The great Kartan mystery

Abstract

The research described in this volume was undertaken to unravel a classic archaeological mystery: that of a large offshore island uninhabited by Aborigines at the time of European contact, yet having on its surface abundant evidence for past human occupation in the form of a distinctive stone industry known as the Kartan. Because Kangaroo Island was separated from the Australian mainland about 9,500 years ago and other major environmental changes occurred within the span of human history in southeastern Australia, a survey of the evidence for late Pleistocene conditions was seen as crucial to understanding the problem. From this emerged three significant events; the first being the unique location of Kangaroo Island during low sea level times, on the continental shelf near the mouth of Australia's largest river; the second was the loss to Kangaroo Island of v/hat must have been a highly productive resource zone as rising post glacial seas gradually submerged the coastal shelf, pushing the Murray River mouth northwards eventually to separate it entirely from the island; while the third event was the change to a drier climate that took place in the late Holocene. Important evidence was recovered through archaeological investigation of the island. Kartan tools were found to be clustered in typical campsite locations. A typological study of Kartan tools collected on both Kangaroo Island and a nearby portion of the mainland, and a comparison of these with similar tools from elsewhere in Australia emphasised the distinctiveness and regional nature of the Kartan. While no stratigraphic evidence was found to date the industry beyond doubt, distributional studies indicate a Pleistocene age . A separate industry of small tools made on quartz and flint was also found on Kangaroo Island. Excavations at several small tool sites showed that this industry spanned at least the period from 11,000 to 4,300 BP and that it was not archaeologically associated with the Karten. The recognisable forms of small tool are scrapers and adze stones. From examining four alternative models explaining the type of relationship this small tool industry might have had wit’.: the Kartan, a hypothesis of time difference emerged as the best fit for the varied evidences considered. The proposed Kartan - small tool succession is seen as part of a more widespread change from core tool and scraper to small tool tradition accepted by most Australian archaeologists, but having unique local features that result from the regional nature of the Kartan and the isolation of Kangaroo Island within small tool times. A possibility that, rather than being simply a regional variant, the Kartan might also have stemmed from an early, or even the earliest, expression of the Australian core tool and scraper tradition is also explored. Evidence tenuouslysupporting this view is seen firstly in the apparent association between typical Kartan implements and large waisted tools not unlike those found, often with early associations, in New Guinea and as far afield as mainland southeast Asia; secondly in that the ecologically favourable conditions on Kangaroo Island must have persisted Throughout low sea level times, i.e. most of the last glaciation; and thirdly in the largeness of implements and the predominance of core tools in the Kartan, within a context of slowly diminishing tool size and increasing typological diversificatioi throughout Australia generally. However, this evidence is not substantial enough to reach any firm conclusion. There are two possible explanations for the presence of sites on Kangaroo Island post dating isolation from the mainland. Either a relict population survived on the island for several thousand years before becoming extinct, or the island was reoccupied occasionally from the mainland by Aborigines with watercraft. From considering varied evidences - palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and ethnographic - the case of a relict population is favoured. The demise of such a community before European contact might be explained largely by the steady deterioration of Kangaroo Island as a human habitat during the Holocene, though demographic imbalances and short term disasters could also have played a role. Support for this view comes from a pollen core which suggests that Aboriginal burning of the island's vegetation ceased just as arid conditions approached their Holocene maximum. Show more