Modern human origins and early behavioural complexity in Australia and Southeast Asia. This project tackles a fundamental issue in world prehistory: how and when did humans first cross from Southeast Asia into Australia. Three new archaeological excavations using novel methods of analysis will assess the nature of behavioural complexity and human evolution at the time when Australia was first colonised over 45,000 years ago.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100046
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,575.00
Summary
Foundations of Island Southeast Asian maritime interaction: unravelling cause and consequence for the transformation of past societies. The successful spread of Neolithic innovations across the world was one of the most important transformations in human history. This project combines the geochemical and technological analysis of stone tools to track the evolution of maritime colonisation in Island Southeast Asia, the foundation for the success of agriculture in this region.
Suharto's enablers? Social complicity in the Indonesian killings of 1965-66. This projects aims to revolutionise understandings of civilian involvement in the most critical and bloody turning point in modern Indonesian history, the 1965-66 killings, and to transform the evidence base for Indonesian history-writing. By accessing critically endangered and never before used survivor community archives, the project will examine the complicity of civilians in the killings and how the violence shaped ....Suharto's enablers? Social complicity in the Indonesian killings of 1965-66. This projects aims to revolutionise understandings of civilian involvement in the most critical and bloody turning point in modern Indonesian history, the 1965-66 killings, and to transform the evidence base for Indonesian history-writing. By accessing critically endangered and never before used survivor community archives, the project will examine the complicity of civilians in the killings and how the violence shaped modern Indonesian national identity and moral consciousness. It will further generate a new, centralised archive of these preserved materials and compile new oral history interviews with the remaining witnesses to these pivotal events.Read moreRead less
The mighty ape’s last stand. This project aims to study the fate of primates in southern Asia, where evidence for megafaunal extinction is rare. Why Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest ever primate, disappeared is unknown, while humans in the region survived. This project will model dating techniques across sites to identify a precise extinction window and compare behaviour and past environmental conditions to determine why the ape failed and man persevered. Outcomes will generate a new understa ....The mighty ape’s last stand. This project aims to study the fate of primates in southern Asia, where evidence for megafaunal extinction is rare. Why Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest ever primate, disappeared is unknown, while humans in the region survived. This project will model dating techniques across sites to identify a precise extinction window and compare behaviour and past environmental conditions to determine why the ape failed and man persevered. Outcomes will generate a new understanding of past environmental change as a driver of megafaunal extinction in comparison with human adaption and survival.Read moreRead less
Resolving the archaeological enigma of Indonesia’s ‘Toalean’ culture . Archaeologists have long puzzled over the identity and origin of the 'Toalean' people from Sulawesi, Indonesia. These prehistoric hunter-gatherers produced a unique culture that emerged in the south of this island about 7500 years ago, and some scholars believe they introduced the dingo to Australia. Little is known about these early foragers despite a century of research. This project aims to investigate a significant new ca ....Resolving the archaeological enigma of Indonesia’s ‘Toalean’ culture . Archaeologists have long puzzled over the identity and origin of the 'Toalean' people from Sulawesi, Indonesia. These prehistoric hunter-gatherers produced a unique culture that emerged in the south of this island about 7500 years ago, and some scholars believe they introduced the dingo to Australia. Little is known about these early foragers despite a century of research. This project aims to investigate a significant new cave site in Sulawesi that is the richest, most well-dated Toalean locality yet uncovered. Through detailed archaeological excavations and analyses, this project expects to advance scientific knowledge of an important but poorly understood Indonesian culture that is often connected with the early human story in Australia.Read moreRead less
Unraveling the mystery of the Plain of Jars, Laos. Since their discovery in the 1930s, the mysterious collections of giant stone jars scattered throughout central Laos have remained one of the great prehistoric puzzles of south-east (SE) Asia. It is thought that the jars represent the mortuary remains of an extensive and powerful Iron Age culture. This project seeks to determine the true nature of these sites, which date to a dynamic period of increasing complexity in SE Asia (c.500BCE-500CE). T ....Unraveling the mystery of the Plain of Jars, Laos. Since their discovery in the 1930s, the mysterious collections of giant stone jars scattered throughout central Laos have remained one of the great prehistoric puzzles of south-east (SE) Asia. It is thought that the jars represent the mortuary remains of an extensive and powerful Iron Age culture. This project seeks to determine the true nature of these sites, which date to a dynamic period of increasing complexity in SE Asia (c.500BCE-500CE). The project entails extensive reconnaissance, precision mapping, archaeological excavation and analysis of associated burial material. Using a suite of cutting-edge archaeological technologies, it is expected to have far-reaching benefits for archaeology, science, Laos and World Heritage.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems: Networking Research Capability. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems Project will link the dictionary's scholarly biographical articles with the resources of national cultural institutions, making visible and available to researchers everywhere an unprecedented number of sources for the lives of historical actors and a much larger volume of contextual inform ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems: Networking Research Capability. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems Project will link the dictionary's scholarly biographical articles with the resources of national cultural institutions, making visible and available to researchers everywhere an unprecedented number of sources for the lives of historical actors and a much larger volume of contextual information about them. Its leading-edge cultural informatics will make more efficient use of existing information infrastructure and stimulate further development. Researchers using the service will be enabled to make conceptual advances and produce new knowledge about Australian history and society.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0452798
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$376,066.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: A Database of National Biography Facilitating Research into Australia's History. The project will publish the sixteen existing and all future volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a freely available relational database on the Internet. The A.D.B. is a fundamental research tool and teaching resource for Australian history, and a valuable source of knowledge about ten thousand past Australians. An innovative web-publication model will ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: A Database of National Biography Facilitating Research into Australia's History. The project will publish the sixteen existing and all future volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a freely available relational database on the Internet. The A.D.B. is a fundamental research tool and teaching resource for Australian history, and a valuable source of knowledge about ten thousand past Australians. An innovative web-publication model will maximise the availability and searchability of the A.D.B., enabling researchers to pose new questions that will yield novel insights into Australian history. Interoperability with other on-line resources will result in a powerful addition to the country's information infrastructure, one capable of supporting high-quality research projects.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0560774
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$260,338.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project: Additional Search Capabilities and Greater Interoperability for the ADB Online. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project will augment the capabilities of the ADB Online. It will provide additional search categories and means of visualising the data in the dictionary's ten thousand biographical articles, enabling researchers to discover relationships, trends and developments, and thus to explore new them ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project: Additional Search Capabilities and Greater Interoperability for the ADB Online. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project will augment the capabilities of the ADB Online. It will provide additional search categories and means of visualising the data in the dictionary's ten thousand biographical articles, enabling researchers to discover relationships, trends and developments, and thus to explore new themes and gain new insights into the nature of Australian history and society. The project will also develop the website's interoperability with resources provided by the National Library of Australia and other trusted institutions, making the ADB a key element in an evolving national information architecture supporting research in the humanities and social sciences.Read moreRead less
History Places: Wellington Range rock art in a global context. The project aims to investigate one of Australia’s most extraordinary bodies of rock art, spread across Arnhem Land’s Wellington Range, in order to answer important archaeological research questions, provide Traditional Owners with a comprehensive digital record of their rock art heritage and develop a long term management plan. Field research will include survey, 2-D and 3-D rock art recording, limited excavation and sampling for da ....History Places: Wellington Range rock art in a global context. The project aims to investigate one of Australia’s most extraordinary bodies of rock art, spread across Arnhem Land’s Wellington Range, in order to answer important archaeological research questions, provide Traditional Owners with a comprehensive digital record of their rock art heritage and develop a long term management plan. Field research will include survey, 2-D and 3-D rock art recording, limited excavation and sampling for dating. The project is designed to situate Wellington Range rock art in regional and global contexts in order to better understand long-term north Australian Aboriginal experience and its expression in relation to other hunter-gatherer groups and to gain new insight into human cultural and cognitive development.Read moreRead less