Major Archaeological Research Projects

Australian-Vietnamese Archaeological Research Project on Dong Son Textiles

Professor Peter Bellwood with Dr Judith Cameron of Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS
ARC Linkage Grant 2004-2007

Excavation of waterlogged burials of the Dong Son period, 300 BC to AD 200, in the Red River alluvial plain, northern Vietnam (Hung Yen and Ha Nam Provinces).

This project is being undertaken in collaboration with National Museum of Australia; Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi; Centre for Research in SE Asian Prehistory, Hanoi.

Results: A burial dated 50 BC within a logboat with locked mortise and tenon strake fittings (like Classical era Mediterranean boats) was excavated in the site of Dong Xa. This contained lots of woven textiles, being analysed by Dr Cameron. Another site, Yen Bac, produced a burial structure made of reused boat planks for the burial of a child. See Science 312:360-1, 2006, and forthcoming issue of International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

The Taiwan-Philippine Interaction Sphere, 2000 BC to AD 500

Professor Peter Bellwood, Dr Janelle Stevenson and Ms Hung Hsiao-Chun (PhD student), Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS
National Geographic Society Grant 2005-2006

This project is being undertaken in collaboration with National Museum of the Philippines; University of the Philippines (Diliman).

Results: Excavation of archaeological sites in the Batanes Islands, northern Philippines, documenting Neolithic movement from Taiwan to the northern Philippines commencing c.2000 BC (origins of Malayo-Polynesian linguistic and cultural dispersal), plus the working and movement of Taiwan nephrite (jade) ornaments from Taiwan to the Philippines and Malaysia. One site in Batanes, Anaro, served as a manufacturing location for such jade artifacts about 2000 years ago.

A Reappraisal of Western European Mousterian Tools from Australian Perspectives

Dr Peter Hiscock
ARC Discovery Grant 2004-2006

Intense debates in human evolution surround Neanderthals in France, where archaeological deposits provide abundant evidence of their lives. Were Neanderthals complex cultural beings comparable to our ancestors or did they possess less complex cultures? This question has often been addressed through analysis of Neanderthal, or Mousterian, stone tools. Previous studies follow a tradition of dividing tools into types such as scrapers or points. This study employs non-type-based Australian perspectives, incorporating new analytical techniques, to re-describe Mousterian tools, review what they tell us of Neanderthal capabilities, and evaluate conventional type-based systems of analysis. The questions being asked focus on how those ancient hominids made their tools and what that tells us about their economy and social life. As a closely related hominid who may have possessed a complex culture this project will assist explore the world of beings who no longer exist.

Northern Vanuatu as a Pacific Crossroads: The Archaeology of Discovery, Interaction and the Emergence of the Ethnographic Present

Professor Matthew Spriggs (Chief Investigator) and Dr Stuart Bedford (Australian Postdoctoral Fellow)
ARC Discovery Grant 2005-2007

The project addresses the National Research Priority Goal of 'Understanding our Region and the World'. Supporting research programs with smaller Pacific Island neighbours such as Vanuatu fosters Australia's relationship with those countries generally. This research will strengthen our knowledge of the region's deep human past. It will advance Australia's understanding of its nearest neighbours as well as provide those neighbours with information they can use to shape their own views of their past and its relationship to their present. The proposed research has direct relevance to on-going debates within world archaeology and related disciplines.

Solving the Riddle of Pacific Settlement: The Archaeology of an Early Lapita Cemetery and Village Site at Teouma, Vanuatu

Professor Matthew Spriggs
National Geographic Society Grant

Continues work funded by the Pacific Biological Foundation Grant in 2005 Archaeological Investigation of the Lapita Site of Teouma

Two complete Lapita pots have been excavated at Teouma in 2006. As with the pots found at the site in 2004 and 2005. These were found in association with the burials of the earliest people to reach Vanuatu some 3000 years ago. A total of 49 burials have now been found.

For more information about this project visit: Vanuatu Cultural Centre