Cultural advice

The Australian National University acknowledges, celebrates and pays our respects to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people of the Canberra region and to all First Nations Australians on whose traditional lands we meet and work, and whose cultures are among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that ANU Library collections may include images, names, voices, and other representations of deceased persons.

Material in the collection may contain terms, language or views that reflect the period in which the item was created and may be considered inappropriate today.

Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Thumbnail Image

Date

2014

Authors

Sullivan, Majorie
Hughes, Philip
Way, Amy Mosig
Spooner, Nigel

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sydney University Press

Abstract

A site in the Olympic Dam area, recorded during archaeological surveying as a silcrete quarry, was investigated. Hand-excavated squares and subsequent machine-excavated trenches revealed an ancient "mine" rather than a simple surface quarry. Blocks of high-quality silcrete were levered from below the ground surface and many were knapped in the immediate area. Rubble in the pit backfills included large numbers of flakes. Single-grain optical dates from sediments in the backfilled pits demonstrate that the silcrete "mining" occurred during a short period in the late Holocene.

Description

Keywords

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1885/69965

Collections

ANU Research Publications

Source

Archaeology in Oceania

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

DOI

10.1002/arco.5022

Restricted until

2037-12-31

Downloads

File
Description
01_Sullivan_Prehistoric_mining_at_Olympic_2014.pdf (1.67 MB)

DSpace software copyright © 2002-2026 LYRASIS