 2010 Falling Pixel ltd
Morin 2007
Caribou Bennett’s wallaby

D
C
B
A
Note: the dark red saturated fat in the femur marrow, with the unsaturated marrow very pale in the distal tibia, i.e. increase in unsaturated fatty acids as you move away from the body core temperature or the heart.

Western Tiers
Buckland
Tissue samples collected per wallaby
(where possible):
1) tibia marrow
2) brain tissue
3) femur tissue
Seasonal variation:
1) Summer collection- February 2008
2) Autumn collection- May 2008
3) Winter collection- July 2008
4) Spring collection- October 2008
Western Tiers 900-1300 m.a.s.l.
-alpine grasslands & herbfields
-cool summers & cold winters
Buckland 90-150 m.a.s.l.
-open dry sclerophyll
-variable climate
-warm to hot summers
-cool to cold winters
Maydena
Maydena 190-240 m.a.s.l.
-wet sclerophyll
-high rainfall
-warm summers & cool winters
Note: the same 3 control areas as wallaby seasonal teeth annuli study by Pike-Tay et al. 2008, JAS

Collecting marrow sample
Collecting brain sample
Collecting muscle sample
27 individual wallabies tested:
8 Buckland (4M & 4F)
9 Maydena (4M & 5F)
10 Western Lakes (5M & 5F)
3 samples per wallaby
(where possible)
-Brain tissue
-Hindlimb muscle
-Distal tibia marrow
After Hume et al. 1987

Marrow
Meat
mean max temperature (oC) mean min temperature ( o C) mean rainfall (mm)
S- summer A- autumn
W- winter Sp- spring
Brain
Numbers on graph bars refer to individual wallabies

• Bennett’s wallaby remained stable and reliable resource throughout the year irrespective of:
– Season
– Rainfall
– Temperature
– Sex
– Age

Then how do we explain hunting, butchery and seasonal patterns observed in late Pleistocene SW Tasmania?
Future work :
• Processing time & butchery practices
– Ethnographic
– Experimental
• Other commodities
– Bone tools
– Fur
• Bone Density
– Scientific evaluation
– However tiny complete rodent bones indicates excellent preservation
• Human physiology & the role of fatty acids
– Environmental stress
– Sex, age, pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc
Photo: R. Cosgrove

• Tasmanian Aboriginal Land & Sea Council (TALSC) and Tasmanian Museum &
Art Gallery (TMAG), Hobart.
• Rudy Frank, Peter Saad & Wei Ming, LTU, for technical assistance.
• Tiffany Liew, Seema Siddiqui & Grammatis Tsintzoglou for dissecting the wallabies in 2007.
• Georgia Bennett, Tiffany Liew, Richard Cosgrove, Coral Montero Lopez &
Anthony Dall’Oste for collecting roadkill in 2008/2009.
• Helpful discussions with Richard Cosgrove, Anne Warren, Mike Archer, Eugene
Morin, Jim O’Connell and reviewers of JAS paper.
• 2008 La Trobe University Research Grant for the economic anatomy and fatty acid analysis.
• LTU Postdoctoral Fellowship 2006-2008

• Binford, L.R., 1978. Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. New York, Academic Press.
• Garvey, J., 2006. Preliminary zooarchaeological interpretations from Kutikina Cave, southwest
Tasmania. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2006(1), 58-63.
• Garvey, J., 2007. Surviving an Ice Age: the zooarchaeology from southwest Tasmania. Palaios 22,
583-585.
• Garvey, J., 2010. Economic anatomy of the Bennett’s wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus): implications for understanding human hunting strategies in late Pleistocene Tasmania. Quaternary
International 211, 144-256.
• Hume, I.D., Jarman, P.J., Renfree, M.B., Temple-Smith, P.D., 1987. Chapter 29: Macropodidae, in:
Walton, D.W., Richardson, B.J. (Eds.), Fauna of Australia, Volume 1B Mammalia. Australian
Government Publishing Service, Canberra, pp. 679-715.
• Jones, R., 1987 Ice-age hunters of the Tasmanian wilderness, Australian Geographic Oct/Dec
87:26-45.
• Kiernan, K., Jones, R., Ranson, D.. 1983 New evidence from Fraser Cave for glacial age man in south-west Tasmania, Nature 301:28-32.
• Meng, M.S., West, G.C., Irving, L., 1969. Fatty acid composition of caribou bone marrow.
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 30, 187-191.,
• Morin, E., 2007. Fat composition and Nunamiut decision-making: a new look at the marrow and bone grease indices. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 69-82.
• Pike-Tay, A., Cosgrove, R., Garvey, J. 2008. Systematic seasonal land use by late Pleistocene
Tasmanian Aborigines. Journal of Archaeological Science. 35(9), 2532-2544.
• Van Dyck, S. Strahan, R., 2008. The mammals of Australia, 3 rd Edition. Reed New Holland, Sydney .
• Turner, J.C., 1979. Adaptive strategies of selective fatty acid deposition in the bone marrow of desert bighorn sheep. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 62A, 599-604.
• West, G., Shaw, D., 1975. Fatty acid composition of Dall sheep bone marrow. Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology 50B, 599-601.