Torres Strait 'bepotaim': An overview of archaeological and ethnoarchaeological investigations and research
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: Traditional Torres Strait Islander culture, viewed at European contact, demonstrated levels of maritime resource exploitation, canoe technology and seafaring skills, inter-island trade, and use of horticulture/agriculture to a degree unparalleled elsewhere in Australia. How long this maritime-focused cultural complex has existed in the island archipelago connecting Australia with Papua New Guinea, the onset dates for island occupation in the Holocene, and the cultural impact of the late Holocene ‘connectedness’ induced by exchange across Torres Strait on adjacent mainlands remain central questions for archaeological enquiry. A retrospective overview of archaeological research and investigations in the Torres Strait region is presented, from early preliminary field investigations in the 1970s through to the emergence of divergent thematic investigations spanning historic and prehistoric periods, underway in the year 2000. Radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites confirm occupation of the islands since 2500 years ago. Moreover, the regional archaeological site chronology for Torres Strait suggests most islands with good water resources supported populations, albeit in some cases seasonally transient ones, after 1,500 BPP. Some aspects of the archae- ological chronology, the nature of culture sites and their spatial distribution within islands accord well with recent oral histories, and some ethnographic observations. However, other aspects of the emerging chronology, and in particular similarities in the range and type of sites across the Strait, and patterns between islands, strongly suggest that other facets of archaeological data either do not fit, contradict, or are simply unrecorded in, the ethnohistorical sources. In particular, some ethnohistorically derived culture/language/trade groupings may have limited antiquity as seen in the archaeological record.
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1513797748