Old News
Canberra Archaeological Society Newsletter
ISSN 1440-7035
November 2003
Volume 35
Canberra Archaeological Society
LPO Box A86
Australian National University
CANBERRA ACT 2601
www.geocities.com/canberraarchaeology/CAS.html
2003 Public Lecture Series
7.30pm, Wednesday 19th November
in Manning Clark Theatre 6, ANU
Emeritus Professor Graham Connah
Qasr Ibrim: a deserted city in Southern Egypt
Qasr Ibrim was a city in Southern Egypt, situated at the top of a rocky hill above
the east bank of the Nile. It is now an island at the edge of Lake Nasser, created
by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Occupied from Napatan times, about
2500 years ago, until about 200 years ago, Qasr Ibrim has provided valuable
insight into life in Northern Nubia. The site is in a part of Nubia where it virtually
never rains and such dry conditions have preserved organic substances such as
wood, clothing, basketry, grain, rope and paper that would normally not survive. In
the course of its long existence, Qasr Ibrim was at different periods an important
fortress, even for a short time in the hands of the Romans for whom it was their
most southerly base in Africa. At other times it was a Christian pilgrim centre,
with a large manufacturing community. Evidence of its varied history has been
provided by the inscriptions and manuscripts that have been found, preserved by
the dry conditions. Different manuscripts are written in Egyptian hieroglyphs,
Demotic, Neroitic, Old Nubian, Latin, Greek, Arabic and Turkish. They
demonstrate very clearly the varied influences that penetrated this part of Africa
along the Nile Valley.
Graham Connah is an Emeritus Professor of the University of New England and a Visiting Fellow in
the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the ANU. He has excavated extensively in Britain, in
various parts of Africa, and in Australia. His best known books are concerned with the archaeology of
black Africa during the last 3000 years or so. During the 1980s he excavated the site which is the
subject of the lecture.
Please join us afterwards for light supper and a chat – find out how ‘down to earth’
archaeologists really are.
All welcome, entry is by gold coin donation at the door.
November 2003
Annual General Meeting: will run for 10 minutes before the
talk on 19 November 2003. Plenty of committee positions
awaiting innovative people to fill them for 2004!
40th
Anniversary
Celebrations: Sunday 23rd
November. Picnic at Palmerville, Giralang: BYO picnic.
Some nibbles, drinks and celebration cake will be
provided. Meet 11:30am at the Heritage Park BBQ
area. Please RSVP by 20 November 2003!
A walk down memory lane… (with
many thanks to Pam and Colin
MacDonald who provided all the
photos and captions!)
Adze quarry, Tahanga, 24 November 1981.
The hands belong to our guide for the day,
Brenda Sewell. CAS trip to North Island of
New Zealand, 19 November to 4 December
1981. Sites visited include Mount Eden, Mount
Hobson, One Tree Hill, Pawhetau Point, an adze
quarry at Tahanga, Mayor Island (a source of
obsidian), Kaingaroa, Te Porere, Ngaturi and
Koru. Sue Feary organised the trip and Peter
Clark drove the hired minibus.
Bogged at Pond Creek Flats on CAS trip to
Coronet Peak in the Brindabellas, 2 October
1983
Ken Heffernan, Bruce English, Jon and
Angela Winston-Gregson. The vehicle was
soon freed and driven to a point closer to
Coronet Peak from which the party walked
to the summit where they inspected a stone
arrangement. The trip was organised by Jo
Flood, President, who was present but is not
in the photo.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
_______
November 2003
40th
ANNIVERSARY
Although slow to start,
we’ve had so much info
about the last 40 years
of CAS that we’ve
decided to include the
earliest days here, and
the rest will be posted
onto the CAS website:
www.geocities.com/canberraarch
aeology/CAS.html.
On the 12th of November
1963 an exhibition titled
Patterns of Culture was
opened in the Menzies library
at the Australian National
University. It continued until
the 22nd of November. This
exhibition was the project of
Jack Golson, Helmut Loofs
and Noel Barnard and had
been
inspired
by
the
Foundations
of
Europe
6000BC–AD 600 exhibition
at the University of Sydney.
Following enormous interest
in Patterns of Culture and
according nowdays to two of
the founders, because there
was ‘not much to do in
Canberra in those days’, a
public meeting followed to
“discuss the possibility of
establishing an
Archaeological Society in
Canberra” (Canberra Times
10.12.63). ‘The
Archaeological Society’ was
founded at this meeting by
Jack, Helmut and Noel and
fifty founder-members. The
original committee included:
Mr Golson, Dr Barnard, Dr
Loofs, Dr Eoin MacWhite of
the Embassy of Ireland, Prof.
Richard Johnson of the
Classics Department ANU, and
Mr RE Barwick of the Zoology
Department ANU. It was
decided that “regular meetings
be held, including lectures, film
shows, practical field work and
excursions to local and coastal
archaeological sites”
(Canberra Times 11.12.63).
And so, CAS was born!
Most members in the 60s were
Canberrans interested in
finding something to do in a
place that didn’t have much bar
public service work (yet!).
With the addition of
undergrads to ANU in the 70s
the society grew and evolved.
Jack told me that
originally CAS field trips were
held each Queen’s Birthday.
They included forays as far
afield as Sofala (1977), New
Zealand (1981), Pethers Hut
(1982), Malton (1992), and
Rob Roy Range (1995). Other
places visited by CAS include
North Durras Rock Shelter,
Murramurrang, Bateman’s
Bay, and the Nowra area.
Fieldwork
includes
Ginninderra Blacksmith’s Hut
(1995), Joadja, The Duntroon
Dairy, and next year will include
Ashgrove.
A sincere Thankyou is
owed to Jack Golson and
Helmut Loofs Wissowa for
sharing their memories of CAS’s
beginnings, and to . Pam and
Colin MacDonald for the
photos and related information.
See the CAS website for more
photos and stories about CAS in
the last 40 years. We want to
collect as much information
about CAS as possible to add to
our electronic archive. If you
have your own stories to add,
_______
contact Sylvia or any member
of the committee as advertised
below.
DATES
FOR
YOUR DIARY
Wednesday 17 November
2003, 7:30pm Our AGM and
last meeting for this year.
Several positions available
including President, Vice
President
and
Secretary.
Positions can be created for
those of you with new ideas!
Sunday 23 November 2003
CAS
40th
Anniversary
celebrations at Palmerville!
BYO picnic, though some
snacks and drinks will be
available. Meet at the picnic
area at 11:30am. RSVP to
Sylvia or any committee
member by 20 November. For
directions see the end of the
newsletter.
29-30 November 2003 We’ll
be sieving and completing the
survey
at
Ginninderra
Blacksmith’s Contact Peter
Dowling
(dowlp@ozemail.com.au)
ph:0417 233 194 for more
info.
Dec 2003 and Jan 2004
Robin Sim at ANU will be
running 5 day midden
workshops where participants
will learn valuable lab skills,
shell identification and data
analysis. The midden material
is from the Gulf of
Carpenteria region and part of
the Sir Edward Pellew Islands
archaeological project. Contact
Robin
for
more
info:
robin.sim@anu.edu.au
Ph: 02
6125 0622 or 0438 947784.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
November 2003
2 middle weeks of February
2004 ANU Kiandra field
school. Keep an eye out on
the CAS website or contact
one of the 2003 or 2004
committee members for more
info on when, where and how
to visit! If there is enough
interest we will organize group
transport.
Wednesday 17 March 2004
Our first talk for 2004…keep
an eye on your letterbox, email
inbox and the CAS website.
With CAS on the
south coast
Ron Lampert was the
‘field trip’ man in the
early days of CAS. Here
are a few of his
memories…
I joined the Prehistory
section of the Department of
Anthropology in the
Research School of Pacific
Studies early in 1964, not
long after CAS had been
formed. Together with Jack
Golson, then head of the
section, I began research on
Aboriginal sites on the south
coast. CAS was involved in
this research almost from the
very beginning.
Before my arrival,
Jack had already made a
number of preliminary trips
to the region, contacting local
people who were familiar
with field evidence. Jack
recounted to me how on one
occasion he had given a
lecture to an adult education
group at Wollongong. The
group had prepared a number
of specimens & artefacts for
him to examine, among them
what was claimed to be an
Aboriginal skeleton, recovered
from eroding dunes north of the
city. The bones were carefully
mounted in correct anatomical
position on a large board but
with no skull! Arriving late,
Jack gave it a cursory glance
and assumed that skeleton was
indeed human, then looked at it
again later in the evening and
realised that something about it
was not quite right. He took the
bones to “Black Mac”
McIntosh, Professor of
Anatomy at the University of
Sydney, who recognised them
as dog. It was not until some
time, and much labour
afterwards that the type of dog
was established: not dingo, but
an Irish wolfhound which,
according to local knowledge,
had gone missing a few years
previously. We were all
learners in those early years.
The people with the
best knowledge about sites
along the south coast were
artefact collectors. Using Fred
McCarthy’s books on
Aboriginal stone tools as a
guide, several enthusiastic
collectors had amassed large
collections, all correctly
classified. In those days, before
legal protection was enacted,
Jack wisely refrained from
taking a holier than thou
attitude towards artefact
collectors. He worked with
them, using their knowledge to
locate sites from which the
artefacts had originated, and
gradually persuaded them that
there was more to be gained
from the evidence than simply
collecting artefacts. One of
them, Jack Nicholson, used his
collection as exhibits in a small
_______
museum he founded at
Tabourie Lake. Another,
George Turnbull, exhibited
his collection in the Milton
Folk Museum. Percy
Woolley, a dairy farmer in
the Nowra district, was
enamoured enough to name
the cows in his herd after
such artefacts as elouera,
bondi point and microlith.
On several exploratory trips with these
collectors we located more
than enough sites to begin
serious research. We decided
on a wide ranging survey of
the coast and hinterland to
locate more sites and to start
a programme of excavation
of selected sites. It was at this
point that we were joined by
various members of CAS
who helped our efforts
considerably.
Several members
participated in the excavation
of our first site, a midden in a
sea cave on the foreshore at
Durras North. This site had
no great antiquity, but
provided a detailed picture of
Aboriginal economic life on
the coast during the past few
hundred years, a lifestyle that
matched well, and augmented, the records made by First
Fleet diarists at Port Jackson.
We unearthed bones of
numerous fish, mainly
snapper and bream, and the
remains of the tackle used to
catch them. Although the
multipronged fish spears had
perished, the bone barbs that
had tipped their prongs were
still well preserved.
Similarly, fish hooks
made of shell were still
intact, although the lines had
not survived. First Fleet
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
November 2003
writers who observed
Aboriginal fishing methods
around Sydney noted a clear
distinction between genders,
women always fishing with
hook and line, usually from
canoes, the men with a three
or four-pronged spear, or
“fiz-gig”, either from a canoe
or standing in the shallows.
This specialisation between
the sexes doubtless allowed a
wider range of fish to be
caught – for example,
snapper by hook, bream by
spear – and the environment
to thus be exploited more
thoroughly. While shell and
bone artefacts from the site
provided a wealth of
information there were only a
few characterless flakes
among the stone tools.
Excavations in a
group of three rock shelters at
the head of a tidal inlet at
Currarong also produced fish
bones, shell fish hooks and
the bone points of fish spears
in their upper levels. The
bones of such land mammals
as wallaby, pademelon and
potoroo were unearthed as
well, indicating that people
practised a more mixed
economy, exploiting the
resources of both sea and
land, at this site. One of the
shelters dated to around
4,000 years contained stone
tools that changed through
time in a manner parallelling
McCarthy’s Bondaian
/Eloueran (aka postBondaian) industrial
sequence. No animal or fish
bones or, indeed, organic
remains of any kind other
than charcoal survived in
these levels to show whether
it was linked with other
ecological factors.
We moved on to a large
rock shelter on the shore of
Burrill Lake which had been
excavated back in the 1930’s
by the Anthropological Society
of NSW under the leadership of
W.W. Thorpe, then Curator of
Anthropology at the Australian
Museum. The report on that
expedition describes how
members of the society had
travelled by steamer from
Sydney to Ulladulla, from
where they were driven to
Burrill Lake by a local
enthusiast in his Willys car.
The party camped under the
rock overhang on top of the
deposits they were to excavate.
With long-handled shovels they
dug through the entirety of the
upper deposits in 10 days,
moving their beds around as
they went. Fortunately they had
ignored the lower deposits
which they judged to be sterile.
With help from both CAS
members and students from the
University of Sydney we found
the lower deposits – 3m deep in
places – to be rich in stone
tools of Pleistocene age. Our
investigation provided a picture
of people living here more than
20,000 years ago, during a time
of lower sea level, when the
shore was at least 10km further
away and the shelter was
located at the side of a stream.
Throughout this
programme of excavations, on
the coast, members of CAS
helped us to build up a
comprehensive picture of
Aboriginal economic activity,
for recent centuries.
_______
FROM THE EDITOR
There’s not so much
space this time ‘round, so I’ll
stick with: come to the AGM
and nominate yourself for just
one activity, if not a committee
position!! The Anniversary
celebrations will be great now
that the weather’s warmed up!
And finally: Don’t miss out on
some fantastic stuff next year
by
not
renewing
your
membership for 2004!! Have a
fantastic holiday season no
matter where you go, and see
you in March!
See you at this month’s talk!
Sylvia Schaffarczyk
Editor
sylvia.schaffarczyk@anu.edu.au
THIS
TALK
MONTH’S
This month we’ll be listening
to Professor Graham Connah
speak about Qasr Ibrim, a
deserted Egyptian city with a
mixed past!
MEMBERSHIPS 2004
Remember to renew your
membership for next year so
you know what we’re up to.
CALL FOR
CONTRIBUTIONS
We would love to include
short
pieces
on
archaeologically-oriented work
our members are involved
with,
whether
voluntary
excavators or ‘dig directors’, so
send in stories on what you are
up to, and don’t forget photos!
R.J. Lampert
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
London Bridge Homestead: the object of
the 1982 fieldtrip.
Joint CAS FoAB survey Rob Roy Range 1995
Graeme Evans (Friends of Aranda Bushland
(FoAB), Angela Besant (CAS), Peter Ormay
(FoAB), Jean Geue (FoAB).
CAS trip to Sofala and Hill End Oct 1977,
Peter Clark, Pam MacDonald, Jon WinstonGregson, Colin MacDonald, Helen O’Brien,
Mike Pearson, Angela Winston-Gregson.
Other people who attended the trip: Colin
Groves (President?), Phyl Groves, Val
Chapman, Ted Chapman, Peter Hiscock,
Margot Lyons, Rosie Pearson, Jim
Robertson, Nicola Robertson, Francesca
Baas Becking, Wendy Bosler, Joan Goodrum,
Chris Thornton, Helen Pecovnik and Gary
Parrott. Peter Clark drove the mini bus!
Websites, conferences and other archaeological activity.
Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) Conference: Dec 3-7 in Jindabyne. See the CAR
website for links.
CAR website: http://car.anu.edu.au
Archaeology World: http://arts.anu.edu.au/arcworld/arcworld.htm
School of Archaeology & Anthropology, Faculty of Arts (incl.Palaeoanthropology):
http://www.anu.edu.au/AandA/
Fieldwork opportunities: http://car.anu.edu.au/noticeboard.html
Pacific Island Field Training Program. Dr Shankar Aswani, University of California on Roviana,
New Georgia Group, Solomon Islands. June 20-July 18 2004. For more info
see:http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/aswani/Field_school/index.htm
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10016 (Archaeological Institute of America)
http://www.cincpac.com/afos/testpit.html (features numerous opportunities with a variety of
institutions around the world)
November 2003
_______
2003 – MEETING AND PRESENTATION PROGRAM
DATE
Wednesday 19
November
SPEAKER
Professor Graham
Connah
TOPIC
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING and
Qasr Ibrim: a Deserted City in Southern
Egypt.
2003 CAS COMMITTEE CONTACT DETAILS
Co-President:
Samantha McKay
(02) 6242 8471
samantha@webone.com.au
Co-President:
Graham Connah
graham.connah@effect.net.au
2 Warner Pl Holt ACT 2611
(02) 6288 9105
Secretary:
Marilyn Folger
(02) 6281 2018
folger@netspeed.com.au
3 Collier St Curtin ACT 2605
Treasurer: Peter White
(02) 62589354
pkwhite@netspeed.com.au
8 Hedland Ct Flynn
Members: Dorothy Anderson
(02) 6286 3617
dorothya@webone.com.au
8 Hannan Pl Mawson ACT 2607
CAS e-mail: canberraarchaeology@hotmail.com
Sylvia Schaffarczyk
(02) 6125 5163
0402 470 611
sylvia.schaffarczyk@anu.edu.au
C/- School of Archaeology and
Anthropology, ANU ACT 0200
Graham Simpson (Canberra Nature Park) and Colin MacDonald (CAS) Doing the most important
sort of archaeological work! Rob Roy Range, 1995.
DIRECTIONS TO PALMERVILLE
From Ginninderra Drive turn onto William Slim Drive. Turn left off William Slim Drive
onto Owen Dixon Drive, go past Walkley Place/Belconnen Soccer Club, and on your left
will be the Palmerville Heritage Park Visitor Centre. Park somewhere and look for CAS
members!! If you need help on the way there, take your yellow pages, and look on
page/Map 38! –Don’t forget to RSVP!! Any difficulties, contact a CAS committee
member at one of the phone numbers above, or ring Sam 0401 361 099 or Sylvia 0402
470 611 (PS if it is raining, we will postpone to 2004).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
November 2003
_______
CANBERRA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
The Canberra Archaeological Society was formed in 1963 to cater for the needs of all people interested in archaeology. The
Society holds monthly meetings at the Australian National University. Topics from guest speakers range from Australian
prehistory to historic and classical studies. These meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month (March to November).
The meetings are usually held in lecture theatre 6 of the Manning Clark Theatres, LF Crisp Building at 7.30pm.
Members have the opportunity to attend field days on which we visit sites of significance in or near the
ACT, with background and information provided by a team leader who is usually a qualified archaeologist.
We also involve members in archaeological fieldwork, both site recording and excavation, on prehistoric and
historic sites. No experience is necessary as training on the job is provided; enthusiasm is the only
requirement and the aim is always to enjoy the time in the field.
Please return membership form with payment to:
The Treasurer, Canberra Archaeological Society
LPO Box A86
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2601
Cheques should be made payable to: CANBERRA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY INC.
Membership Application – Canberra Archaeological Society
Name(s):
Address:
Phone:
Email:
(the monthly newsletter will be delivered by email where an address is provided)
Any current archaeological interests/background?
Please circle membership type: Family $40
Single $30
Concession $20
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
November 2003
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CAS Newsletter – Vol. 35
_______