Archaeobotany Lab

As part of the newly funded ARC Linkage project “Investigating the archaeological values of Marra cultural heritage sites” (LP220100143 ; 2024-2028), collaborative anthracological and archaeobotanical research will be implemented. This will contribute to the project’s aims investigating the archaeological landscape of Limmen National Park, on Marra Country, and informing the creation of a cultural heritage management plan. The project will combine contemporary Aboriginal knowledge with archaeological and anthropological data to understand the meaning of the archaeological record for Marra people today. 

This project is carried out by Emilie Dotte-Sarout in collaboration with lead CI Liam Brady (Flinders University), and John Bradley (Monash University), Amanda Kearney (University of Melbourne/San Diego State University), Jeremy Ash (Monash University), Cassandra Rowe (James Cook University), Daryl Wesley (Flinders University), Shaun Evans (li-Anthawirrayarra Sea Rangers), David Barrett (li-Anthawirrayarra Sea Rangers). It receives funding from the ARC (LP220100143) and Parks & Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, McArthur River Mine Community Benefits Trust, and Mabunji Aboriginal Resource Indigenous Corporation.

This project proposes two main aims. The first being the compilation of wood descriptions – resulting from Chae Byrne’s PhD – into a wood atlas. The atlas will hold detailed anatomical descriptions and micrographs of the species collected from Katjarra (the Carnarvon Ranges) to be returned to the Birriliburu IPA Community. It will include recorded stories and ethnobotanical knowledge relating to fire and wood collection that the community may wish to record through ethnobotanical consultation. The second aim is to assist in the growth of archaeobotanical analyses in Western Australia by advancing starch residue techniques. This will include the creation of a Western Australian starch reference collection. 

This research is led by Chae Byrne in collaboration with Birriliburu IPA community members, and funded through the Berndt Research Foundation’s Early Career Research Award, 2023.

This research is part of the Desert People Project (FL220100046, CI Prof Peter Veth). This five-year ARC Laureate Project aims to foster collaboration between innovative scientific approaches and Indigenous knowledge to deepen our understanding of the 60,000-year custodianship of Australian deserts. Specifically, the archaeological focus is on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara, and Western Desert regions. The program actively engages with ten Aboriginal Corporations across Australia's Northwest. Archaeobotany plays a crucial role in the Desert People Project, through the analysis of various palaeobotanical records, including anthracology, residues from grinding stones/patches, and pollen extracted from excavated sediment. These sources provide an abundance of information regarding the interactions between people and plants in the past, delivering some of the regions first local paleoenvironmental data. The research will explore patterns of resource use (in response to climate change), past people’s mobility in the landscape and how knowledge of the past is meaningful for the future.

This research is carried by Chae Byrne, in collaboration with Laureate Fellow Peter Veth (Archaeology, UWA) and with Richard Fullagar (Archaeology, UWA), Judith Field (Archaeology, UWA), Tim Cohen (University of Wollongong), Wendy Reynen (Archaeology, UWA) and Kane Ditchfield (Archaeology, UWA). 

Bringing together archaeological scientists, linguists and First Nations language experts, this project innovates a style of collaboration where language knowledge and lexicography play a pivotal role in understanding archaeological features from past Aboriginal settlement sites: more specifically domestic uses of fire. Despite their cultural centrality, everyday practices and techniques around fire in ‘camps’ (i.e., hearths) have not been systematically documented. Building upon a pilot study that involved 10 Australian languages, this project investigates an additional 30 languages from across the continent, extracting frequent lexical categories for functions and techniques related to fire, including potential regional contrasts and historical developments; and aims to test the application of these new frames of interpretation to anthracological and archaeological datasets.

This project is funded through a 2022 Australian Linguistic Society Research Grant, and carried out by Emilie Dotte-Sarout in collaboration with Ingrid Ward (Archaeology, UWA), Luisa Miceli (Linguistics, UWA), Maïa Ponsonnet (Laboratoire Dynamique du Language, CNRS). 

The overarching aims of this research program are to identify and document economic plant use and investigate medico-socio-cultural development amongst foraging populations occupying tropical rainforest environments in the deep past – most specifically on the island of Borneo. This research is part of recent and ongoing ARC projects “The unknown ‘Ice Age’ artists of Borneo” (FT170100025) and “Early art, culture, and occupation along the northern route to Australia” (DP220100462) that have uncovered 40,000 years old rock art and evidence for the earliest known surgical amputation on a 31,000 years old primary burial. Pharmaceutical and medicinal aspects of this complex surgery probably benefited from the use of the exceptionally rich botanical resources available from the equatorial tropical rainforests of eastern Borneo. However, only through the careful application of archaeobotanical techniques can these sophisticated people-plant relationships begin to be understood. 

This research is carried out by India Ella Dilkes-Hall, in collaboration with Maxime Aubert (Griffiths University), Tim Maloney (Griffiths University), Adam Brumm (Griffiths University), Andrea Jalandoni (Griffiths University) and other partner investigators. It has been funded by the ARC (FT170100025 to Maxime Aubert and DP220100462, lead CI Maxime Aubert) and the Forest Research Foundation (Fellow India Dilkes-Hall), with UWA providing in-kind support.

“Fire and Plants” is the Research Node 2 of the larger multi-disciplinary ARC Linkage Project “Desert to the Sea: Managing Rock Art, Country and Culture”, which aims to understand how rock art sites were part of people’s ngurra and how people knew and managed this landscape, combining traditional ecological knowledge and novel scientific approaches (including anthracology), as well as developing management regimes and formal certification for Indigenous rangers. Research node 2, Fire and Plants, wants to understand the ecology, biodiversity and land management practices of Country, especially how people have used, transformed and cared for local vegetation, through a collaboration between researchers, rangers and Traditional Owners of Murujuga National Park, the Martu Native title determination, and Birriliburru Indigenous Protected Area in the arid Australian northwest (Western Desert to coastal Pilbara regions).

This project is carried by Chae Byrne and Emilie Dotte-Sarout, in collaboration with lead CI Jo McDonald (Archaeology, UWA) and, for research Node 2, Stephen Van Leeuwen (Curtin University), Richard Fullagar (Archaeology, UWA), Judith Field Archaeology, UWA), Pauline Grierson (Biological Sciences, UWA), Casey Ryan (Biological Sciences, UWA).

Under the project ‘Archaeology of communities, communities in archaeology’ funded by the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and led in close collaboration with the Institut d’archéologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et du Pacifique (IANCP), this project is working on archaeological sites identified by communities and cultural heritage management surveys in the northern Grande Terre of New Caledonia, in consultation with traditional owners. It focuses on precolonial Kanak settlement patterns and archaeobotanical analyses to better understand past management practices of the vegetation and co-adpatation on an island which is one of the main hotspots of plant biodiversity on the planet. 

This project is carried by Emilie Dotte-Sarout, in collaboration with Jean-Marie Wadrawane and the team of the IANCP, and the Northern Province of New Caledonia, building on continuous collaboration over the past 20 years.

Through a number of various research contracts and collaborative funding, this research program has been working to implement anthracology in the islands of French Polynesia, from the Society Islands to the Gambier and, more recently, the Tuamotu archipelagoes. In particular, we aim to compare human impact and vegetation resilience, as well as traditional Ma’ohi management practices, between high islands and atoll environments. As part of a new larger multi-disciplinary project aiming to reconstruct the history of Eastern Polynesian atolls and their ecosystems over the last millennia, anthracological and archaeobotanical analyses will be conducted to investigate how atolls’ communities transformed and adapted to such seemingly hostile environments.

This research is carried by Emilie Dotte-Sarout in collaboration with Guillaume Molle (Australian National University and Centre International de Recherche Archeologique en Polynesie), Eric Conte (University of French Polynesia and CIRAP), Louis Lagarde (University of New Caledonia), Vahine Rurua (CIRAP), Gabrielle Traversat (UMR TempS), Francois Fournier (University Aix-Marseille), Matiu Prebble (University of Canterbury), Aymeric Hermann (CNRS UMR Temps), Jacques Vernaudon (UPF); Jennifer Kahn (College of William and Mary, USA) and Patrick Kirch (University of Hawaii). It is funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (AAPG2023; CE27 2024-2028) and previously received funding from the US National Science Foundation.

Islands have long been used as ecological models for world ecosystem processes, especially in relation to human impact and sustainable management of natural resources. Still, systematically collected and analysed palaeoenvironmental datasets from the Pacific remain rare. Those that also include Indigenous perspectives, ethnobotanical information and traditional ecological knowledge, even more so. Through seed-projects, post-graduate supervision and international collaborations, we seek to support the development of anthracology and archaeobotany more generally in Vanuatu.

This research program has received funding from the Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) in 2023 and is carried by Emilie Dotte-Sarout in collaboration with PhD candidate Julien Ponchelet (Sorbonne University), CNRS Aymeric Hermann and Frederique Valentin (UMR Temps), Michelle Elliott (UMR ArScAn), Stuart Bedford and Matthew Spriggs (Australian National University), Edson Willie, Lucas Saravanu, Philip Iarawai, Siri Seoule (Vanuatu Cultural Centre).

This project entails working with Traditional Owners in Balanggarra Country, to record Traditional Ecological Knowledge and create a reference collection of plant residues for future archaeobotanical analysis of grindstones in the east Kimberley. This collection will focus on Culturally Important Plants, or plants which have been valued in the east Kimberley for their dietary, medicinal, spiritual, and material uses. In particular, it will investigate their potential phytolith signatures, as the most robust and promising types of plant microremains, for the purposes of informing future grindstone residue analyses in the East Kimberley region.

The research is carried out by Dr Emily Grey, who was awarded a 2024 Berndt Foundation Early Career Researcher Grant, in collaboration with Balanggaraa Traditional Owners and Rangers, the 2024 Balanggarra Women’s Forum, and Dr Judith Field.

All our reference collection specimen are accompanied by a reference botanical voucher identified by botanists or ecologists and Traditional Owners (field or herbarium collaboration).

Collections are conducted with relevant licensing and permits, including ethics, as detailed in publications and Byrne 2022, Dilkes-Hall 2020.

Specimen are charred under controlled conditions with half preserved unburnt except when not possible (lack of material).

Specimen are then observed under microscopes for photography and anatomical or morphological description, recorded in a systematic database (see below).

 

 

1. Australia wood charcoal reference collection:

• We have close to 250 specimens from more than 200 woody taxa collected throughout Western Australia (including the Southwest, Midwest, Pilbara, Western Desert, Kimberley, and Carnarvon regions).
• The collection holds 39 different botanical families; Fabaceae and specifically Acacia represent ¼ of the collection, while Myrtaceae and Proteaceae families represent 16% and 10% of the collection, respectively.
• We focus on Acacia, collecting and describing as many different species as possible, but also duplicate specimen from different individuals of the same species (i.e. Acacia aneura) in various locations across WA.

2. Pacific wood charcoal reference collection:

• We have more than 200 specimen from 180 taxa, including some monocotyledon and Cyatheales stems, tuber, and carpological samples.
• Collection sources focus on New Caledonia (Grande Terre) and French Polynesia islands.
• There are 63 families represented. Euphorbiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae are the most frequent families, each accounting for more than 5% of the collection, mirroring the diversity of the flora.
• We focus on non-endemic, pan-Pacific and horticultural species  (70% of the collection) to support regional application.

3. Southeast Asia carpological and wood charcoal reference collection (in construction)

4. Western Australia carpological collection

• The collection contains more than 250 specimens from close to 200 different taxa, mainly sourced from the Kimberley and North-western Australia.
• There are 51 families represented, with Fabaceae (notably Acacia) and Myrtaceae being the most frequent families in the collection, each comprising around 10%. This is followed by Proteaceae, Poaceae, Moraceae, Malvaceae and Combretaceae taxa.
• We focus on edible fruits, seeds, and other elements, including tubers. We collected a number of duplicates as well as whole and processed (fragmented) specimens.

• We follow the IAWA lists of microscopic features for hardwood and softwood identification in our custom-made FileMaker Pro database to record reference collection descriptions that can then be queried for archaeobotanical identification.
• A similar process is used for carpological and other non-woody specimen.
• Currently, 90% of our reference collection samples have been processed and described in the databases (as a continuously growing endeavour).
• Databases are organised by regions (Australia, Pacific, Southeast Asia) and types/taxonomical order (i.e. anthracology-dicot/monocot/cyatheales; carpology-seed/fruits; etc.).

In addition to PhD theses and current research projects listed above, a large portion of this work has been realised as part of UWA students’ honours research projects, and their theses remain important references identified in the reference collections and databases records.

2012. Taylor (Byrne), Chae. Charcoals as indicators of ancient trees and fuel strategies : An Application of Anthracology in the Australian Midwest. Unpublished Honours thesis, UWA School of Social Sciences.

2013. Hudson, Philippa. ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE: RECONSTRUCTING THE PALAEOENVIRONMENT AND PAST FUEL WOOD STRATEGIES THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF ANTHRACOLOGY AT KALGAN HALL, SOUTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA. Unpublished Honours thesis, UWA School of Social Sciences.

2014. Dilkes-Hall, India Ella. An Archaeobotanical Analysis of Macrobotanical Remains at Riwi in the South Central Kimberley Region, Western Australia. Unpublished Honours thesis, UWA School of Social Sciences.

2021. Runciman, Helen. A Colonial Garden? Archaeobotanical and Documentary Research at the Artillery Drill Hall, Fremantle, Western Australia. Unpublished Honours thesis, UWA School of Social Sciences.

2021. Walsh, Matthew. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARNUNGGURRUN: Wood Charcoal as an Indicator of Earth Ovens and Anthropogenic Fire Regimes at Walanjiwurru 1, Marra Country. Unpublished Honours thesis, UWA School of Social Sciences.

How Linguistic Data Can Inform Archaeological Investigations: An Australian Pilot Study Around Combustion Features. 
Ward, I., Ponsonnet, M., Miceli, L., Dotte-Sarout, E. & Rustandi, J., 1 Jan 2023, In: Open Archaeology. 9, 1, 20220312.

Inherited age of floating charcoal fragments in a sand-bed stream, Macdonald River, NSW, Australia: Implications for radiocarbon dating of sediments 
Blong, R., Fryirs, K., Wood, R., King, F., Schneider, L., Dotte-Sarout, E., Fallon, S., Gillespie, R., Chen, Q. & Esmay, R., Sept 2023, In: Holocene. 33, 9, p. 1154-1159 6 p.

Remnant peat deposit provides clues to the inundated cultural landscapes of Kepa Kurl, southwestern Australia 
Ward, I., Guilfoyle, D., O'Donnell, A., Byrne, C., Macphail, M. & Hopper, S. D., Jun 2023, In: The Holocene. 33, 6, p. 671-684 14 p.

A late Pleistocene to Holocene archaeological record from East Kalimantan, Borne
Maloney, T. R., Dilkes-Hall, I. E., Setiawan, P., Oktaviana, A. A., Geria, I. M., Effendy, M., Ririmasse, M., Febryanto, Sriputri, E., Priyatno, A., Atmoko, F. T., Moffat, I., Brumm, A. & Aubert, M., 1 Feb 2022, In: Quaternary Science Reviews. 277, 107313.

The dependable deep time Acacia: Anthracological analysis from Australia's oldest Western Desert site
Byrne, C., Dotte-Sarout, E., van Leeuwen, S., McDonald, J. & Veth, P., Dec 2021, In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 40, 103187.

Timorese archaeobotany: An anthracological pilot study at the late Holocene Lepu-Kina rockshelter, Atauro Island, East Timor
Ribeny, A., Dotte-Sarout, E. & Galipaud, J. C., 2021, In: Australian Archaeology. 87, 2, p. 190-209 20 p.

Archaeobotany of Aboriginal plant foods during the Holocene at Riwi, south central Kimberley, Western Australia
Dilkes-Hall, I. E., Balme, J., O’Connor, S. & Dotte-Sarout, E., 1 May 2020, In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 29, 3, p. 309-325 17 p.

Evaluating human responses to ENSO driven climate change during the Holocene in northwest Australia through macrobotanical analyses
Dilkes-Hall, I. E., Balme, J., O’Connor, S. & Dotte-Sarout, E., 1 Dec 2020, In: Holocene. 30, 12, p. 1728-1740 13 p.

Island survival: The anthracological and archaeofaunal evidence for colonial-era events on Barrow Island, north-west Australia
Byrne, C., Dooley, T., Manne, T., Paterson, A. & Dotte-Sarout, E., 1 Apr 2020, In: Archaeology in Oceania. 55, 1, p. 15-32 18 p.

'Doog girndi'. Using experimental archaeology to understand the archaeobotanical record: an investigation of mid-Holocene Vitex glabrata fruit processing in Gooniyandi Country, northwest Australia
Dilkes-Hall, I., Davis, J. & Malo, H., 2019, In: The Artefact. 42, p. 3-16 13 p.

Macrobotanical remains and preservational bias: an example from Moonggaroonggoo, Gooniyandi Country, Western Australia
Dilkes-Hall, I. E., 4 May 2019, In: Australian Archaeology. 85, 2, p. 210-214 5 p.

People-plant interaction and economic botany over 47,000 years of occupation at Carpenter’s Gap 1, south central Kimberley
Dilkes-Hall, I. E., O’Connor, S. & Balme, J., 2 Jan 2019, In: Australian Archaeology. 85, 1, p. 30-47 18 p.

Wood charcoal analysis in tropical rainforest: A pilot study identifying firewood used at toxic nut processing sites in northeast Queensland, Australia
King, F. & Dotte-Sarout, E., 15 Mar 2019, In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 28, 2, p. 163-185 23 p.

Understanding archaeobotany through ethnobotany: an example from Gooniyandi Country, northwest, Western Australia
Dilkes-Hall, I., Maloney, T. R., Davis, J., Malo, H., Cherel, E., Street, M., Cherrabun, W. & Cherel, B., Dec 2019, In: Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia. 43, p. 4-32 29 p.

The curious case of Proteaceae: macrobotanical investigations at Mount Behn rockshelter, Bunuba country, Western Australia
Whitau, R., Dilkes-Hall, I. A., Vannieuwenhuyse, D., O’Connor, S. & Balme, J., Apr 2018, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Australian Archaeology. 84, 1, p. 19-36 18 p.

Ancient woodlands of Polynesia: A pilot anthracological study on Maupiti Island, French Polynesia
Dotte-Sarout, E. & Kahn, J. G., 1 Nov 2017, In: Quaternary International. 457, p. 6-28 23 p.

Evidence of forest management and arboriculture from wood charcoal data: an anthracological case study from two New Caledonia Kanak pre-colonial sites
Dotte-Sarout, E., Mar 2017, In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 26, 2, p. 195–211 17 p.

X-ray computed microtomography and the identification of wood taxa selected for archaeological artefact manufacture: Rare examples from Australian contexts
Whitau, R., Dilkes-Hall, I., Dotte-Sarout, E., Langley, M. C., Balme, J. & O'Connor, S., 1 Apr 2016, In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 6, p. 536-546 11 p.

Not just carbon: assessment and prospects for the application of anthracology in Oceania
Dotte-Sarout, E., Carah, X. & Byrne, C. K., Apr 2015, In: Archaeology in Oceania. 50, 1, p. 1-22

Charcoals as indicators of ancient tree and fuel strategies: An application of anthracology in the Australian Midwest
Byrne, C., Dotte-Sarout, E. & Winton, V., 2013, In: Australian Archaeology. 77, p. 94-106