HomeResearchPort Jackson Archaeological Project

Port Jackson Archaeological Project

Val Attenbrow

• Introduction
• Stage 1: review of previous research; site survey and recording
• Stage 2: excavation
• Stage 3: analysis of excavated materials
• Scientific collaborators

Introduction

Site recording and excavation of selected sites undertaken for this project began in 1989. Despite the long history of research undertaken since the late 1800s, many archaeological sites were recorded that had not been registered in the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service's Aboriginal Sites Register.

This fieldwork has contributed much additional information about the life of the Aboriginal people who lived around the shores of Port Jackson at the time of British colonisation in 1788. Analyses of excavated faunal remains and stone artefacts are providing further details about their diet and subsistence.

Information gained during this project is used in many different ways. In addition to expanding our knowledge about Sydney's Aboriginal past, it contributes to a greater understanding of the hunter-gatherer coastal economies and adaptations to changing marine environments in Australia and other parts of the world. It also supplies essential information used by New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Aboriginal groups and archaeological consultants for Aboriginal site management purposes.

Spatial and temporal variations in the subsistence patterns and material culture of coastal Aboriginal people prior to 1788 are being investigated in this study. Fieldwork focuses on the catchment of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). The initial aims of the project are to investigate the archaeological evidence for:

1. differences in the diet and material culture of people living in different parts of the Port Jackson catchment, i.e. marine, estuarine and freshwater (coastal hinterland) zones;
2. changes over time in the foods people ate (e.g. shellfish) and their material culture (in particular the use of stone, bone and shell in implements and weapons).

For many years archaeologists abandoned the idea of investigating Aboriginal life in the Sydney area because of its intensive and extensive commercial, suburban, industrial and foreshore developments. However, this study has shown that many Aboriginal sites have survived, and that there is still much to be learnt from these sites about Aboriginal life in this area before the British arrived (Attenbrow 1991). Results of this local study are being set into the broader context of the development of coastal economies and marine adaptations in Australia.

The study was designed to be multi-staged:

• Stage 1: review of previous research; site survey and recording
• Stage 2: excavation
• Stage 3: analysis of excavated materials

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Stage 1

During this initial stage the condition and research potential of shell middens and archaeological deposits in the study area were assessed to determine whether archaeological research into the local Aboriginal prehistory was feasible in a landscape as developed as that of Sydney. (Shell middens are deposits in which shell is the dominant component; archaeological deposits are usually dominated by stone artefacts and have very little or no shell).

The 1989 fieldwork documented 35 previously unrecorded sites and re-recorded 77 registered sites so that a comparable level of data was available for each site for analysis (Attenbrow 1991). Stage I clearly demonstrated that a very large number of shell middens still survive in the Sydney area (over 400). Many of the sites were assessed as being relatively undisturbed and capable of providing information about past Aboriginal activities. The survey also showed there are likely to be many more middens and deposits which are not registered with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (the principal authority responsible for care and management of Aboriginal sites in New South Wales).

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Stage 2

Between 1990 and 1996, eight sites were excavated in different parts of the catchment:

1. a. two in the ocean-influenced zone near the estuary (harbour) mouth Vaucluse (Mt Trefle and Hydrofoil);
2. four in the mid-estuarine reaches Cammeray, Ryde (Sugarloaf Point), Sydney CBD (Cumberland Street), and Castle Cove;
3. two adjacent to freshwater tributaries in the upper catchment; Winston Hills (John Curtin Reserve) and North Rocks (Darling Mills State Forest).

Sites adjacent to estuarine conditions were shell middens and those in the freshwater zones were archaeological deposits; all were in rockshelters except Castle Cove and Cumberland Street. These recent excavations extend back in time the documented age of Aboriginal sites in the Port Jackson catchment to around 10,000 years BP.

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Stage 3

Excavated materials, including artefacts of stone, bone and shell, faunal remains (animal bones and shell), charcoal and pumice, are being analysed. Shell and animal bones from each site have been speciated and analysed, and geomorphological studies of the sediments and local environment have been carried out. The stone artefact analysis is still in progress.

Many of the analyses were carried out by or involved other researchers. Analysis of Balmoral Beach pumice was a collaborative project in which the pumice was subjected to petrological examination and microprobe chemical analysis, as well as laser and ICPMS trace element analysis.

Results to date indicate that:

1. a large proportion of the Mt Trefle fish bone was from juvenile snapper and bream. This led to the conclusion that other fishing methods (e.g. tidal traps) may have been used in Port Jackson in addition to those described in the historical records (spear fishing and angling) (Attenbrow and Steele 1991);
2. sites near the estuary mouth (i.e. marine zone) have a greater abundance of fish and land animal bones in contrast to those in the mid-estuarine zones which have exceedingly little bone (fish or land animal) relative to shell;
3. several of the middens indicate there are changes over time in the abundance of particular shellfish species. Reasons for these temporal changes are yet to be investigated, but may indicate local environmental changes in preferred species;
4. Hashimoto's BA(Hons) study showed that Balmoral Beach formed progressively between 6,000 and 2,500 years ago. He identified impacts that the beach's changing geomorphology and environment would have had on the Aboriginal people living in the locality;
5. a concentrated layer of olivine dacite pumice in the Balmoral Beach shell midden, dated to around 3,280 years ago, has a very unusual nature and most likely comes from a volcanic eruption in northern Tonga. The pumice layer was formed probably by wave action along the shoreline and derived from a raft of pumice which formed after the volcanic eruption (Sutherland and Baron 1998). Pumice in levels above and below the main pumice layer are sufficiently different to suggest they are from different volcanic eruptions. These results and the sequence of radiocarbon dates indicates the midden has a relatively high degree of integrity and that little vertical movement has taken place over time since the original deposition of cultural materials.
6. the Cumberland Street shell deposit was an in situ Aboriginal shell midden which dated to around 500 BP and was not natural shell bed material or re-deposited Aboriginal shell midden material (Attenbrow 1992).

These and other findings are now available in the book title written about Sydney's Aboriginal heritage.

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Scientific collaborators

Several researchers and students, from different disciplines and institutions, have collaborated in analysing specific components of the excavated assemblages:

animal bones
D. Steele, consulting archaeologist; MA student, Sydney University Prehistory and Historical Archaeology
Dr. K. Walshe, consulting archaeologist, zoo-archaeologist; then PhD student, Australian National University Archaeology and Anthropology

use wear/residues on artefacts
Dr. R. Fullagar, archaeologist, Australian Museum Research Fellow
C. Stanborough (prev. Szpak), consulting archaeologist; then Australian Museum technical officer

shell
C. Stanborough (prev. Szpak), consulting archaeologist; then Australian Museum technical officer
M. Holland, graduate University of New England Palaeoanthropology and Archaeology Department; then Australian Museum technical officer
P. Pemberton analysed the Balmoral Beach shell for her prehistory honours thesis in the Sydney University Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology Department

geomorphological studies and advice
T. (Riko) Hashimoto undertook the analysis of the Balmoral Beach sediments as part of his prehistory honours thesis in the Sydney University Geography Department
Dr. P. Roy, geologist, Coastal Studies Unit, Sydney University Geography Department.

pumice
Dr. L. Sutherland, geologist, Australian Museum Earth Sciences Department
B.J. Barron, consulting petrologist

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