Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100550
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,608.00
Summary
Prospecting for Australia's Submerged Landscapes through Machine Learning. This project aims to apply machine learning to image-based seabed surveys to prospect for submerged Aboriginal archaeological sites, beginning with both of Australia’s only known sites. This will be the first attempt globally to develop a technique to pinpoint potential archaeological material within large area surveys, tagging features which can then be tested through scientific diving. Expected outcomes are workflows th ....Prospecting for Australia's Submerged Landscapes through Machine Learning. This project aims to apply machine learning to image-based seabed surveys to prospect for submerged Aboriginal archaeological sites, beginning with both of Australia’s only known sites. This will be the first attempt globally to develop a technique to pinpoint potential archaeological material within large area surveys, tagging features which can then be tested through scientific diving. Expected outcomes are workflows that pair machine learning algorithms, marine robotics and scientific diving to greatly enhance prospecting efficiency. This will enhance knowledge and benefit management of these resources on Australia’s continental shelf and beyond, reducing the impacts of offshore industry on cultural heritage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100756
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$371,034.00
Summary
New light on Cambodia’s Dark Age (1350 - 1750). This project aims to conduct the first systematic archaeological investigations of Cambodian Middle Period capitals on the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap arterial rivers between 1350 and 1750. Whilst the decline of Angkor is one of the most significant events in the history of Southeast Asia, we do not have a precise date for the event that involved the relocation of many hundreds of thousands of people. By determining when the Kings of Angkor m ....New light on Cambodia’s Dark Age (1350 - 1750). This project aims to conduct the first systematic archaeological investigations of Cambodian Middle Period capitals on the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap arterial rivers between 1350 and 1750. Whilst the decline of Angkor is one of the most significant events in the history of Southeast Asia, we do not have a precise date for the event that involved the relocation of many hundreds of thousands of people. By determining when the Kings of Angkor moved to the southern capitals we will clarify the end of Angkor, retrieve Cambodian history from a perceived Dark Age, and reveal critical linkages between the celebrated Angkorian past and modern and contemporary Cambodia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101447
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$359,586.00
Summary
Rock art as a proxy for environmental change. The project aims to identify fauna in rock art in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area, NT, an area with no Pleistocene palaeontological fauna record. Rock art in Arnhem Land preserves information about past fauna species unavailable archaeologically beyond the Late Holocene. This repertoire has been vastly under-exploited as a source of data about changing human-animal relationships past and present. The research will augment zoological methods w ....Rock art as a proxy for environmental change. The project aims to identify fauna in rock art in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area, NT, an area with no Pleistocene palaeontological fauna record. Rock art in Arnhem Land preserves information about past fauna species unavailable archaeologically beyond the Late Holocene. This repertoire has been vastly under-exploited as a source of data about changing human-animal relationships past and present. The research will augment zoological methods with insights from Aboriginal people. Securely identifying and dating fauna species in rock art is expected to enhance understanding past human-animal relationships. Potential benefits include enhancing international significance of Australia’s rock art and informing debates on megafauna extinctions, climate, and environmental change in Australia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100703
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$346,536.00
Summary
The Drumbeat of Human Evolution: Climate Proxies from Rockshelter Sediments. This project aims to trial new techniques for extracting environmental information from the sediments contained within archaeological rock shelters. Homo sapiens evolved during a period of dramatic climate variation, which almost certainly influenced human development and global dispersal. High-resolution climate records are rarely available for Pleistocene archaeological sites and so it is challenging to quantify the d ....The Drumbeat of Human Evolution: Climate Proxies from Rockshelter Sediments. This project aims to trial new techniques for extracting environmental information from the sediments contained within archaeological rock shelters. Homo sapiens evolved during a period of dramatic climate variation, which almost certainly influenced human development and global dispersal. High-resolution climate records are rarely available for Pleistocene archaeological sites and so it is challenging to quantify the degree of behavioural response to environmental change. This project aims to apply novel geophysical and geochemical techniques to provide new climate records for Indonesia and South Africa, facilitate correlation with other climate archives and thus create a means of directly evaluating the degree of environmental influence on human behavioural evolution.Read moreRead less