Evolution of technology and tool use in 10,000 years of Aboriginal History

This project will employ residue/wear studies, technological studies and examination of the patterns of archaeological site occupation to understand the prehistoric production and use of backed artefacts in the Sydney Basin over the last 10,000 years. Backed artefacts are a type of ancient tool and an archaeological signature of cultural change in ancient Aboriginal society. The results will describe the evolutionary interrelationships between technology and tool use, leading to more sophisticated models of cultural change and the emergence of the Aboriginal social systems that were observed in the historical period.