Expedient Technologies and Curated Tools Within a System of High Residential Mobiltty: An Example Using Mass Analysis of Flakes from the Simpson Desert, Central Australia

Abstract

Flake scatters from a number of surface recording locations in the Simpson Desert, Australia, are compared using the technique of “Mass Analysis” that was first proposed by S. Ahler (1989b). This study uses a non-site based approach to record surface scatters from a set of landscape elements that form relatively discrete “patches” within the dunefield of the Simpson Desert, central Australia. The use of Mass Analysis, combined with a technological analysis of core reduction, provides a very different perspective on the use of raw material and provisioning strategies in this landscape. Instead of viewing the distribution and composition of these desert assemblages as resulting from relatively “opportunistic” behaviours in the use of stone—as they are usually viewed—in this analysis, they display all the elements of a planned, strategic system, involving the provisioning of both places and people. Informal tools were sometimes manufactured with the intention of long, rather than short, use-lives, within a portable and maintainable lightweight technology.