Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Marjorie Sullivan; Philip Hughes; Amy Mosig Way; Nigel Spooner

doi:10.1002/arco.5022

Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Marjorie Sullivan^*, Philip Hughes, Amy Mosig Way, Nigel Spooner

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	43-55
Number of pages	13
Journal	Archaeology in Oceania
Volume	49
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/arco.5022
Publication status	Published - Apr 2014

Access to Document

10.1002/arco.5022

Cite this

@article{a3cadfe342134460bc79823af7b77673,

title = "Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia",

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.",

keywords = "Holocene, Optical dating, Prehistoric mining, Silcrete",

author = "Marjorie Sullivan and Philip Hughes and Way, {Amy Mosig} and Nigel Spooner",

year = "2014",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1002/arco.5022",

language = "English",

volume = "49",

pages = "43--55",

journal = "Archaeology in Oceania",

issn = "0728-4896",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

AU - Sullivan, Marjorie

AU - Hughes, Philip

AU - Way, Amy Mosig

AU - Spooner, Nigel

PY - 2014/4

Y1 - 2014/4

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Holocene

KW - Optical dating

KW - Prehistoric mining

KW - Silcrete

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84898010551&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/arco.5022

DO - 10.1002/arco.5022

M3 - Article

SN - 0728-4896

VL - 49

SP - 43

EP - 55

JO - Archaeology in Oceania

JF - Archaeology in Oceania

IS - 1

ER -

Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this