A 1,200-year-old ground-stone object from South Western Torres Strait (northeast Australia) and its implications for historicising ethnographically known social networks

Abstract

Ground-stone objects such as stone-headed clubs (gabagab) and axes/adzes held key positions in ethnographically known social networks encompassing Torres Strait and southern central New Guinea. However, the antiquity of ground-stone artefacts in this region is poorly understood given the small number of ground-stone objects found in dated archaeological contexts. We report on the discovery of a 1,200-year-old fragment of a ground-stone implement recovered from an archaeological excavation at a Kaurareg campsite on the south coast of Muralag in southwest Torres Strait. We discuss this find relative to the dataset of dated ground-stone objects available for the region and consider implications for understanding socio-demography, identity markers, and the development of social networks in Torres Strait.

Abbreviations: var.: variation; PNG: Papua New Guinea

Keywords:

• Ground-stone objects
• exchange
• trade networks
• socio-demographics
• Torres Strait
• stone-headed clubs
• axes

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are extended to the Kaurareg Native Title Aboriginal Corporation who have supported LMB’s archaeological research on their country since 2002 and their kind invitation to undertake this project. Thanks also to Roney Wasaga, Enid Tom, Milton Savage, Isaac Savage, Kevin Mosby, Daniel Soki, and Morris Soki for their assistance and guidance in undertaking this research project. Special thanks to Ian McNiven and to our three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no interests.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP0984998).